Hi there. So today we're gonna be learning about diaphragmatic or belly breathing. So a little bit of education on that is that we always, were always using the diaphragm. The diaphragm is our biggest muscle of respiration sitting right here under the ribcage. Now to say that we're breathing diaphragmatic Li means that we're breathing, we're always breathing that way unless there's something wrong with your diaphragm. The other misnomer is belly breathing.

So the belly is moving while you're breathing, but you're not actually taking air into the belly, the air is coming into the lungs. And with that, the diaphragm descends to bring that air in it's kind of a negative pressure. And so with that the belly contents expand as the diaphragm is pressing downward. And then as we exhale, the air is expelling outwards diaphragms a sending and then we expel the air So we call it belly breathing or diaphragmatic, breathing or abdominal breathing. But really, that's just an awareness of where the movement is when you're breathing. Because oftentimes, what I see in patients and clients is that we breathe with this big inhalation of the chest or the other thing is that we're breathing just very shallowly here, so very shallow breaths.

So today, we're just going to learn a technique that allows the belly to expand a little bit more. It's more of a calming, relaxing breath, activating your parasympathetic system or your rest and digest. And so I oftentimes will recommend this to people, my clients and patients as a way to calm their nervous system down. But also in this case, we're really trying to dampen our stress response and thereby improve our chances of having healthy bones. So let's get to it and finding a comfortable sitting position You can also do this laying on your back, which is really a nice way to do because then you don't have gravity fighting you. But I'm just going to demonstrate sitting here.

So just for feedback, we're gonna place one hand on the belly and then one hand on the chest, allowing the shoulders to soften and getting sitting up a little bit taller. And just start to notice where you're feeling the breath. feel like we're getting more of a little chest breath here going, so just kind of a check in first. And then we start to bring more awareness so that when we breathe in, the belly is going to expand. So we're going to breathe in, belly is going to expand. Chest is staying relatively calm, quiet, soft.

And then as I exhale, the belly drops back in, and I'm not sucking it in this time. There are certain breaths where we do that, but this time is just a relaxed recoil. So it's a breath in belly expands Then a breath out, belly drops back in. So this will be my breath in, belly expanding breath in. And then breath out. Okay, so that's just the belly breath in itself of the the function of it.

So now we're just going to add a little bit of more awareness to calm the nervous system down even a tad bit more by extending the exhale just a little bit longer than what she might have been doing. So oftentimes, what I'll recommend is starting with a four count, inhale, and then add an eight count, exhale. If that seems too long, take it down to three and six or two and four, whatever it feels comfortable. So this should not be stressful or straining in the practice itself. So please just make it feel comfortable for you. Okay, so I'm gonna place my hand on my belly.

This will be my inhale, I'm going to inhale 123 For pausing, exhale 12345678 good here without the count out loud. That's all there is to it. So I just wanted to give you a little video demonstration of that along to go along with your handout. So that concludes our video on abdominal breathing. Again you can do this in studying you can do it laying down I really love doing it laying down like a sandbag on the belly or bag of rice or a phone book. Give you a little feedback and also to help calm the nervous system down a little bit more.

And if you want some images or pictures of that, I'm happy to send that your way. Just let me know. Okay, thank you and happy breathing.