Change your breath, change your life

There is a deeper calling within every single one of us that needs to be expressed.

We must reimagine the way we work to live our biggest, most vibrant life.

When waking up and bringing ourselves into our deeper calling, we realize we also want and need easier, better ways to quickly bring our own bodies and lives into balance, without all the research we can throw ourselves into.

Balance within our own body is vital to our comfort, our success and our happiness.

Women have been passed down expired, archaic beliefs of movement and of our bodies.

We do NOT need to work so hard to get exactly what we want.

As a Movement and Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist, I believe strongly that the deepest foundation of a healthy female body is implementing diaphragmatic breathing into our system.

How you breathe can make EVERYTHING in your life easier.

We absolutely have to breathe, so why not use the most beneficial, impactful way to do it.

Our breathing patterns can guide us to more balanced, strong pelvic floors or into leaking and prolapse. We have the power to navigate our own system, and we don't even realize it!

Learning how to breathe this way in your own body can help TMJ, release headaches, relieve anxiety and stress, reset and support your nervous system, change the shape of your abdominals, help pelvic floor leaking, lessen prolapse, reduce painful sex, alleviate neck pain, and hip pain and so much more.

It is magical and very true. Our breathing patterns directly effect every part of our bodies. 

In just a few short minutes you will learn ways to breathe better, help your pelvic floor and start to open your bodies from the inside out. 

You don’t need to work harder or more. Just a little awareness can change your world.

First, let’s learn to inhale DOWN and wide, understanding the steps you will take for diaphragmatic breathing.

Step 1:

Stand in front of a mirror. Now take a deep breath. Say out loud if your shoulders lifted towards your ears or if they stayed in the same place.

It is so common to see our shoulders lift. We do want them to stay in the same place. If they lift, we are most likely reverse breathing, giving ourselves stress and anxiety, tight pelvic floors, and more. 

Step 2:

Do Step 1. Feel free to lie down, sit or stand, remembering not to lift your shoulders on your inhale. 

Wrap your hands just under your ribs (Your hands will be in the same shape as if you are placing your hands on your hips.) Your hands will not be on the hard rib bone, but on the soft tissue right underneath your lowest ribs in front.

As you inhale without allowing your shoulders to lift, bring your awareness into the space right below your ribs where you are touching. You want to feel that space expand wider into your hands. Your ribs above your hands will widen, too.

You do not want to feel your hands getting sucked in towards each other on your inhale. They will move away from each other. 

This will be a 360 degree rib opening inhale, vs belly breathing.

Make sure the inhale down you feel does not feel like forceful pressure down into your pelvic floor. It will feel like a gentle, soft widening of your pelvis.

(For ladies with prolapse: At first you will feel your prolapse increase. I guide my prolapse ladies to lie on their back for this. With prolapse, you can have a tight or a loose pelvic floor. Every personal body’s finer needs are different, but we must all learn a soft, gentle inhale down.

For all ladies: When we cannot gently inhale all the way down, we can have a tight pelvic floor. The slower and softer we inhale and exhale, the more our body soaks in and uses this new pattern. Remember, every personal body is different. Listen to yours.)

Step 3:

Continue what you are doing. Let’s layer the last moments on!

Keep what you found, now feel your your bra strap line expand to the back on your inhale, as well. Remember, it is a 360 degree rib opening.

Step 4:

When you exhale, open your mouth and exhale as if you are trying to fog up a mirror. You will first feel a non forced lift of your pelvic floor and a non forced gentle wrap of your abdominals. Then you will feel your ribs shrink wrap in toward each other.

Exhale twice as long as your inhale to reset your nervous system.

Step 5:

Repeat!

Know that as you continue practicing, you will feel shifts taking place. You will notice extra space in your bodies begin to open differently and you will start to experience your body in a whole new way!

What does practicing look like?

Practicing means when you sit and type on your computer, notice and implement your new breathing pattern, then go right back to typing.

When you are about to make a speech, take a few great rounds of diaphragmatic breathing before beginning to speak.

When you are watching television at night, or reading an article or book, take a few rounds every now and again.

If you love to meditate, this is a wonderful gentle breathing meditation!

You do not need to do this every moment throughout the day. This is your tool to start guiding yourself to deeper awareness within your personal body and to begin to reset and rebalance your body from the inside out.

Reawaken your body to patterns it once knew long ago and craves stepping back into. After all, it is our body’s wish to heal us. We are just co-creating with it to do so. 

When we speak to our body in the language it loves, our body does miraculous things.