Breathing as Spinal Massage

Breathing as Spinal Massage

Esther Gokhale

In the branch of Yoga called Pranayama (Prana = breath, life; Yama = discipline) there is a technique called Nadi Shodhan Pranayama. I learned this technique from my yoga mentors in Bombay and in an ashram in Rajnandagaon in Central India. It’s the best way I know to quiet my mind when I feel agitated. I have taught the technique to many students and patients over the years as a way to address obsessive thoughts, anxiety, and 'blah' feelings.


This Yogini is practicing Nadi Shodhan Pranayama, a style of meditative breathing

You place the tips of your middle and pointer finger of the right hand between your eyebrows and use your thumb and ring finger to open and close your nostrils. Now follow this pattern:

1.    Inhale through one nostril for four counts,

2.    Hold (with both ring finger and thumb closing the nostrils) for eight counts

3.    Exhale through the other nostril for eight counts.


Here you can see the hand position used for this breathing practice 

Now you try. Inhale left (4), hold (8), exhale right (8), inhale right (4), hold (8), exhale left (8). After a few rounds of this, the inhalations become quite dramatic (especially in a room full of people practicing during the cold season) and the exhales are harder to slow. I always remind my students that breathing is a priority (!) and that they should do whatever is necessary to get the breath they need. If you have a stuffy nose, for example, this might mean breathing through the mouth.


This is an alternate hand position used for Nadi Shodhan Pranayama

Since starting to work with primal posture, I have realized some new uses for Nadi Shodhan Pranayama. Most of us have shallow breath. With muscle tension in our backs and chests, typically brought on by poor posture, it is difficult for the lungs to fully expand. We end up breathing enough to not die - and that’s about it! Even after we learn to restructure ourselves and melt away unnecessary muscle tensions, this shallow breathing pattern often remains out of habit. Nadi Shodhan Pranayama helps change that. You breathe more deeply than usual doing this technique – and also after. It’s as though you have primed the pump.


Muscles all around the spine and rib cage are gently stretched and massaged through deep breathing, which can be therapeutic and relaxing for the entire system

You will discover that deep breathing alongside healthy structure induces the tissues around your torso to move constantly. You have now found your inner massage therapist and an important key to self-healing. Your back muscles get a gentle stretch, your discs rehydrate, and the circulation around your spinal tissues improves - simply by breathing more deeply. As you adopt this habit, you will breathe your way to a healthier life.

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Comments

Submitted by TaraB on Fri, 06/16/2017 - 07:30

Hi Esther,

Love it, love it LOVE IT!  Thank you so much for sharing this.  I've been wanting to add pranayama to my meditation and this is the best one I've tried.  I especially love the concept that correct breathing + correct posture automatically hydrates and stretches your spine.  I've thought quite a lot about this when correcting my posture and always I have the mental image of the carpenter with his chest proudly stuck out (in your book).  This is another dimension to add and I know it will be valuable.  Thanks.

Tara 

Submitted by TaraB on Fri, 06/16/2017 - 16:21

Hi again, Esther,

So, I've been thinking about this all day and have a question.  (Preamble.) In the meditation practice I have been doing, I was taught diaphragmatic breathing.  After reading your book, I began to experiment using the Inner Corset while sitting to meditate and so of course my breathing became more focused on the upper body.  Through some research on the subject I learned that breathing from the diaphragm activates the parasympathetic aspect of the central nervous system (rest and relaxation) while upper chest breathing activates the sympathetic (physical and mental activity) path. Understanding this helped me to keep awake on the meditation cushion.  I suppose many meditation teachers want students to relax and thus teaching belly breathing can aid with this goal but if you do much meditation, often the problem can be staying awake.  So when I began to practice the inner corset along with focusing on full lung breathing I found it much easier to stay awake on the cushion.  Eventually I decided to work on a full breath filling from the bottom to the top and then in the exhale, letting all the lung go  down at once (rather than reverse of the inhale). I don't know if this is correct.  Frankly, just breathing at all while my Inner Corset is activated is something of a chore (but gradually getting easier).  

And now the question...what are your thoughts about how to breathe during meditation?  What do you recommend? Should we try for a whole breath going all the way down to the diaphragm or just focus more on the upper body?

Thanks!

Tara

Submitted by EstherG on Fri, 06/16/2017 - 16:57

I believe this matter is complex and does not break neatly down into one kind of breathing being a parasympathetic nervous system stimulus and the other a sympathetic nervous system stimulus.  It's also relevant that many people don't make enough distinction between chest breathing and (what I call) neck breathing (involving the scalenes, and known to be a stress-related pattern of breathing).

Notes:

  • Staying awake in meditation is a good thing! 
  • I wonder if, in meditation, the intention is to direct the breath or observe the breath.
  • If it's just the belly moving, might it be a good project to tone the deep abdominal muscles, not while meditating, but during other activities?
  • If breathing with the inner corset is a chore, might it be a good project (including perhaps during meditation) to relax the intercostal mscles and the erector spinae muscles, so that you can breathe easily at all times?

Please keep us posted on your experiments!

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