Diaphragmatic breathing -- Feldenkrais Seesaw Breathing - activating your true core, lengthening your spine.
Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement class this week focuses on freeing the diaphragm and finding more flexible, fluid movement in the ribs, hips and along the spine. This really matters if you have scoliosis, spinal stenosis and/or disc issues, especially degeneration.
Among the almost unlimited aspects of movement that Dr. Feldenkrais explored and implemented was a form of breathing he termed 'seesaw breathing.' What is involved is breathing into either the upper or lower part of the torso, chest or belly, holding the breath and moving the volume of air via the diaphragm from above to below, then pulling it back up to the chest, pushing it down again to the belly, and so on, for 1-4 cycles. We hold the breath while doing this, so the number of times of 'pushing the breath down and pulling the breath up' is dependent upon how easily you can hold the breath for a short period. It should never feel violent, difficult or dangerous. This movement of air up and down the torso, from top to bottom, so to speak, activates the diaphragm. The video upload from youtube below gives you an idea of the potential power that can be directed through the diaphragm.
When the diaphragm is not activated, a great deal of movement is inhibited (stuck) through ribs and the entire spine; compression can occur. Your lumbar spine movement might be hypermobile in response. Neck and throat issues may also develop.
Thus freeing the diaphragm and allowing the breath to occur in your entire breathing container, i.e., the torso, is critical for coordinated, comfortable movement throughout the body, not just the ribs and lungs. It is also responsible for much of the power that one assembles in the core, whether thinking of the core as the 'Hara,' the abs, the pelvis, the Tan Den, and so on. The diaphragm is an almost mythic organ of breath that very few people appreciate. Find yours and see what happens! <3 span="">
