Affairs of the Heart (4): Wave of Love

Together the heart and diaphragm unite through coherent breathing and create a wave of perfect harmony felt throughout the body.

“I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.”1

Slow down your inhale to a count of 5 (or close to it).

Next make the exhale the same length as your inhale.

Keep breathing softly and gently in to a count of 5 and out to a count of 5, without pauses, for the next minute or longer.

Let it be as rhythmic as possible like ocean waves rolling in and washing out.

Feel the diaphragm moving down on the inhale, belly expands.
Feel the diaphragm relaxing up on the exhale, belly lightly contracts.

Viola! You are on your way to creating perfect harmony2 in your body.


The Basic Practice - coherent breathing3

why?

To improve the diaphragm’s range of motion downwards through slower and fuller inhales felt as rib and abdomen expansion.

To have inhales and exhales be the same length (eg. inhale to 5 and exhale to 5) which creates a rhythmic healing blood wave pulse within all the veins and arteries. This subtle wave action then also spreads throughout the entire body and mind thereby naturally creating harmony within.4

posture set-up

  • sitting, lying or standing

  • spine is straight yet relaxed in whichever position chosen

get a baseline

  • get a baseline of how many breaths per minute you are currently breathing

    • typically we are breathing anywhere from 12 to 19 breaths per minute

  • the aim is to build your capacity to breath at 5 to 6 breaths per minute for at least five to twenty minutes everyday

respect your limits, modify where needed

TIPS & NOTES:

approach the practice as if you are going to the gym,
start with lighter weights (lower count) and set an intention

keep breathing light and gentle 🙂
paradox is, it will allow for longer deeper inhales

on the exhales - relax and feel peace ✌️

heart rate increases on inhale ❤️
and decreases on exhale 💚
this is normal

drink lots of water💦
as the practice moves lots of fluids in the body

coherent breathing

This breath practice is very similar to the ‘heart brain coherence meditation’ shared in the Heartfelt post.

  • breathe in and out through the nose

    • or breath in through nose and blow out through pursed lips with a ‘who sound

    • or use sniff-stacking technique from Dr. Ken Hansraj but without pauses

      • 5 consecutive sniff’s for the inhale, 5 consecutive haa’s on exhale

  1. start with inhaling and exhaling without pauses to a count of 3

  2. next try breathing in and out without pauses to a count of 4

  3. pace yourself up to a count of 5

  4. then move to breathing in and out without pauses to a count 5

  5. explore breathing to count of 5 while moving arms

Coherent Breathing Daisy Barb

Explore the Movement - smile & breathe

smile

  • invite an inner smile by using the ‘smile’ acronym coined by Master Chunyi Lin5

    • S = start

    • M = my

    • I = internal

    • L = love

    • E = engine

breathe

  • Dr. Alan Waktins recommends coherent breathing through your heart and created this 'breathe' acronym6

    • B = breathe

    • R = rhythmically

    • E = evenly

    • A = and

    • T = through the

    • H = heart

    • E = everyday

Yoga Practice

During relaxation (Savasana) at the end of the yoga practice, use the coherent breath for the whole relaxation period, also smile and breathe through your heart.

Everyday Living

The experts vary on the number of minutes of practice per day, but ALL are consistent on it needs to be a daily practice. Ideal is twenty minutes per day. Options are to break it up into 10 minutes upon waking and 10 minutes prior to sleeping. Most importantly experiment and figure out a schedule that can work for you.

You will experience sensations. I have noticed sometimes it brings up burping and gas. While exhaling, sometimes it feels like that diaphragm is hitching or fluttering. At times, I feel pulsing sensations in different parts of my body particularly when lying down. Notice what you notice with kind curiosity.

What to do when you have a cold? I decided to continue, albeit much gentler, shorter durations and without forcing any expectations.7

Do you notice when you sigh? If you do, try immediately after the sigh to take a few gentle coherent breaths. The sigh is an indication that the body is a little out of sync.

Discover Amazing

A big job of the diaphragm is to aid in pumping old (venous) blood back into the right heart, thereby taking the workload off the right heart value.8 This is why the heart loves the diaphragm soooooo very much because it helps with the pumping of blood. The heart no longer has to do the job alone!

When practicing coherent breathing, a beautiful symphony unfolds within you as the heart, lungs, nervous system and blood circulation coalesce in such a way as to create a blood (love) pulse wave that is felt right down to each cell and molecule in the body from head to toe.

Discover how your amazing diaphragm holds the key🗝️9 to teaching yourself to breathe (sing) into a perfect wave of love, peace and harmony.

Namaste

(the Light in me honors the Light in you)

keep moving to keep healthy to keep smiling

PS. I created a YouTube Channel called Barb A Yoga Guide where you can easily find all videos made for ‘Explore Movement and Discover Amazing YOU’ posts.


Thanks to Stefan Ritter for allowing me to use his yellow daisy photo.

Thanks to Stefan Ritter for taking photos of me lifting arms in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada.

Thanks to an organist for playing harmonies to accompany ‘Coherent Breathing Daisy Arms - Count of 5’ video.


Discover amazing treasures in the Archive:

Archive

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Disclaimer: Be safe, know your limits and move wisely without causing harm to yourself. Information provided in this newsletter is for you to explore and discover how your body works. It is not to diagnose any medical condition. Please consult with a physician or physiotherapist if you have concerns.

1

I’D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING, words and music by B. Backer, B. Davis, R. Cook R. Greenaway. Written for Coca-Cola Company in 1971.

2

Harmonics within a musical scale are composed of a fundamental sine wave with its respective frequencies. See below example for A Major scale. My understanding: our body is a musical instrument. You know you are in harmony when you feel good. When the diaphragm and heart work well together, it generates a blood pulse wave that moves throughout the body resulting in coherence and well-being = overall harmony.

3

Stephen Eillot is a scientist who coined the term ‘coherent breathing’ in the early 2000s. Here is a link to how he describes Coherence - theBig Picture.

4

Stephen Eillot, Coherent Breathing® For Health, Well-being, Performance & Longevity. The more fuller the diaphragm moves down and up, the stronger the wave action in the body’s veins and arteries. See picture below of Stephen Eillot’s monitoring of blood pulse wave via his monitoring device called Vasalva Wave Pro below:

5

Master Chunyi Lin, Spring Forest Qigong, Smile and Healing Power of Self Love

6

Dr. Alan Watkins, BREATHE, Being Brilliant Every Single Day (Part 2) at minute 25:00 to 26:00 he reveals the ‘breathe’ acronym. Recommend listening to both parts of Dr. Wakins Ted talk, here is link for Being Brilliant Every Single Day (Part 1)

7

During the writing of this post, I came down with a cold. I decided to continue the practice being mindful and gentle with myself by shortening the coherent breath to a count of 3 or 4. My thinking - use coherent breathing to aid my body in moving out the cold virus, along with taking appropriate rests and increasing fluid intake.

8

Stephen Eillot, “https://www.coherence.com/The_Breathing_State_Of_Mind.pdf” explains how the heart and and diaphragm work together to exchange gases and circulate blood

9

Stephen Eillot, Coherent Breathing® For Health, Well-being, Performance & Longevity. Stephen Eillot’s theory is that the diaphragm acts as a thoracic pump and aids the heart and lungs to circulate body fluids. This theory makes sense to me; however, more scientific studies would need to confirm the theory. Currently the medical and fitness fields are in agreement that ‘coherent breathing’ is a powerful practice which leads to increased HRV (heart rate variability) and well-being.

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Barbara L Ritter