How can i practice diaphragmatic breathing?

[MazE]

I'm a bit confused about what diaphragmatic breathing is. Is it the best way to breathe in every moment? 

What do i do?

[Loop]

I find the idea of “the best way to breath” kinda funny, animals don’t think about how to breath they just do it. Breathing usually gets restricted from being lost in thought & returns to the belly when not. Allowing the body to fall into place, feel gravity pull it down, the more the earth harmonized with the more the bodies natural way of breathing comes about. 
 

Be Here, notice when & where the breathing feels restricted, don’t do anything but also don’t stop anything from happening, just notice.

[Phil]

As far as ‘best way in every moment’, I’d consciously breath from the stomach, feeling it, in a casual relaxed manor. Committing to doing this consciously for 3 days can be very eye opening in many ways. 

 

(1)

As a practice and also diaphragm wise….

- breath into the stomach until it’s full, and then breathe in more air, fuller & fuller, more & more air.

- think of it like a stretch, and feel all around the stomach, in front of, behind, the top, the bottom… stretching. 

- feel the feeling of relief in each area; the pelvic area below, the hip areas on the side, the back of the waistband / tail bone area, etc. 

 

(2)

- once comfortable with that practice as is (1)…

- then the same thing, but now include noticing any ‘tensing up’ when you do the practice, in other areas of the body. 

- might be a lifting of the shoulders, a tightening of the stomach, a clenching of fingers, toes, arches of the feet, thighs, etc. Different for everyone. 

 

-then begin to look at 1 & 2 as one practice. 

 

(3)

Utilize the ‘relax’, ‘let go’, ‘surrender’ - “signal”. Basically just bring the word / thought to mind, and ‘send it’ to a specific muscle or area. Then just ‘witness’, kinda just wait… and the muscle will un-tense. There are like five layers within the body of the ‘tension’, which un-tense. So explore… even once you feel the muscle respond to the signal… even though the relief & relaxation feels significantly relatively better… also explore sending the signal again, and feeling the un-tensing even more deeply.

 

Then, once comfortable with 1, 2 & 3 as one practice, and do that with the entire body, head to toe, inside & out, all at once.  

 

Then you’ll notice you can essentially ‘move awareness’ around in the body so to speak. 

[MazE]

@Phil this is great i will give it a try. Just to make sure i get this right do i fill only the belly with air? Not the ribs, chest etc? 

 

 

@Loop i don't disagree. It's just that i think it's better to consciously take bigger breaths otherwise i won't have many. I can't be so relaxed at work for example.

[Phil]

@MazE

Just the belly. Ribs etc will naturally kinda lift. Air will naturally flow through the lungs. 

[Loop]

3 hours ago, MazE said:

 

@Loop i don't disagree. It's just that i think it's better to consciously take bigger breaths otherwise i won't have many.

Of course, it is a very grounding & healing exercise to take deep conscious breaths. When you take deep breath you can really notice what is restricting the breathing from naturally being deep, and energy filled. You can then breath into those areas and stretch them, or just notice get a better feel of what it is. 

 

3 hours ago, MazE said:

I can't be so relaxed at work for example.

You can be relaxed and active at the same time,  balancing the tensions and relaxations, being relaxed under pressure. In fact that is a power of grounding yourself in conscious breathing, you can pretty much always return to it.