The Four Fulcrums of Embodiment – Part 2 of 4

2. Respiratory diaphragm movement.

a. I am not so concerned about breathing exercises initially with myself, students or clients. What’s important for embodiment is to simply sense the movement of the respiratory diaphragm. Almost every book illustration I’ve seen does not match my own inner experience of the movement of my diaphragm. This exploration needs to be done free of preconceived images and notions of anatomy and physiology. For example, the first instruction I give is to simply sense the circumference of the diaphragm as it moves. Is there movement in the front or the back or the sides of the rib cage? Where are the areas in the body at any given point of attention in which I consciously sense the full body’s response (or partial body’s response) to the movement of the respiratory diaphragm?

b. Gradually, this movement may be felt as a type of expansion and contraction. This is simply noticing that the movement is a cycle with two phases. As I begin to notice more movement, I can also notice those moments when the movement changes. Perhaps there is a strong full inhalation spontaneously. So the point of observation is the movement, Once again from the surface of the skin.

c. As above in #1, we want to gradually dedensify what we know about the muscular tendonous respiratory diaphragm. I invite students to imagine that it is more gel than stiff fibers. This dedensification of the diaphragm allows us to begin a sensibility that the diaphragm is simply just a wave. It either makes waves or is the biggest wave in the body. But nonetheless, I invite students and practitioners to simply sense the movement as a wave, affecting the fluid body from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head.

d. Gradually, the movement of the respiratory diaphragm will be combined in a perceptual process with the movement of the heart. The heart sits on top of the diaphragm and is firmly attached via the pericardium. Together, the movement of the heart and diaphragm as a conscious awareness lends itself to a greater wholistic feeling tone in the whole body.

I want to invite you to a FREE lecture on January 29, 2016 at the New York Open Center in NYC to introduce my Biodynamic Cardiovascular Therapy: A Training for Health Practitioners. CLICK HERE for more information on this lecture.

NOTE:  This course is designed for health practitioners of all stripes, including body-centered therapists and psychotherapists/psychologists; massage therapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, as well as physical, occupational, and Craniosacral therapists.