Hi,
And welcome to this exercise on diaphragmatic breathing.
It's also known as abdominal breathing or belly breathing because we are breathing into the abdomen or into our bellies.
To begin,
Please make sure that you are lying down in a comfortable position.
You may place one hand on your abdomen if you like.
As you breathe in,
Direct your breath so that it feels the belly and feel that your abdomen is moving up.
And as you exhale,
Relax the breath and feel the navel,
The abdomen soften and fall.
Breathe in and direct the breath into the belly and just feel the abdomen rise and the chest muscles and rib cage completely still.
And breathe out slowly and completely,
Just relaxing the diaphragm.
Feel that this sheet of muscles beneath your lungs is responsible for all of the movement.
As you exhale,
Feel the abdomen and your navel moving down and inwards towards the spine.
At the end of exhalation,
Your diaphragm will be totally relaxed.
Continue this process,
Breathe in slowly and deeply from the diaphragm,
Noticing how long this slow process can take without strain or force.
And exhale,
Softly breathe out completely and feel the abdomen and navel moving downwards towards the spine and then hold the breath out for a second at the end of exhalation.
Without any strain,
Breathe in again and deeply in,
Slowly trying not to expand the chest or move the shoulders in any way.
Feel the abdomen expanding and your navel rising.
And exhale,
Release the breath completely.
Just feel the abdomen fall and move back towards the spine.
No contraction of the abdominal muscles necessary.
It's a smooth and natural process.
Again,
Breathe in,
Feel the lower lobes of your lungs as much as possible.
We're not breathing into the belly,
We're filling our lower lobes of the lungs.
Do not expand the rib cage.
Then at the top of the in-breath,
Just hold the breath in without any effort,
Just for a second or two.
And with control,
Exhale slowly and completely,
Pushing all the air out of the lungs.
Feel the navel moving toward the spine.
At the end of exhalation,
Your abdomen is completely relaxed,
Your navel moving downwards towards your spine.
Hold the breath out for a moment or so.
And continue with this process for another 10,
20 rounds.
Just watching your belly fill and rise.
How long it takes as well.
Hold the breath in briefly for a moment of strain.
Slowly exhale,
Release the air completely,
Empty your lungs.
And continue in this way,
Noticing how this makes you feel and how different this feels from regular normal breathing.
Enjoy.
