Monday Move: Full commitment to the Exhale

Life has been pretty unsettled over the last few months, but now I have reached a slower season and am returning to my Monday Move blog posts.  My imagination was ignited to post about the breath when I saw this posting on Mike Reinold's webpage about breathing pattern disorders.  Yoga is all about movement and the breath.  The third principle of Alignment Yoga is "full commitment to the exhale."  The two studies that Mike quoted in his article about breathing pattern disorders show that for us Westerns this principle of full commitment to the exhale is lacking in our daily life activities.  Here is Mike's review of the two studies:

• Two studies that document the correlation between breathing and some of our daily activities.
• In one, the study examined typing on a keyboard and showed that EMG activity of the scalenes and trapezius increased and thorax and abdominal activity decreased while typing.  Perhaps this is a primitive reflex but it causes us to breathe more shallow, with less diaphragm, and with more upper chest and neck.  Since we all likely spend a good chunk of our day typing, this is very prevalent.
• In another, the study showed that people held their breath, increased their respiratory rate, and experienced sympathetic arousal when sending AND receiving text messages.

After reading about the first study Mike mentioned and thinking about how much I sit at the computer made be want to jump start those breathing muscles that might not be fully turning on during my daily activities.  So for my next few Mondays - I am going to be dedicating some serious time to the breath. 

First things first.  Let's start today with just observing the breath. The first action is non-action. Lie on your back in Constructive Rest Position (see above picture).  Start here for 3-5 minutes.  Try not to manipulate or control your breath.  Evaluate and observe the breath, just as a physician evaluates a part of the body that might not be working properly, observe your breath. What body parts move as a result of the inhale?  What part moves as a result of the exhale? Where does your grounding come in this position?  Can you tuck your shoulder blades underneath you more to get more connection with the earth, or grounding, through your shoulder blades?  No crazy tricks of the trade today...just breathe.

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