Anatomy of the Breath

Name: Anatomy of the Breath
Rating: 4.5 (90 reviews)

A Course for Bodyworkers, Movement or Meditation Teachers, and Anyone Interested in How a Body Works

Created byLiam Bowler

Last updated 3/2018

English

What you'll learn

Understand some of the biomechanics of breathing
Be able to visualize the anatomy in your own body
Practice different kinds of breath awareness
Be able to teach this stuff to your clients

Course content

1 section • 15 lectures • 1h 29m total length

Introduction0:59
Explore the biomechanics of breathing, examining the body's structure, function, and nervous system, with guided meditations that connect awareness from head to cells.
The Triune Brain and Breath as a Connecting Thread6:56
Explore how the breath functions as both a voluntary and automatic process, linking the neocortex, limbic system, and brain stem to human emotion, perception, and self-regulation.
Meditation / Exercise: The Self-Driving Car7:52
Practice a breath-focused meditation called the self-driving car, guiding your attention to breathing without trying to change it, and observing how the breath drives itself.
The Diaphragm, Lungs and Heart8:27
Explore how the diaphragm drives breathing by expanding the thoracic cavity and drawing air into the lungs, enabling oxygen exchange with the heart and capillaries.
The Diaphragm's Origin Story: Embryology + The Septum Transversum9:10
Trace the diaphragm's origin in embryology through the septum transversum and folding with the head and heart. Neural crest cells and yolk sac contribute to diaphragm formation.
Visualization: Create the Diaphragm with Your Hands3:08
Guides students through a hands-on visualization of the diaphragm, showing how inhaling lowers and flattens the diaphragm while exhaling releases and domes, highlighting paradoxical movement.
The Other Diaphragms: Pelvic Floor and Upper Thoracic10:28
Explore how the pelvic floor and upper thoracic diaphragms interact with breathing, highlighting breath as a full-body, pressurized process. Examine pelvic, thoracic, and cranial structures and feel their coordinated movement.
Visualization: Create the Pelvic Floor / Diaphragm Relationship with Your Hands3:42
Explore the diaphragm and pelvic floor relationship with a two-handed breath exercise. Inhale: pelvic floor relaxes as the diaphragm tones; exhale: diaphragm domes and the pelvic floor tones.
"Breathe Into Your ____" Meditation / Exercise3:49
Learn to breathe into different body areas using fluid displacement and diaphragmatic descent, from the hands and abdomen to hips and legs, as a metaphor for breath beyond air.
The Accessory Muscles of Breathing10:47
Explore how the diaphragm powers breathing and how accessory muscles, including intercostals, assist inspiration and expiration. Learn how posture and effort influence which muscles fire during inhalation and exhalation.
The Vagus and Phrenic Nerves — Plus an Overview of How Works a Nervous System11:16
Explore how the vagus and phrenic nerves regulate breathing via the brainstem's respiratory center and diaphragm, and how vagal tone links breathing to heart rate variability.
HRV Meditation / Exercise1:52
Explore heart rate variability through a guided HRV meditation and pulse listening exercise, attuning to the rhythm of inhale and exhale to cultivate an embodied sense of vagal tone.
Vagus and Phrenic Nerve Trace / Visualization5:34
Trace and visualize the Vagus and Phrenic nerves from the mid neck near the anterior scalene to the diaphragm, noting connections to the heart, esophagus, and liver.
Diaphragm Self-Palpation and Release5:02
Practice gentle self-palpation to release the diaphragm by exploring the area under the ribs near the sternum, proceeding slowly to ease diaphragmatic tension and the phrenic and vagus nerves.
Adios0:46
Explore the anatomy of the breath and stay in touch with Liam from Montana at the body awake for questions or future topics.

Requirements

No previous knowledge necessary.

Description

Taking a breath is central to the human experience: it's the first, and the last, thing you'll ever do. It happens with and without voluntary control. For these reasons and more perhaps, most meditative and movement traditions have placed great importance on coming to know one's own breathing.

So whether you're not even sure how the lungs fill, or you do know but want to get a deeper understanding into what happens in the autonomic nervous system with an exhale, or you can release tight shoulders by freeing up your diaphragm ... This could be an awesome course for you.

Watch the video to get a sense of the curriculum. Thanks and hope to see you in a minute!

Who this course is for:

Bodyworkers, movement teachers, body-based therapists who are interested in the breath.