Breath is enlightenment, a light you can shine into any part of your body.  When I walk, I tend to ruminate, think upon things past or future. When I do so, I find myself grinding my teeth. Now this may come as no surprise, since “ruminate” literally means to chew. Creatures who chew their cud are ruminants. Moo. Don’t chew your cud or your could, you could be, or your could have been. Breathe. Think. I am breathing in. I am breathing out. Breath is enlightenment, a summoning of the present. Right now you can bring that enlightenment to your body, to the whole or to the part.

Rumination

I ruminate so tenaciously  when I walk that my teeth begin to hurt. Just yesterday, I made the decision to breathe, inhale through the nose, and feel the air circulating in my mouth, on my palate, on my tongue, on my teeth, on my soft palate and uvula. Monitoring my breath, I stopped ruminating, both the chewing and the stewing. My whole mouth and jaw loosened and my lips remained closed. I maintained that attention while walking 5 miles. 

Your breath can bless every part of your body, your head, neck, thorax, abdomen, even your extremities. There are representations of your entire body in every part of you, most clearly in your feet and hands. Your feet have a head and a heel.   Let your feet expand into the floor. They are receptors of your uprightness, your groundedness. They breathe. 

You can fully accept that support and let it ripple through you, freeing your ankles, your knees, your hips. You are of the Earth but not a stick in the mud. In standing be sure to unlock your knees.  Enjoy that contact, and think, how long have I denied myself this exquisite little pleasure? What other parts of your body can you bless with your attention?  

Skip up a bit, well, quite a bit, and take heart.  Envision it. Embrace it. It has performed its duty every hour of your days and nights, delivering the food, fuel, and lubricant of your life.  Its dance with the lungs is the synchronicity is your very life. Stay with it a bit today and every day. Nourish it. Shine the light of your breath on it. Breath is enlightenment. 

Your legs. Feel the rush of blood within them, within your femoral artery. Envision your legs as conduits of energy. In nature and science we are one with the Earth, with the universe. Breath it in, all of it.  Feel that energy coming through your legs and into your private parts, into those parts whose functions we may notice on occasion but are decidedly unaware of the excessive tension with which we hold, protect, and armor them. See what you can undo there right now. Shine the light of your breath into those dark and hidden places, into the tubes and sacs that form your pelvis and the rest of your body. Breath is enlightenment. Awake ye tubes and sacs.  Breath is your life and lubricant.

The engine of our breath

If we think of our breath as the engine of our bodies, that engine has a piston, well two of them, and still more. We have four prominent diaphragms in our body, the lowest and most important is not the thoracic diaphragm, the one that forms the floor of the thorax and the ceiling of the abdomen, but the diaphragm beneath, the pelvic diaphragm. 

The piston

The descent of the pelvic diaphragm is the great and wondrous primary piston of our breathing. Let it lower when you breathe, open to the Earth beneath. It is the most important thing you can do for your breath in this moment. Why is its function so often lost to us? Because it is not cool.

American cool

American cool, as we portray it, is downright cold. Our hips are thrust forward, and our backs lie under our forwardly thrust hips. Efficient breathing is impossible, and our pelvic diaphragms are locked into a position that announces both sexuality and our inability to perform it. Later it may announce something more sinister still, namely, that you are setting yourself up for some serious back trouble. 

Breath work may be frustrating at first because to fill we must first empty. To free the breath, we must free the pelvis, and to free the pelvis we must first free the breath, a conundrum. What is the answer? We must learn to empty.

Take a normal breath through the nose and comfortably prolong exhalation, to repeat, through the nose.  Count the seconds silently as you prolong your exhalation, stopping just before you feel completely exhausted. 

The duration of exhalation may increase over time. Think, I know that I am breathing in. I know that I am breathing out. We can thank Thich Nhat Hanh and others for that lovely piece of meditative practice.

Inhaling and exhaling through the nose is a practice of ancient and modern meditation. It is preparation for singing and speaking, both of which demand prolonged exhalation through the mouth, of course. A singer is a professional breather. If living well is our profession, we are all professional breathers.  Breath is enlightenment.

Practice your exhalation through your mouth while silently counting 1 through 10, repeating the sequence as many times as comfortably possible. Please don’t attempt to completely exhaust your air. 

A word about silent counting, it is not truly silent.  It is a very soft whisper, a susurration, the sound of moving air. It is not truly vocal, not engaging the adductive function of the vocal cords. Do please notice the spelling of the word “cords,” there are no chords down there unless you’ve swallowed a harmonica. 

Whispered ah

Whispered ah

Whispered ah is a signature exercise of the Alexander Technique. Instead of silent counting during exhalation, the vowel ah is whispered, more loudly than silent counting, loud enough to be heard across a small room. It is not voiced. It does not have pitch. You might call it an unvoiced “ah.”

Why “ah?” The ah vowel creates a great deal of space in the mouth with the tongue at back in an easy low position. Phonetically the “ah” is called the low back vowel, though we hasten to add, it is low but not lowered, never guttural.

Prolong the whispered “ah” for as long as comfortably possible and notice the inhalation that follows. It may more fully involve the pelvic and thoracic diaphragms, your thorax, your ribs and back and abdomen. 

Your breathing involves whole of you. Imagine your breath being drawn from the Earth through the great reeds of your legs, being filled with the warmth of the Earth. As you learn to more fully empty, you will learn to fill more fully, more reflexively fill. 

Let your breath instruct you. Let every breath begin with a descent of the pelvic diaphragm, its anchor equidistant between the organs of elimination and sexuality. Your breath may lodge there for the rest of your days and continue to bless.

Every breath is a metaphor of our lives. At our birth we inspire and upon our deaths death we expire. Inspiration expiration. Breath. Let each one count. Let yourself be fully breathed, the New American Cool. Breath is enlightenment.