This is a beautiful practice if you are a person desiring to live a more open-hearted life. It will support you in self-regulating as it gives nourishing attention & tactile feedback through your breath to your heart. It will help your nervous system to feel a bit more safe which will enable you to more readily be able to maintain an open, expansive state of being through your heart.
Your respiratory diaphragm & your heart are connected via the fascia. When you breathe in a full belly breath, as the diaphragm moves with the breath, it massages the heart as it pulls the heart from below with its up & down movement.
When you breathe, ideally your rib cage moves similarly to an accordion. As you inhale, the front, sides, & back of your rib cage expand up & out. As you exhale, they come back down & together.
Practice:
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Invite in a more full dimensional 3D accordion breath, where you breathe through your entire rib cage.
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Bring your breath into your belly. Check out Chapter 4: Permission to Breathe in my book, Radical Embodiment: A Practical Guide to Celebrating the Skin You’re In, where I go much more in depth on this. Many of us have the subconscious tendency to suck in our stomachs. Doing this severely restricts your breath capacity.
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Bring your breath into your back.
In terms of how to breathe, you get to decide if you want to inhale/exhale through your mouth or through your nose or a combination, meaning you inhale through your nose & exhale through your mouth. I want you to choose what feels good to you. As you do this practice, I do want you to encourage in full deep breaths.
Visualize the fascia connection between your heart & your respiratory diaphragm. Use that visualization to help increase your level of awareness & the sensation you feel in this area.
Can you feel your heart being massaged? How good can you allow this breath massage to feel?
In this practice, you are not trying to change anything that you are feeling: any emotions or sensations that come up. Instead, you are simply inviting your loving attention & a massage to your heart, one of your most vulnerable organs & giving it some loving contact & acknowledgement. This in & of itself can be incredibly healing.
Comment below with how this practice goes for you!