Discover the one way to breathe deeply without effort
Let the student beware.
Lots of people claim to have quick, easy methods to promote good breathing. Some may take you part of the way. A few may take you a long way. None take you the whole way. They can’t because they don’t understand how truly effortless deep breathing happens. I’ve yet to see a single exception to this rule.
The true nature of effortless deep breathing, how good breathing interacts with all the rest of your thinking and activity, is very intricate and involved. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a first vital clue while I was training to become an Alexander teacher in the late 1970’s. Since then, during the course of thirty years of teaching the Alexander Technique, I’ve been gradually developing a more thorough, detailed understanding.
The importance of understanding what you teach
Without that true understanding, correct teaching is impossible. There are a few lucky individuals whose breathing has never been spoiled. Those few do breathe, not perfectly, but extremely well — certainly better than I do. Unfortunately, they don’t understand what they’re doing well enough to be able to teach such breathing to somebody else.
My work has enabled me to go from being a very poor breather to breathing well. I don’t claim to be able to breathe perfectly. In fact, I don’t believe breathing can become so good that it’s impossible to improve further. I do know that my already vastly improved breathing continues to improve month by month. Now yours can too. This article will start you down the path to truly effortless deep breathing. If you stay with me, I’ll lead you as far as you choose to go on this exciting journey.
Enough introduction, let’s get started
The first step on the journey to being able to breathe effortlessly and deeply is finding out how to banish your demented mechanic. (You remember me introducing you to your demented mechanic, don’t you)?
You’ll discover both why you need to banish your demented mechanic and how to do it.
Why your demented mechanic doesn’t let you breathe freely
Last week I asked you to read two older articles about breathing. Those articles show you how both good breathing and bad breathing work. What follows assumes you’ve read those articles and that they’re fresh in your memory. Here they are again:–
SmilingBackMethod.com/breathing1
SmilingBackMethod.com/breathing2
What those articles don’t tell you is how to stop breathing badly and begin to breathe better and better. That’s the journey we’re starting today — and the first step is to banish your demented mechanic.
There are two main reasons why your demented mechanic messes your breathing.
Firstly, it’s your demented mechanic who prevents you from getting the true support you need for Supported Diaphragmatic Breathing. Your demented mechanic does this by lifting your rib cage off the support your diaphragm needs in order to function properly.
Think about that carefully. Do you understand what I’m saying? If you’re not sure, ask me on the forum. (See below).
Secondly, it’s also primarily your demented mechanic who causes you to tighten those abdominal muscles that, when tight, prevent your ribs from moving as they should. (And, of course, you can’t breathe well while holding on to your ribs). This happens because the demented mechanic makes you to lean backwards from the waist. Leaning backwards means that you’d fall over backwards if you didn’t use muscles to stop yourself falling. Which muscles do you use? Many muscles in the front of your body. That includes those abdominal muscles that work by grabbing hold of your ribs.
So by making you lean backwards, your demented mechanic also makes you hold on to your ribs. That’s why he (or she) doesn’t let you breathe freely.
Now it’s time to consider how to banish your demented mechanic so that you can begin to breathe freely again.
How to banish your demented mechanic
So how do you banish your demented mechanic?
I answered that question in article 46: “How to stop your Demented Mechanic giving you back pain”. If you haven’t yet made a start doing the homework I set you there, then now’s the time to do it. What do you need to do? Exactly what I told you at the end of that article:–
Here’s what you need to do
Notice the effort your back is making to hold you up and just stop it. Let yourself collapse. It’s the only way — and it works. It does take practice, though. Any old collapse is just any old collapse: it’s not the stopping pulling your chest off your belly that I’m talking about.
Stopping listening to your demented mechanic is going to take a lot of practice. So start now. Then write and tell me how you got on.
When you try to follow that advice…
you will, of course, make all kinds of mistakes
If you don’t practise what I told you, you won’t make those mistakes — but you won’t learn anything either. Having a go and making mistakes is essential to learning and improvement. No mistakes, no learning; no learning no improvement.
So yes, when you try implementing what I told you, you will encounter problems (I can guarantee that). To help you sort those problems and make progress, I’ve started a “Back in Action” forum where you can bring all the problems you encounter — and get answers. Since answering questions on a busy forum is a very big demand on my time, I can’t offer that for free. You’ll need to pay a membership fee. Here’s where you get your membership: SmilingBackMethod.com/Repoise
So do your homework now. Then ask your questions on the forum because…
I’ll be sending you a second assignment on Friday
Well, that’s what I did when I first sent out this article to my list. It’s now a bit different as the Friday has long gone. Instead, just send me an email and I’ll send you that second assignment.
See you on the forum very soon (I’m off to bed now).
This article is included under the following categories:‒
Personal Coaching by Philip Pawley
If you want to get the best kind of help, come to me for an introductory lesson in Liverpool.
If you’re too far away, then the next best thing is to get personal lessons and advice from me online at Repoise.com, my on-line school. (Both far-away and local pupils use Repoise).
In more detail:–
If you’re in Liverpool (or can get to Liverpool)
- There’s nothing better than individual lessons. My practice is at 37 Hope Street, Liverpool L1. Ring me on 0151 708 6172 to book an initial consultation and first lesson. (Leave your number so I can get back to you).
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If you’re short of funds, you can still have first class training from me — though it will require a little more work on your part.
The thing to do is have an individual, in-person lesson just once a month. That will entitle you to also get regular on-line lessons from me through Repoise. That way, you have the best of both worlds: in-person lessons and very regular, even daily, on-line Personal Coaching by Philip Pawley from me. That’s a real bargain because Repoise costs the equivalent of three lessons a year to everyone else.
Ring me on 0151 708 6172 if you want to arrange this.
- I occasionally run group lessons. If you’re interested in these, go here for details.
If you’re further away and can’t get to Liverpool
- There’s still nothing better than individual lessons. Here’s where you can find a teacher near you in the UK or elsewhere
- I suggest you also get direct day-to-day guidance from me by joining Repoise.
If you’re having plain Alexander Technique lessons from someone else, you still need to discover the Smiling Back Method of the Alexander Technique. You’ll get a lot more out of your lessons when you do.
37 Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside L1 9EA, England
Telephone: +44 151 708 6172 Mobile: +44 7872 905 154
Copyright © 2007-2012 Philip Pawley
SmilingBackMethod.com
