So last week we began to vary the natural rhythm of our breath.

We began by extending the length of our exhalation and then reducing the amount of time for our inhalation.

We’re going to explore the same theme in a different way next week and in the meantime I’d recommend some practice.

We considered and moved the silken layer of skin and superficial fascia as a means to tune into the movement of our whole body as we breathed.

We saw how the layers of our body enmesh and intermingle in a dance that is reflective of the way the earth itself breathes with the movement of life. (The yellow in this GIF represents the proliferation of phytoplankton that bloomed during the transition from El Nino to La Nina in late 1997. The light blue sections are air currents.) (We’re in a La Nina cycle now)

Does the way we breathe influence our whole body too? It’s interesting to consider that relative to our own microbiome. It’s been estimated that we have approximately 30 trillion human cells in our body but 38 trillion ‘bacterial’ cells. Despite the fact we’re outnumbered significantly, as you can see from the diagram below they don’t have much weight. Although someone with gut issues may beg to differ.

Nevertheless! Breathing in harmony .. meaning that most of the time our breathing is peaceful and returns to that peace after periods of aerobic activity .. means that we are harmonious.

Breathing is circular just like the tides.

Moving with that natural flow is not so simple in the chaos of human life. However, if you pay attention to your breathing as a daily practice it’s much easier to find that cyclone centre.

I’m not saying you need to find another hour a day! You can be aware of it when you wake up in the morning. You’re already relaxed so it’s not that hard to tune in and slow down even for a few minutes.

The other thing you could try is to notice when your breathing becomes scattered and then pay attention to the movement of breath in your pelvis and at the front and back of your underarms as a means to slow it down. Perhaps try that before eating?

The main idea is to notice how you are breathing first .. allowing it to be that way .. and then noticing how your whole body is involved. Usually when you’re scattered you won’t be sensing the whole body so the process of stopping and tuning in is often enough to bring you home.

In the last lesson, we extended that a bit. Try it again if you have time.

If not, don’t worry! We’ll be exploring a similar theme in the next lesson too.

After that we’ll be moving on. There is so much to discover!

This blog post relates to the fifth lesson in the breathing series. You can find that lesson by clicking here

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Breathing 5 - Inside and out