Breathe to Connect to Your Strength

As a baby you were a master of your breathing design. You breathed nasally and allowed your diaphragm to be the centering force of your breathing.

Breathing this way allowed your abdominal muscles and pelvic floor muscles to develop strength and coordination with each other. It gently acted on your spine, nerves, organs and stimulated blood and cerebral spinal fluid flow.

In essence, breathing this way — diaphragmatically — began weaving all the elements of you together so you could grow in strength.

It also helped you to set your neurological baseline to one of calm —rest, digest, restore — which was really important for all the growing you were doing.

And it remains crucial to your strength and resilience throughout your life.

And yes, there were those moments when you were hungry or had a poopy diaper.

At those moments you wailed loudly.

In those moments your breathing and nervous system moved to a more heightened state because you were in distress and you needed the adults around you to take care of business because you couldn’t.

You were communicating your needs.

Luckily as we grow we can learn to regulate our nervous system more and scream less.

Diaphragmatic breathing is central to this.

To get the most out of your breathing design it’s important to return to the basics of it on a regular basis. To practice it.

Because there’s far too much in the world that can take us away from our natural neurological default of diaphragmatic breathing induced calm and put us into a screaming neurological state.

The good news is that none of us has to live in a constant state of scream.

You can develop your neurological diaphragmatic breathing calm.

And if you want to dive deeper there are nuances and imagery and movements (ex: head control, rolling, rocking, crawling) that can help. Let me know if you want to learn more: sarah@asimplewellness.com

But for now, simply breathe in through your nose with your tongue resting easily on the roof of your mouth. Gently fill your lungs from the bottom to the top. Then slowly and gently exhale through your nose. Be with each breath. Smooth, quiet, and easy. Repeat three to five times. More if you can. And know that this is where strength and resilience begins.

And maybe, just maybe, try saying to yourself “I am” on the inhale and “strong” on the exhale. Think those words. Live those words.