We unconsciously ‘read’ our body sensations and interpret with thoughts, i.e. if our heart races and we feel this as fear, our unconscious thoughts are likely to also match this interpretation, ‘something dangerous is happening’. A similar fear response is possible with our breath. Remember what happens when you get in a fight – a sharp intake of air that is held(‘I
didn’t dare to breath’). Sometimes when pain occurs, it seems natural to avoid it by holding your breath to endure it by ‘grinning and bearing it’ and not looking and feeling where it is. However if the pain doesn’t lessen, this can contribute to a sense of fear and avoidance of the place of hurt.
Knowing how to breathe with ease around the pain, avoids the association of increasing fear that can come from avoiding the area. It’s a little bit like looking a bully in the face and saying ‘I’m not afraid of you!’
     This looking-the-pain-bully in the face, is not the same as focusing on the pain (you are usually recommended not to focus on pain). This strategy arms you with techniques that give positive feelings and images that focuses on enjoyment rather than fear of the body.
     When you breathe in you contract and shorten the breathing muscles when you breathe out you release the contraction, relax the muscles which lengthen and soften. When you breathe out you are actually relaxing the diaphragm, the largest breathing muscle in the middle of your body. Learning to ‘let go’ effort and tension in breathing makes it easy to transfer this feeling to other parts of the body. Learning to use this as a conscious process means you can ‘turn on’ ease in your body when you need it. Being relaxed also releases endorphins, your body’s natural painkillers.

First practice easy breath

• You can feel your diaphragm best when lying on the floor on your back. Place your hand on your tummy just below your ribs and above your navel, feel how your hand lifts up when you breathe in. That’s your diaphragm pressing down, causing your hand to lift up.
• Take time to practice focusing on this during the day, at times when you are not exercising or moving. At this time, focus on the sensation of the out-breath, the heaviness, stillness etc. Train yourself by saying as you breathe out – ‘relax’… feel the shoulders drop … etc, until the feeling of relaxing becomes familiar. You can feel this best at the very end of the out-breath just before the new in-breath, when there is a still moment when all the air is gone. Notice this moment when you are most relaxed: even the breathing muscles are still. The middle of the body needs to feel soft so don’t use force by pushing or holding air out.

Breathing and moving with ease
Practitioners of yoga learn to use breath as part of their practice. These principles are based on that practice and can be applied to any movements.

• When exercising or moving, use the ‘letting go’ feeling of relaxation on the out-breath that you have learned, to relax at the end of a muscle contraction. That is, breathe out when you return to easy position, e.g. when your arms return to rest at the side of your body or you return your legs to the resting position. Remember the empty end of the breath is the best moment to savour relaxing. Take time to plan the breathing that is best for each exercise. Practice working out when is the right moment to breath in, and when to        breathe out, and learn to establish the ease and a comfortable rhythm.
• Usually the in-breath goes with the muscle effort and the out-breath when you release the effort. If you are in hold position e.g. a stretch, you can use the out-breath to make it easier.
• Consciously send your in-breath down lower in your body, engaging the diaphragm and feel the pushing down into the abdomen. Never hold air in, in the upper chest.
• If you experience pain in a stretch you can use this deeper breathing to emphasise the relaxing, letting-go of the out-breath to release where it is tight – breath into the tight area, say to yourself ‘expand, let go’. Start with just a few out-breaths during the stretch        Increasing them gradually as you acquire ease.
• Use your imagination to picture the place where the stretch or discomfort exists. Imagine fibres of a tight rope loosening and creating space between each fibre with each out-breath. You are creating space.
• It is best not to expect the breath to send the pain away, as this leads to feelings of failure. This may or may not happen, simply accept what is there. Breath may change the pain but more importantly, it will allow you to feel good about your management and easier in your body, and will allow you to increase your range of movement and function.