Forget the Belly, Focus on the Diaphragm: Deep Breathing Basics

“Breath is your biggest weakness

As important as breath is to life, so is it for an actor to bring life to his character”.

Dialogues from an iconic movie from my childhood where an actor is mentoring his protégé. Much later he goes blind and plots a revenge murder.

Breathe from your belly.

I was fascinated.

The touted benefits were many.

I wanted it too!

I would inflate my belly and breathe deeply into it imagining it filling up with air.

The only thing I would end up with was a headache.

Later I came across references to the diaphragm.

But the hero remained the belly.

Rising and falling. “To be filled to the pits” with breath.

Breathe into your belly…

Stop doing that!

You cannot breathe into your belly. You can only breathe into your lungs.

Switch your focus to the diaphragm, the main muscle in your respiratory system.

• A dome-shaped muscle just under your lungs, the diaphragm goes down vertically whenever you inhale. This increases the space for your lungs to fully expand and breathe deeply.

• The downward movement of the diaphragm pushes down the whole abdomen. The belly pushes out.

• At exhale, the diaphragm rises back to its original position, allowing the belly to go back in.

You don’t inflate the belly when you breathe in.

You allow the belly to inflate when you breathe in.

The belly moving out is a result and not the cause.

If you want to improve your breath, get mindful about the diaphragm. And how it connects to your breath.

The diaphragm is the hero you were looking for.