Diaphragmatic Breathing for Beginners: The Belly Breath Everything Builds On

Diaphragmatic Breathing for Beginners: Breath Awareness and the Gentle Start

Take a breath. How'd that feel? If you are like most of us, not particularly remarkable. Your breath, though it is the thing keeping you alive from minute to minute, is one of the least noticed parts of your day. And that's understandable: For a lot of folks, the breath is one of those "background" functions you aren't supposed to think about. You just do it, you don't really feel it, and you do something else.

The First Step Toward Diaphragmatic Breathing: Just Notice

But your breath is running under everything you do, all day long. Get a handle on it, and you get a handle on your body and your mind. As a first rung, let's start by just noticing the breath. To get you started, the first step is a gentle bit of awareness. You do not need to change anything about the way you breathe, just notice it. What does the air feel like at your nostrils, and where do you feel your belly move as you inhale? Are you feeling gentle pressure on your ribs? If you are breathing as a baby does (with the diaphragm), your belly will round, your ribs may widen a little, and your chest and shoulders will stay quiet. This pattern is a sign that your diaphragm is doing its job, and your breath is taking a quiet, efficient, and comfortable route into your lungs.

What we are going for here is the big picture of your own breathing, and that picture is getting a feel for the natural breath. Sit or lie comfortably and let everything move on its own, changing nothing. It does not matter much which one you pick, sitting or lying down, and you do not need to arrange your body in any special way for this. Then bring your attention to where you feel the breath moving, the cool air at your nostrils, the rise and fall of the belly, the ribs widening slightly as you inhale, and the ribs softening as you exhale. Choose one touch point, and follow one full inhale, one full exhale, and the small pause that happens at the end of the exhale. When your mind wanders, note it kindly and return. Do this for two to five minutes.

This is the first step. It's the noticing you do, and the noticing can and should happen as often as possible throughout the day. Notice what the breath is doing when you are sitting, standing, lying down, moving. Notice the breath when you are happy, sad, angry, surprised. Notice the breath when you are at rest, when you are active, and when you are somewhere between the two. This is not about finding a perfect pattern, it's about noticing the basic breath. You may notice that your breath is changing based on a lot of factors. You may find that your breath is more shallow and faster than you assumed, and that's okay. This is not a test, it's not a pass/fail thing. The noticing is the practice, and the noticing is enough.

Let the Belly Lead

The next step after you have noticed the breath is to move into the belly breath itself. The diaphragm is the primary breathing muscle, and this is the kind of breathing a baby does. The diaphragm is a large muscle that sits under your lungs and moves up and down as you breathe.¹ On the inhale, it moves down and away from the chest as you draw air into your lungs, expanding your belly as you do. On the exhale, it moves back up and toward the chest as you release air from your lungs, and your belly softens. This kind of breathing is sometimes called "belly breathing," because the belly is the most noticeable part of your breathing pattern.

The belly should round and rise and fall gently as you breathe, the abdomen easing forward and then settling back again on its own. As you do this, you may notice that your chest, shoulders, and neck muscles are relaxed. The ribs may also widen a little during this kind of breathing, and that is fine, so long as the belly is leading and the chest is staying quiet. If you need to move your chest, shoulders, and neck to get air into your lungs, you are not breathing with the diaphragm.

This belly breath is what you do in deep sleep, and it is the quiet, efficient default your body already knows. And it has been put into controlled trials, where the people who practiced it were paying attention better and reporting less stress, with the stress hormone cortisol coming down along with it.² That is a lot of return for a muscle you never think about. The diaphragm does this work all day whether you watch it or not, quietly and efficiently. All you are doing in this practice is getting out of its way.

How to Practice It

Now that you know what the belly breath looks like, you can start to practice it. Practice by resting one hand on your belly and the other on your chest. As you breathe in through your nose with your mouth closed, your belly should rise as your diaphragm moves down. Your chest should not move much, if at all, though your ribs may widen a little as the breath fills. As you breathe out through your nose, your belly should fall as your diaphragm moves up. Your chest should stay quiet. The belly should round on the inhale because the diaphragm has invited it to, not because you are forcing it. Keep this breath smooth and unforced for three to five minutes. If you have been a chest breather, this may feel awkward or like you cannot get enough air at first. This is okay and will usually ease within a few sessions. If you are having trouble feeling the breath in your belly, try lying down with your knees bent. And do it daily if you can. The few minutes you actually do are worth more than the long session you keep planning, because consistency matters more than duration. You should never be straining at this, either. If you ever feel dizzy, lightheaded, breathless, or anxious, you stop, and you let the breath go back to its own way.

The Three-Part Breath, When You Are Ready

If you have mastered the belly breath and are ready to take your breath work to the next level, you may want to take it into the three-part breath, or dirga. The dirga, pronounced DEER-gah, means "long." Start with a few rounds of the belly breath, then on the inhale, let the belly fill, then the ribs widen, then the upper chest lift slightly (three stages in one continuous breath). Exhale in reverse. This is commonly referred to as the three-part breath. If filling the upper chest is making your shoulders tense, or leaving you short of breath, you shrink that top stage and you keep the breath lower until it feels roomy. You can do this for three to five minutes, daily.

And that is where this chapter leaves you. You noticed the breath, you let the belly take the lead, and maybe you stretched it into three parts. It is not flashy work, but it is the foundation all the advanced breath work in this series stands on.

References

1. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — the diaphragm: the dome-shaped primary breathing muscle under the lungs
2. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — controlled trial of diaphragmatic breathing: attention, stress, and cortisol

This article is for general information and education only, and it is not medical advice. If you are pregnant, injured, or managing a health condition, consult a qualified professional before starting a breathing practice.