Breathe...

Breath = life.

It's the first and the last act we will ever perform.

To be able to inhale fully is to be able to fill ourselves  with the energies of life and to be inspired.

To be able to exhale fully is to be able to let go and to open ourselves to the unknown.

But how often do we breathe fully?  Probably very rarely if at all.

If we pay attention to our breathing process, we find that what naturally happens is that our chest cavity expands and contracts. As we inhale our intercostal muscles (the muscles in between our ribs) expand and elevate our ribs, the breast plate moves up as the diagphram flattens down. During exhalation the intercostals relax, the breast plate moves down and and the diagphram relaxes upwards.

Depending on what we are doing and on our specific physcological state( angry, stressed, peaceful, relaxed) our breath can range from fast and shallow to slow and deep and can be either diaphramatic, thoracic or clavicular.  Most of us choose chest (thoracic) and clavicular breathing whilst having little experience of diaphramatic breathing, which means that we never fully breath oxygen into the deepest areas of our lungs where most of our blood awaits oxgenation. By continuing shallow breathing, we reduce the capacity of our respiratory system to only one third of its potential therefore diminishing the production of energy in our cells and increasing the dis-harmony and dis-ease in our bodies.

We know that Pilates and breathing go hand in hand and that the way in which we breathe assists us in the performance and execution of the exercises yet we still remain somewhat unaware of our breathing techniques from day to day.

So... I'll offer you a challenge of noticing your breath today.  Noticing the speed of your breath, the depth of your breath and the possibility of letting your inhalation last a little longer as you get a sense that you can allow your breath to reach the lowest lobes of your lungs before exhaling fully... Ahhhh!