Practice: Breath Imagery

Jenna Zaffino [00:00:05]: 

Hi everyone. I'm Jenna. In this session we are going to explore the use of imagery as it pertains to our breathing to hopefully help us influence our breath with a little bit more focus and maybe some control. So let's begin by finding our comfort. We'll separate our feet just about hip width distance apart and in many of our seated practices, we've been working on creating this really long spine upright seated posture. The intention behind this posture is to create a really spacious container that allows the muscles of our breathing apparatus to work with a bit more ease and support and also might allow for a little more air to enter and exit into our lungs. Now I know each one of you are working with a different set of circumstances, So the guideline of this practice is to listen, to try, to take what works, and leave the rest. And if anything feels confusing or particularly useful, it's a great idea to check-in with your health care provider. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:01:16]: 

Tell them what you learned or discovered and this could be a piece of information that could help you with your treatment plan along the way. Alright. So we're going to begin with just some simple breaths. I'll ask you to consider what method of breathing is going to feel the most nourishing and at this point calm for you. Let's just try 3 rounds. If you breathe quicker than me, that's okay. If you breathe slower than me that's okay. This is your time with your breath. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:01:48]: 

So we'll simply inhale and then exhale when you're ready. I like to practice an inhale through the nose and an exhale through the mouth or through the nose, depending on the circumstance. Let's try one more breath. And exhale all the way. So when we inhale through the nose oftentimes we get to cleanse the air that's coming into our lungs through the tiny little hairs and cilia that exist in our nostrils. We also are starting to warm the air and moisturize it. Just make it a little bit more inviting for the lungs to accept as we breathe and that's the general reason behind breathing through your nose, but as always, if you need more air and it makes more sense for you to breathe through your mouth, then please do so. Chances are as you took your breath, you noticed some movement happening in your body. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:02:50]: 

A lot of us can feel movement around our chest, maybe our shoulders and our neck, And sometimes if you're keyed in, you can feel some movement around your rib cage. Let's go ahead and take your hands and place them either to the front of your rib cage or if you can move them around to the side and just kind of take a little hold onto your rib cage, that can be helpful as well. Let's take 2 more breaths and just feel what happens to our ribs as you breathe in and what happens as you breathe out. Maybe one more time. When we're feeling the movement of our rib cage as we breathe, many of us will feel a widening and maybe a narrowing or a coming back in towards center. The image that we're going to use today is of a bucket and. And for this image, we'll think of having 12 of them. Wellness pairs, actually. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:03:54]: 

and for each set of ribs that we have. So when we pick up the handle on a bucket, if you have your bucket here and your handle here, you tend to pick it up and lift it to the top. So there's almost a rotation that happens, an arc, almost like a rainbow shape. And the rims operate in a similar way. Yes, we feel them going out, but there's also a little bit of an upward motion that happens to create more space around the base of our rib cage so our diaphragm can do its job. So let's start honing in this focus and as we breathe in, I'd like you to think of those ribs moving out and slightly up. As you exhale, we'll move down and slightly in. It's not an enormous movement. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:04:44]: 

It's subtle, but let's see if we can bring some awareness to the movement of our ribs. So once again, we're here and as you breathe in feel your ribs expanding out. And maybe even lifting up slightly. As you exhale feel your ribs lowering down and coming back in to reconnect to your body, expanding and recovering. Your rib cage is creating space and then it's recovering back to center. Let's take a couple more breaths. And of the things that I love to think about about the rim cage is that it almost tugs on the lungs to create more space Network. Almost like a vacuum effect so that the wider we get the more air can come into our lungs. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:05:44]: 

And then the narrower we get, the more air can exit our lungs. So that's our bucket handle breathing. Now we're going to come up to our breastbone and then our spine as well, but let's start on the chest. So rest your hands on your chest for a moment and then just take a breath in. Notice the motion that happens. Maybe you're still feeling some width from your rib cage breathing. Some of us will feel a slight rise and fall of our hands as we're breathing in and out. And for this image we're going to think of the image of an old fashioned water pump. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:06:23]: 

If you've ever seen 1 or any pump of any sort, there's kind of a lifting up and out to fill the pump with water and a pressing So we So we're filling and we're pushing. And for our purposes the pump is on our breastbone. We're filling our upper lungs with air and we're pushing and emptying them out. Let's take our hands on our chest again and just play with that image for a moment. So imagine that as you inhale, your pump handle lifts And as you exhale, your pump handle recovers, maybe even creating a little bit of pressure back towards the center of your body, towards your heart and lungs to help your exhale happen. Breathing in and out. And if it's not happening in a very big and obvious way not to worry too much about this right now. This is all an exploration. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:07:25]: 

The more awareness we can bring to our breath the easier, ideally, our breathing may be. Alright, so we've got this outward motion and then we've got this outward motion. There's also a pump handle on your back. It's hard to find sometimes but we want to think of this three-dimensional widening and narrowing. So the last image that we'll take into this exercise is that of a very small red ball. I'd like you to picture that ball living right in the center of your rib cage. Let's pretend that there's enough space for it to live there. It's just about this size. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:08:13]: 

Your ribs are surrounding it. Your spine is in the back. Your breastbone is in the front. Let's take our hands on our thighs and then just soften your gaze for a Patient. Or if you feel comfortable, you can close your eyes fully. And let's just picture that image of a red ball. Maybe it's very shiny or maybe it's more opaque. Maybe it's like the red of a clown nose or maybe it is more of a maroon color. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:08:45]: 

You get to choose what your ball looks like. So let's just find that image and feel what it's like to just notice that ball in the center of your rib cage. Now as we take our next few breaths, we're going to consider our inhale is the place where we create lots of space around the ball and lots of even space if possible. Space to both sides, space to the front, space to the back. And then our exhale is where we give the ball a hug from the sides of the ribs, from the front, and from the back. So let's take a couple more breaths here, expanding, creating space around the ball, letting the ball breathe. And exhale, giving the ball a hug from the front, the sides, and the back of your rib cage, exhaling as much as you can. And again. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:10:07]: 

Again, your breathing is gentle, calm and focused. Sometimes what I notice is that I've got a lot more movement on one side of my ribcage than on the other. And often, I've also got a lot more weight in and foot than the other. So it's great to just check-in and see if you're still balanced on both feet and both hips, And then try your spacious breath on your inhale and your hug breath on your exhale. Let's do one more. And then when you're ready, just wiggle your fingers or toes, blink your eyes open, and come back into the space. So this three-dimensional way of thinking about our breath can certainly help bring a sense of calm into our breathing practices, and it can also show us what's possible in terms of how wide we can breathe and also how we can use the muscles of the rib cage and our chest and neck. We haven't talked about the diaphragm just yet. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:11:25]: 

We're gonna do that in the next session to come, but just for now thinking about that nice dome that's really opening and closing in 3 dimensions, helping us, us, assisting us with our breathing. In order to weave this well-being tip into your week ahead, I'd like to invite you to just a few moments each day to check-in almost as if you're just doing a little evaluation or inventory of how you're breathing in 3 dimensions. Checking in to see if one side is breathing more than the other, if you're getting some movement to the front or back. Just this simple 2, 3 minute breathing break can help you make any adjustments you need to encourage your muscles and your breath in general to be more full, maybe more calm, and more balanced. So I hope this practice has opened your eyes to some detail of your breath. The more information we have, the more decisions we can make, and I'll look forward to seeing you in a practice ahead. Remember, you are strong and resilient, and the small moments, especially the small breathing ones, definitely matter. I'll see you soon.