Your diaphragm is your primary muscle of respiration. Located between your thoracic and abdominal cavities, this thin, dome-shaped muscle contracts and expands as you inhale and exhale. Babies and young children naturally breathe using their diaphragm muscle, but somewhere along the way to adulthood, that ability often gets lost and the breath becomes more shallow. The most effective type of respiration, diaphragmatic deep breathing calms your nervous system, improves concentration and keeps you balanced.
How It Works
The diaphragm attaches to your lower ribs, sternum and spine. The right side is slightly higher, due to your liver. The left side is slightly lower because of your heart. When you inhale, the upward curve of your diaphragm flattens downward as your ribs expand outward and your chest moves slightly forward. This causes your lungs to draw in air and expand and your abdominal organs to compress downward as your heart and organs get a massage. When you exhale, your diaphragm releases upward, back to its dome shape, and your ribs and chest draw inward as your lungs push air out and contract.
Breath Awareness
Although babies naturally breathe with their diaphragms, adults often don't use this muscle properly. The tendency is to use muscles in the upper body, which actually causes more effort, creates a shallow breathing technique and even raises levels of stress. By becoming more aware of your breath and practicing diaphragmatic breathing, you will notice that you use your upper body muscles much less.
Practice
One challenge is knowing the location of your diaphragm. A good way to learn diaphragmatic breathing is to lie on your belly with your arms folded under your forehead. This causes you to breathe naturally using your diaphragm. Observe your breath, specifically how it affects your abdomen, sides of your rib cage and lower back. All three will expand a little as you inhale and contract as you exhale. Practice this exercise for about 10 minutes whenever you are under stress and want to release tension and relax. Pay special attention to the breath in your lower back to ensure that you're breathing deeply. Inhale and exhale through your nostrils, not your mouth.
Benefits
The more you practice diaphragmatic breathing, the more natural it becomes. Diaphragmatic breathing calms your body and mind and helps you maintain balance in the most stressful situations. Whenever you feel an onset of fear or anxiety, use diaphragmatic breathing to calm you. If you meditate, diaphragmatic breathing also invites you to do so more efficiently.
References
- SwamiJ.com: Diaphragmatic Breathing
- YogaInternational: Diaphragmatic Breathing
- "Yoga Anatomy"; Leslie Kaminoff; 2007
- DoYoga: Diaphragmatic Breath
- "Science of Breath: A Practical Guide"; Swami Rama, Rudolph Ballentine, Alan Hymes; 1998
