Room to Breathe
Your ribs, your spine, and why “breathe deeper” rarely works
If you carry your stress in your neck and shoulders, someone has probably told you to take a deep breath.
Maybe you did. Your chest lifted and your shoulders rose to meet your ears, or your abdomen filled and then resettled. Two seconds later everything went right back to where it was. Deep breathing is good advice. It just skips the part where the rest of you is involved.
Here is what most people are never told. Your lungs are not a muscle. They don’t do the breathing. The rest of your torso does, from the base of your skull to your pelvic floor, through your ribs, along your back, and down through your belly. When some of that goes quiet, the other parts work overtime. Usually your neck and shoulders. That is the tension you’ve been carrying around, and trying to breathe deeper doesn’t usually undo it, because trying adds to the problem.
This is not a breathing technique. There is more of you available to breathe than you’ve been using. When you find it, the inhale gets easier without forcing, the exhale lets go on its own, and there is more room for the breath than you knew you had.
And your breath goes everywhere you go. So does this. The checkout line. The dinner table. The car in the pickup lane. Nothing to remember, nothing to practice. Just more of you breathing, wherever you are.
What happens in two hours
Three Awareness Through Movement® lessons, on the floor, moving slowly. Nothing to force or hold. You will be asked to notice rather than try.
- Seesaw breathing. Belly and chest moving in opposition. The fastest way to find out where your breath is stuck, and the fastest way to free it. The ribs, the diaphragm, and the back all get a turn.
- The exhale. A short lesson on the half of breathing nobody teaches. Letting the air out is where the letting go actually happens, and where the neck and shoulders have the most to learn.
- Breathing in every position. Lying, sitting, on your side, and on your way to standing. Because the breath you find on the floor needs to come with you when you get up.
Rests are built in. We finish with your questions.
By the end, your breath will be lower, slower, and quieter, without you doing anything to make it so. Your shoulders will sit where they belong. And you will have more air than you came in with, which you will notice the next time you speak. There is a lot more power in your voice when there is room behind it.
Who this is for
Women who hold their stress in their neck, shoulders, and jaw, and who know December is going to ask for all three. Near-constant tension that massage helps for a day. Anyone whose shoulders are already up as they read this.
You do not need to be flexible, fit, or experienced. You need to be curious.
This is not a workout, and it is not treatment.
You stay in charge of your own experience the entire time. If a movement hurts, you make it smaller or rest. The learning happens in your nervous system, which is why it tends to stay with you.
Details
HSA/FSA eligible
Two hours for yourself, before the month takes over.
Questions people ask
What if I can’t get down on the floor?
Tell me when you register. Every lesson can be adapted to a chair, and I would rather plan for it than improvise in the moment.
Will I get lightheaded?
Unlikely. A couple of the lessons include a pause in the breath, but it is not forced. You decide how long, and you can always just breathe instead. If you feel anything, you rest, and the lesson waits for you.
I have asthma, or I’m getting over a cold. Should I still come?
Yes, if you are well enough to lie on the floor for two hours. Nothing here is strenuous. Bring whatever you normally keep with you and tell me at the door.
I’ve never done anything like this. Will I be lost?
No. Every instruction is spoken, every movement is optional, and nobody is watching you. Most people in the room will be first-timers.
Hurt Less; Move Better. Get back to what you love!