When it comes to working with the breath, there are two things I try to remember: awareness and contradiction.

The Awareness

The ability to be aware of one’s emotional state, known as emotional intelligence, is essential to mental health. Emotional intelligence helps us redirect and create an understanding of our moods and mental states, resulting in decreased stress levels.

Emotions, feelings, reactions, and interactions are daily occurrences, and they can be both exhilarating and detrimental. When we become aware of those human conditions, we begin to have more control over our lives.

The same concept is true for our breathing. We breathe. Every day. All day. For our entire lives. We breathe without being aware of our breath. It is so automatic that we, thankfully, don’t have to concentrate every time we inhale or exhale. Could you imagine? Multitasking would take on a whole new meaning.

For most of us, our breathing patterns are set with the help of our autonomic nervous system (ANS) by around 10 months of age. But it is also one of those funny human traits that straddles the fence between the ANS and the somatic nervous system (SNS). We can control our breathing to a certain extent (a somatic state) by slowing our breathing, breathing through our nose or through our mouth, holding our breath, or breathing rapidly. We can even shift the innate pattern that has been established by our ANS if we really focus. With awareness and consistency, the change in our breathing can settle in and become the new norm.

The Contradiction

Belly breathing is the bomb. Also known as diaphragmatic breathing, belly breathing is rooted in yoga, tai chi, and meditation practices, and has been all the rage among high performing athletes for a handful of decades.

In order to belly breathe, you have let go of your belly. The tissues of the abdomen need to relax to allow for the shifting of internal structures that the diaphragm demands in order to pull air into the lungs.

But hold on a gasping minute! I thought we were supposed to keep our abdomen engaged? I thought the complex formation of the transverse abdominis crisscrossed with the obliques and the rectus abdominis was supposed to be strong and act like a big old support belt worn by those guys who do deadlifts at the gym? I thought tight abs were cool?

Well, abs are cool, but let us remember yin and yang. Let us reflect on balance. Let us meditate on Buddha’s six-pack, if you will. The balance of all things, the light and the dark, the up and the down, are all basic Eastern principles we learn in massage school but are easily forgotten when not applied on a regular basis. The ripped beach body and the Buddha belly—both are awesome. And both need each other.

The Practice

One of the most profound techniques I have used when it comes to working with a client’s breath is a proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF). This may seem like a sideways approach at first glance. We have seen it used to increase elasticity in the hamstrings or improve range of motion in the shoulder. The direct impact on skeletal muscle is markedly impressive. How it works when applying it to breath is a little different.

The muscles involved in breathing are many—the scalenes, the intercostals, and the quadratus lumborum (QL), to name a few. The diaphragm is also a “skeletal muscle” that we cannot omit. But direct contact with this broad thoracic dissector is not easy. It does, however, share attachments with the rectus abdominis in the front, the QL in the back, and the lower intercostals, all clinging to the last ribs like a child to his mother’s leg. And, like a child and his mother, it is difficult to influence one without the other feeling the impact.

Try This

With your client supine, have them lift their arms above their head in a comfortable position, hands either clasped behind their head or creatively bolstered. Standing at the side of the table, gently hold their lateral and lower ribs with broad hands. This can be done directly on the skin or through a sheet, depending on the client.

Ask your client to inhale deeply, pulling their breath up into their sternum, shoulders, and upper chest, lifting the breath superiorly and engaging the upper muscles of inhalation. While they are doing this, you are anchoring down on the ribs you are holding, pulling in the opposite direction toward their feet. Have them hold at the top of their breath, and when they are ready, allow their exhalation to occur naturally, similar to a deflating balloon.

This technique is the application of a PNF for the muscles of upper respiration. But it also allows for the relaxation of the QL and rectus abdominis and the elongation of the intercostals and all the serratus muscles. As we pull down against this multidimensional force, the impact can be felt throughout.

The dovetailing of contraction and relaxation—pushing and pulling, inhaling and exhaling—is a direct insight for the client into what exactly is happening when they breathe. Becoming aware of the ingrained contradictions breath holds is the starting point for creating a transformation. We can, in fact, strive for both the hard six-pack of the workout guru and the soft belly of the peaceful Buddha. Help your clients remember that this is true. Breath, then, will be exactly what it needs to be.