Exercise 2 - Sniff (the in-breath)

1. Lie on a mat on your back with your knees bent and feet placed on the floor shoulder width apart. You can also do this exercise lying on your side. Palpate for tension at rest before starting the breathing. Press into the tense points trying to feel for release as you maintain the pressure.

    

   

    

   

2. Sniff in through the nose making your diaphragm muscle at the bottom of the lungs descend and directing the air into the abdomen.  Do not inhale into your chest, the chest must stay down making sure that the breath goes into your abdomen.

    

   

3. As you sniff in the abdomen must remain soft as it fills up / flops out. If you compare the two diagrams you will see how the breast bone is static and the abdomen fills up/ flops out past the fulcrum line.

    

   

   

Breathe out. When you breathe out is should be as if the air has disappeared, you open your mouth as the last of the air comes out of the stomach as the sound "Ha" or a short lazy sigh. This will mean that you have successfully released all of the tension in your body on the in-breath and there is very little left on the out-breath. Imagine that you are cleaning a pair of spectacles, this is how it should sound. Essentially the exercise is all about the in-breath and the out-breath is just passive returning to the neutral starting position 

Common Mistakes

1. The most important thing during this exercise is to palpate the upper abdomen especially the upper triangle formed by the ribs with your finger tips. The most common mistake is to force the abdomen out while trying to get the air into the abdomen. it must be completely soft both at rest and during the in breath, you must keep palpating all the time.
2. Often the chest will keep lifting before the air gets to the abdomen as the diaphragm is not used to descending so much. If this happens keep one hand on your chest so that you can stop the inspiration as soon as it rises and start again.
3. If the ribs do not move at all you might begin to force the air past the ribs, this can be seen as a narrowing below the ribs in the space where the ribs should expand, this should be corrected by flattening the palm of the hands over the side of the lower ribs and expanding out into the hands on the in breath
4. When the abdomen is overactive and in a holding pattern it can be difficult for it to fill out completely. You can put a hand on the lowest part of the abdomen nearly over the pubic bone and imagine that you are flopping your tummy as if like a muffin over the muffin case as you release the lower tummy over the pubic bone. The abdomen here is very close to the pelvic floor so it can help to connect with the pelvic floor
5. If the out breath at the end is very long it means that you did not let go completely on the in breath and you now need to breathe out the carbon dioxide. Your aim is to make this out breath shorter and shorter. Watch your chest as some of it was probably held there.

It is ok if this takes a few weeks to change or to get the hang of - it also took a long time to build up! The DVD of Release to Balance may be helpful with further instruction and graphics showing direction of movement of the diaphagm, abdomen and pelvic floor.