Direct your breath

In his book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor tells a story of Katharina Schroth, who lived in Dresden, Germany in the early 1900s. She was diagnosed with scoliosis, which was untreatable at the time. “Schroth had other ideas about the human body’s potential. She’d watched how balloons collapsed or expanded, pushing or pulling in whatever was around them. The lungs, she felt, were no different. If she could expand her lungs, maybe she could also expand her skeletal structure. Maybe she could straighten her spine and improve the quality and quantity of her breathing.”

Katharina began experimenting with “orthopedic breathing” by contorting her body into different shapes and then breathing into specific areas. After five years she had cured herself of scoliosis and went on to establish her own clinic, that helped other severely disfigured patients through breathing and movement. Read more about Katharina Schroth

We use a similar principle in our yoga practice. While we usually do not attempt to change our bone structure, we do frequently direct our breathing into different body parts for the purpose of releasing tension in the soft tissues and promoting relaxation. Certainly, we cannot breathe into every body part; a lot of times we simply bring attention to a certain area, expand it with the inhalation and relax it with the exhalation. But, according to the yoga tradition, energy follows attention. By simply directing your attention to a specific area and envisioning as if you are moving it with your breath, you can accomplish the same goal.

This week let’s experiment with breathing into specific body areas and see if has an effect on how it feels.

HOW TO: Take a moment to notice how your back feels right now – is there any tension? Make your way into Child’s pose (image above). Rest your arms along the body, drape your shoulders and make sure that your head feels supported. Once you settle into the pose, practice directing your breath into different parts of your body in the following order WITHOUT ANY MUSCULAR ENGAGEMENT:

• First your upper back, widening the space between your shoulder blades with your inhalation and relaxing your upper back and neck with the exhalation (take 6 breaths like that),
• Then your middle back, expanding it with your inhalation and relaxing it with the exhalation (take 6 breaths like that),
• Then your lower back, creating the sensation of length with your inhalation and relaxing it with the exhalation (take 6 breaths like that),
• Then the entire back, gently widening and lengthening in with your inhalation alone and relaxing it with your exhale (take 6 breaths like that).

Then sit up and reassess – how does your back feel right now?

Here is an entire practice that focuses on breathing into different parts of your body and exercises your diaphragm >