Holding Your Breath
Holding Your Breath
Here’s the newsletter in audio: http://tiny.cc/b7b8101
How often do you recognize you hold your breath? It often happens and doesn’t mean something is wrong; rather, this is a logical response from your nervous system. The important thing is to notice when it happens so you can better understand why. At times, it can be a habitual pattern we all fall into. Notice how sometimes it’s due to confusion, pain, or fear. Halting your breath is a healthy nervous system’s response to stabilize your chest when confused, startled, or surprised. It’s a logical way your system pauses to assess what’s going on.
Notice when you hold your breath, when it starts to regulate again: did you inhale or exhale? This is an example of the tiny, subtle changes of movement and dialogue that are going on constantly within your body. Developing a skill to recognize these subtleties is the goal.
I recognize that when a direction or any information is not clear, there is a sense of confusion or anticipation of something that might be challenging; I notice my breath. What do you notice as you drive through a long tunnel or cross over a long bridge, or maybe for some, driving in rainy weather or when it’s dark? I observed how often the hold was on the inhalation as I recognized my exhalation as the stabilization of my chest softened and I resumed natural breathing.
Becoming aware of when it happens offers a strategy as to what’s going on that triggered this response and how to move through it. When one is in pain, whether physical or other types of pain, there is this pattern of contracting and holding. It’s in the consistency of noticing what’s happening where you find solutions. When I am working with someone in chronic pain, there is a lot of holding of the breath that translates into a global contraction throughout all of their body, so any action is already compromised by this contraction. It pulls away from – instead of moving towards.
It’s usually upon seeing a new client for a private session, or newer students that come to Awareness Through Movement (ATM)® classes, that I notice something they don’t: how, when they lie down, they hold their breath. I ask them, did you hold your breath? They pause and say, yes or probably. As a Feldenkrais® practitioner, I recognized my first way in is to witness and observe what a person is doing unconsciously. It’s in my observation skills, honed for decades, that I have facilitated awakening to what I can offer to support and help one experience an improvement. Getting curious about what’s happening within, as well as what is influencing and affecting movement, is crucial to understanding how to offer any lesson, suggesting adaptations and modifications for others who might not yet know how to attend to themselves beyond their familiar patterns.
“All perception and sensation take place on a background of muscular activity. And though we are unaware of it, this activity is most strictly shaped by gravity. There are several systems cooperating in orientating our bodies, but the vestibular apparatus is the coordinating chef d’orchestre. The vestibular apparatus coordinates all sensory impulses that influence muscular tone and attitudes.” – Dr Moshe Feldenkrais, Body and Mature Behavior
Offering strategies to remind myself as well as others who come to me is what I can do. Then how to encourage another to play with these strategies that can help free one to begin to recognize what they are doing that is interfering with their intention. When we can be more playful in exploring new things, that’s when there is more potency. I recognize how we all can become frustrated when there is fear or pain. My passion and work are to continue supporting and helping others find more options than they realize are possible, and that’s the beauty of this body of knowledge.
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find how far one can go.”-T.S. Eliot
I hope I’ve earned the privilege of your time and attention this week.
Warmest,
Peggi
