Breathe, Your Abs, and You

Everything comes full circle, I suppose, or perhaps “ Full Spiral”, if we believe in a perfectly imperfect, ever evolving universe… 

In any case, I have recently found myself right back where everything started, in the breath. Discovering and re-discovering its pathways, and the tunnels it uses to efficiently translate movement from our very insides to our very outsides, if we allow it that time. 

This could be because I’m preparing to teach another Breathing Course Intensive, or it could simply be that this is how learning happens. That we have an experience, and learn from that initial layer, then find ourselves returning and examining the same thing from a different perspective, allowing for new discoveries and greater depth. 

It’s most likely a combination of both. 

I re-awoke to the breath 3 years ago September, newly pregnant with my second child, feeling my hip bones begin to re-negotiate their relationship with their neighbor, the Sacrum, and finding that if I inhaled in just the right way, I could create more space where it was necessary. This turned in to a nightly adventure, where I would “ breathe out” the growing pressures in my body, and create internal space in anticipation of where little Ziggy would expand next. I experimented deeply with pranayama during this time, and found equal play in vacuuming my ever expanding midsection in as I did with preemptively stretching it out. It was clear to me that this was the best abdominal work I could be doing, and it also seemed to release a ton of discomfort at the same time. 

I won’t really get in to the delivery here, as that’s a little personal, but I would like it noted that the day after Ezekiel entered this world, I was bouncing down the stairs, and within a week, my body had returned to it’s original shape. 

That, of course was more than enough inspiration to dive further in to this inviting sea, and I did so. Experiencing my own anatomy through the internal movements that follow inhalation and exhalation. Playing with body positioning and quality of breath to access specific layers of muscle, and delighting the ability to so specifically target various places as this new language was learned. 

Since then, my movement explorations have taken a number of different exploratory journeys, and I am happy to be revisiting this landscape. Every time we return to an experience, it broadens and deepens. So here’s to cave diving through our bodies, riding on the breath. 

This week I have created a 10 minute workout that focuses on toning the abdominals. 

 You will need a pillow at one point so try to have one on hand. 

Finally, here’s a cool little article about where your fat cells go, and how humans become trees, and a gratuitous ( and rather fuzzy) clip of me practicing pranayama while pregnant.