Release Tension with Abdominal Breathing

Props:  Yoga mat or firm blanket, perhaps a chair, couch or bed

• Lie on the floor on a yoga mat or firm blanket.  Bend your knees and bring your feet flat to the floor.  Allow your knees to drop together so the inner knees touch.  Or, if you prefer, place your lower legs on chair or couch, so the back of your knees are supported, and your thighs drop away from the chair at a 45 degree angle.

• Place one hand on your belly below the navel, and the other hand on your chest.

• Without forcing or trying to change the breath in any way, begin to notice your body breathing.  Notice the abdomen rise on the inhale and fall on the exhale.  Continue with your natural breath, noticing the ebb and flow of the breath in the abdomen. 

• With each exhale, have the intention to deeply relax.  Relax your face, throat, shoulders and upper chest.

• Notice how your diaphragm, at the level of the low ribs, drops down on the inhale and lifts on the exhale.

• When you have a sense of this, become aware of your pelvic floor, the area between your sitz bones, pubic bone and tailbone.  Can you feel or imagine the pelvic floor muscles dropping down as you inhale, and lifting slightly as you exhale?
  

• The pelvic floor and the diaphragm drop down on the inhale and lift on the exhale.  Allow your awareness of this movement to expand gently, without trying to force it.  The more you relax, the more you will feel this subtle shift.

• Stay here as long as you like, as long as you are resting with no tension.

Points to Ponder
If you are "reverse breathing," your abdomen will lift on the exhale and drop on the inhale.  See if you can gently invite your abdomen to lift on the inhale, and drop on the exhale.  Imagine your belly is a balloon, and it is filling from the bottom up as you inhale.