2 - What is the right way to breathe?

Q: 2 – What is the right way to breathe?

This section addresses the following questions: What is the right way to breathe? I've heard people say this a lot, there's a right and wrong. Full belly is right? So, does this mean there's no ‘better way’ to breathe? Typical of me to ask -- I always want to do things the ‘right’ way, and the lack of direction/prescription on this course is challenging for me. You mean, you want me to explore it by myself -- whaaaat? There really is no 'right way' to breathe, there is only the way that is right for each person in each moment depending on the situation. When we are doing ‘belly breathing’ what we are actually doing is focusing on a full expansion of the respiratory diaphragm. It is the diaphragm that drops down into the abdomen and expands the belly, which of course allows for more air to come in to the lungs. BUT if we only focus on expanding the diaphragm in this way, we can easily miss areas of our lungs that are stuck, and which we have limited access to. Of course someone could also have stickiness in the diaphragm, and there are later lessons that explore that, but this particular one is all about discovering areas of our lungs, which are in our chest, that we may not usually engage.

This section addresses the following questions:

What is the right way to breathe? I’ve heard people say this a lot, there’s a right and wrong. Full belly is right?
So, does this mean there’s no ‘better way’ to breathe? Typical of me to ask — I always want to do things the ‘right’ way, and the lack of direction/prescription on this course is challenging for me. You mean, you want me to explore it by myself — whaaaat?

There really is no ‘right way’ to breathe, there is only the way that is right for each person in each moment depending on the situation. When we are doing ‘belly breathing’ what we are actually doing is focusing on a full expansion of the respiratory diaphragm. It is the diaphragm that drops down into the abdomen and expands the belly, which of course allows for more air to come in to the lungs. BUT if we only focus on expanding the diaphragm in this way, we can easily miss areas of our lungs that are stuck, and which we have limited access to. Of course someone could also have stickiness in the diaphragm, and there are later lessons that explore that, but this particular one is all about discovering areas of our lungs, which are in our chest, that we may not usually engage.