Breathing
The moveable ribs protect the lungs and assist in the breathing process. The intercostal muscles between each rib lift the lower rib it's connected to in order to increase the volume inside the thoracic cavity during an inhale. The sternum protects the heart and other organs as well from impact. The dome-shaped diaphragm is made of both contractile muscle fibers and tendencious connective tissue so it has a firm shape and can respond to stretch. The heart is massaged by the movements of the lungs and diaphragm.
Breathing with the five lobes of the lungs
ReplyDeleteThis exercise didn’t sound like it would be something possible to do; breathing into specific lobes of the lungs. The sensation of my partner’s touch on my back, along with my concentration on breathing into that location and lobe of the lung, made the entire process that much more successful. Ultimately, this will filter all of the oxygen from the breadth into that specific lobe and not everywhere else. This causes the quality of breadth and energy to be much more effective.
Having Katie’s hands on my back and on the different locations of the lobes honestly helped the guidance of my breadth and its absorption into the lobes. On the final touch, behind the heart, breathing was tremendously effortless. As oxygen has been filling the spaces between the lobes, the final breath didn’t require much exertion. However, after all the breathing exercises, I did get quite lightheaded. Maybe I should’ve concentrated on breathing into the brain, providing it with more oxygen. =)
As I placed my hands on Katie’s back, I was able to feel her thorax (ribcage) expand and contract with every breadth. However, I personally was not able to tell whether or not she achieved the objective of the exercise. Only she will know and only I will know for myself. Breathing into the different organs of the body (such as another form of meditation) will definitely benefit the health and body of human beings! We should definitely practice this more often in our everyday lives, especially as a dancer.
THAO
Breathing with the five lobes of the lungs
ReplyDeleteWorking with Thao, I first laid on my belly in constructive rest. I did know previously to this exercise that you can breath into the different lobes of the lungs. I just had no clue that we have only five lobes in the lungs, but it makes sense because there has to be room for all the other organs that fit in the ribcage as well. I felt my ribs being traced, and then a warm hand being placed on my right upper lobe of the rib. Then Thao constructed me to breath into the right upper lobe of my lungs. Thao moved her hands down to the middle lobe on the right, as well as the bottom lobe. Crazy that we can breath into all of our lobes but focus on only breathing into one lobe as a time and have the primary amount of movement in that lobe with smaller movements and expansion in all the other lobes. Then Thao constructed me to breath into my left bottom lobe, and then my left upper lobe. The last direction of breathing was to breath through all of the lobes equally at the same time as Thao had her hand around my heart area on my back. I felt like this breath was so much longer and fuller than all the rest of my breaths three-dimensionally into my lobes individually.
As Thao traced where my diaphragm attaches on the bottom of the ribcage, I felt the connection as well. Then I rolled onto my side and Thao placed one hand on my sternum and the other on my back in the heart location. A slight rock was the last step of the exercise. This rocking sensation was relaxing and I relaxed my body into the movements of the sea.
As I felt Thao breath into each lobe of the back, it was crazy with such a little girl to actually feel her breath into each lobe separately. My feeling of a giant breath when I focused on breathing into all five lobes was the same feeling for Thao when I felt her back expand in all directions as once. It was crazy to feel how the rib cage moved when I rocked Thao back and forth on her side. Also at the beginning of the exercise it was awesome to be able to rub under all of her ribs separately and then find and trace her diaphragm after the breathing exercises.
KATIE