The Power of the Breath
There is nothing more essential to our health and wellbeing than breathing. Taking the air in and letting the air flow out. Can you guess how many times we are doing that every single day? Well, I will do some number crunching later. Many of us have lost the ability to breath correctly, with various consequences to our muscle- skeleton, fascial, nervous system, organ health, pelvic floor function, not to mention awareness of diaphragm health and support, and much more.
The first time I learned some important things about breath was when I was awarded open water diving certification at the Great Barrier Reef 25 years ago. It was the best way for me to learn from a very good diving instructor about breath. He was so calm as he delivered in the course, settling my anxiety of being in deep water and going under water for an extended time.
The second encounter about breath was back in 2008 when I started my recovery journey from back injury. My first visit to a small Pilates studio (equipment based) was an eye opener. I learnt how much I need to release through breath work to let go of my anxiety and the trauma I carried through the recovery of my injury. I was in a constant state of over breathing, and this to my surprise, was normal for me. I didn't know any different.
Today, in my movement sessions the approach to breathing, pelvic floor and organ health is at the fore front. I have been reading great books about the inner connectiveness of the CNS (central nervous system), muscle and skeleton system and the incredible body wide web, we call the the fascial system.
The human body is complex, as we understand how we process breath work, how we connect with breath work and how we ingest and explore the interplay between various systems to support our breathing in daily life and in movement sessions. There are many things that complement each other and in the past 16 years I have learned more about breath. It is clearly more than just moving the diaphragm downward and sucking in the air to cells which are hungry for that action and remove waste.
I invite you next time you’re on the mat or on the equipment, to spend some time and explore your breathing. Most of the time when I invite my students to do so, there is an “aha!” moment, an insightful time and a few questions from my participants. I am happy to answer them because curiosity and engagement, awareness in your movement practice is the best way to explore and gain movement freedom and body wisdom.
Books I can recommend for studying breath work:
Breath by James Nestor