Mindful Mondays

Welcome to this weeks Mindful Monday Blog Post! At Querencia, our classes often start with breathing to open the areas in the body where breathing takes place. Our bodies have developed tension that inhibits our breathing efficiency and effectiveness. By exploring the breath in the abdominal, thoracic, and clavicular regions we can unblock these areas to improve our breathing, posture, and overall sense of well-being.

Today we are going to look at 3 regions where breath resides in the body:

1. “Abdominal Breathing

- Uses the diaphragm and the transverse abdominis. This breathing style is the most sedating and calming of all breathing styles and triggers parasympathetic dominance.

2. Thoracic Breath

- Recruits the diaphragm, intercostals, pectoralis, and rhomboids. This breathing style is also known as chest breathing. In thoracic breathing, the transverse abdominis is held in a state of tension in order to stabilize the lumbar spine while restricting the downward contraction of the diaphragm. If overused, it begins to trigger the fight – or – flight response in the body.

3. Clavicular Breath

- Practically eliminates the diaphragm, recruiting the deeper pectoralis minor, upper trapezius, levator scapulae, sternocleidomastoid, scalene, and subclavicular muscles. This type of breath is known as “panic breath” and is associated with total sympathetic dominance.(Miller, 2014)”

Where you breathe can have a number of effects on the body and mind and a daily pranayama practice can improve your overall health in a number of ways. In next weeks Mindful Monday post we will discuss some of the different types of common breathing exercises and the benefits that come with practicing them!

Namaste!

Amber Green

Owner/Founder

Querencia

Works Cited

The Roll Model. Victory Belt Publishing Inc. Las Vegas. Jill Miller, 2014.