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Today brings me to our final post, just in time for Valentines Day. Enjoy the guided relaxation below with a nourishing heart practice. Imagery a la Franklin Method, and setting up your breathing for a balanced, compassionate week. Enjoy!
Sit or ly comfortably to practice this embodiment after you’ve read the details. Especially nice is to set yourself up in constructive rest position or Savasana to really dive in and receive rich benefits from your relaxation.
A little background: there are two more posts like this one! Read up! Also, we mentioned how breathing relates to the nervous system function, which directly then relates to the health of all our organs. We also know that the diaphragm makes space for the breath to fill the lungs, gently massaging and shifting the belly organs down so the lungs have more space to do their thing. If we are breathing in such a way that we feel the belly suck in and/or up – the breath rising sharply into the chest and shoulders – we are literally squeezing our heart from all sides as we attempt to get a deeper breath than we physically have space for…so consider this embodiment practice below.
As you rest and relax seated or lying down, start to draw your attention inward. In our chest or thoracic cavity (upper half of our torso, encircled by the ribs) we have our heart nestled in between our lungs. We can swallow and track our experience down with the esophagus, which dives down behind the heart and between the lungs, flowing through the diaphragm and into our stomach on our left. We can imagine our belly organs, liver on the right, intestines flowing around and down into the pelvic bowl, kidneys relaxing into our lower back, deep lower belly relaxing. Spend some time with the imagery of your organs, and begin to allow them – feel them being massaged and gently moved by the breath – fluid, juicy, soft.
Now bring your attention back to the heart. The heart sits in a little sack called the pericardium, which is connected to our diaphragm. You may image the heart as a soft, kind passenger riding on the magic carpet of the diaphragm. When we allow our breath to descend into the depths of the lungs, the heart flows down as well and the lungs fill easily. As we exhale the heart rises and lungs rest, emptying completely. Smooth, relaxed, easy breath here. Do less. Be present here with yourself. Allow yourself to feel what is naturally there when you tune in and rest.
You can spend as much time here as you wish, and at any time that the imagery becomes more complex than you’d like, or you feel your body tensing as if to make something happen – PAUSE. My best advice here is to relax into an inquisitive mindset, investigating your inner landscape as you rest.
Have a relaxing week, a compassionate time with family, friends, or significant others tomorrow, and enjoy this nourishing practice for your heart and spirit. Spread this gentleness, compassion, and presence into your community.
Peace to you, and Happy Valentines Day.
namaste,
Cheri
February is Heart Health Month
I posted earlier this week about the function of the diaphragm and how it moves with our healthy, calm breathing. You’ve been noticing your breathing since…and hopefully feeling more relaxed, present, and calm in your body this week from our first post. If not, look up part one here!
So on to part two, regarding how breathing and heart health are related. First, I want to talk about the nervous system. When we breathe easily, smoothly with our diaphragm, it helps us stay more balanced in our nervous system, and can help us enter a deeply restful place called parasympathetic function of the autonomic nervous system. Whew. The parasympathetic mode is a place where our minds are still, our outer body (skeletal muscles, etc) are relaxed, and our organs are deeply nourished. This is a place of being, not doing. It is a state of listening, receiving, and resting. Sounds good, eh?
Our autonomic nervous system also has the sympathetic mode – when we talked earlier this week about the stress response or fight-flight mode, that’s what I’m talking about here. This is a state where several physiological changes take place to prepare us to fly away or fight back – our pulse, breathing, and blood pressure all increase or speed up, our skeletal muscles and periphery is on high alert, and our minds are sharp, crisp, ready to work. Again, this mode is necessary for certain times in our life. But living here constantly, chronically, has a host of connections to our overall physical and mental/emotional wellbeing. We need the balance of both of these states, and the majority of multitasking Americans could benefit from several minutes of restorative yoga each day – to help them push the “reset” button on the brains and nervous systems and enter the parasympathetic state. That’s where we can truly rest, and our organs then receive all the circulation and nourishment that had been shunted away from out gut out to the periphery due to stress.
If you have questions about the nervous systems modes, please comment below!
Part THREE, yes! Coming soon…a breathing imagery activity to help you feel relaxed and well – and get you in the mood for Valentines Day with a heart nourishing practice.
See you soon!
Cheri
February is Heart Health Month
We are familiar with the commercial campaign of WEAR RED, we see reports on the news about how heart disease is the number one killer for women. And we all know someone in our lives (often family, too) that has been diagnosed or experienced a heart health-related incident. Here’s some food for thought…
Let’s talk about breathing and how it relates to our heart.
We all know we have a diaphragm, but do we know – and experience or embody – its full function throughout the day? Even as I type now, I adjusted my posture in order to breathe more naturally. As the diaphragm contracts and draws down in our bodies, it draws air into our lungs. When the diaphragm relaxes, it sends the air up and out of our lungs. You might notice this more easily while lying on your back…go ahead and try it. Place your hands on your belly and feel how there is a natural widening, rise, expansion that happens on your inhale? This is due to the belly organs shifting down as the diaphragm helps fill the lungs. Exhale completely and feel the belly, ribs, chest, shoulders relax and rest inward as the breath leaves. Enjoy a few breaths relaxing this way.
Now, let’s check our experience. Try the opposite of functional breathing – that is the diaphragm flutters, feels stuck inside the ribs and doesn’t descend. If you take a sharp inhale and imagine stress or the fight or flight mode kicking in, you’ve got it. Many of us breathe here unconsciously during our day – especially if we always feel a heightened awareness, tension in the body or brain, and a neverending to-do list bearing down on us. We feel the inhale rising up into the shoulders and neck and possibly a tightening in the lower ribs or chest as if we never can really get a full breath….because we can’t this way. We need this mode if we’re in trouble and need to get our rear moving to get out of harm’s way – but it’s no way to breathe or live all the time. We have another option. The good news is we can consciously restore our breath – first step? RELAX. 
Then image the breath as described above with a soft belly and expansive ribs in all dimensions of space around you.
So how does this relate to heart health? Read more in Part TWO later this week!
ALSO – Reducing stress through meditation – and reduce chances of a second adverse event. Read link below.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091116163204.htm
More to come!
Cheri
Just watched an amazing video, from which I will share the quote she uses from a book called New Self, New World:
“If you are divided from your body you are also divided from the body of your world, which then appears to be other than you, or separate from you rather than the living continuum to which you belong.”
the living continuum to which we belong
beautiful
Google Eve Ensler : Suddenly, my body. It’s a Ted so you know it’s worth your time. Enjoy.
Cheri
