This section addresses the following questions:

• One thing I am a little confused about is the feeling of letting the belly hang. This is a bit tricky, because as a natural consequence of breathing out, the belly does start to contract! So any words of explanation on this would be much appreciated!
• When I do this, I notice I tend to push the air out at the end of the sound. In other words, my abdominal muscles contract, which allows the voo sound to last longer. Is that a bad thing?
• Does it really target the belly? I have done it before, and as always, this voo does nothing to me. It does not seem to make anything vibrate in my belly! So I have nice sensations in my lips for example, because I maintain the V vibrating, and do not end with only oo.

There is a need for a very important distinction here. It is actually not normal for the abdominal muscles to contract while exhaling! It IS normal for the diaphragm to raise back up towards the lungs, thus making more room for the organs in the abdomen, which results in a gentle deflating of the area, but this is very different from the abdominal muscles contracting. Ideally the belly can stay soft and have a sense of just hanging there without moving at all, except for the slight inflation/deflation that results from the movement of the diaphragm, but this is often not the case with unresolved trauma in the system, because the breath is tied in with those stuck survival responses, which may indeed be telling our abdominal muscles to contract, so we can stay protected.

If you notice you have a sense of pushing to force the last of the air out, try simply stopping the sound a bit sooner, and just let the last of the air flow out without sound. We don’t want too much effort when we do this, as it will be counterproductive to gently stimulating the parasympathetic system.

If you can’t sense any vibration in your belly, try putting your hand on your belly and tuning in that way. With this exercise we actually want you to only start with the ‘V’ and then continue the rest of the way with the open ‘uuuu’ sound — as it is that low, open tone that allows the vibration to be felt in the belly.