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John G. Murray Jr. Chiropractic

10 Anderson Rd.
Clinton, NJ 08809
(908) 638-4144

Breathing Techniques to Activate Vitality

just-breathe

Hello. Dr. John Murray coming to you with some valuable content I feel, that will help really improve your health and well being.

You know, there’s those BASF commercials of years ago that used to say, “Well, we don’t make the paint. We just make it brighter,” and “We don’t make the glue. We just make it stick here,” and all those kind of things. You come to our office with your body. We don’t make the body. We just help to make it more functional and more adaptable. And you can play a role in that too. [quote align=”center” color=”#999999″]One of the greatest things you can do to help your body be more functional, more adaptable, stronger, have more energy, build energy, move energy, avoid stagnation. Disease in the body is stagnation, stagnation of motion.[/quote]

I want to help you to understand how to activate motion in your body through some very simple breathing techniques. It’s called normal abdominal breathing. I’ve been learning and studying from a man named David Grantham, a wonderful Tai chi master and I’m going to pass some things on to you based on my level of understanding. I think it will help you tremendously.

Now, the first thing you do when you’re born is you breathe in. The last thing you do when you die is you breathe out and how well you do it in between is hugely important for your health and well being. Here’s how it works.

Normal abdominal breathing involves:

IMG_6462When you inhale your diaphragm drops. Your belly should move out. Your pelvic floor should drop down and you should sense the tissues moving backwards. Your body below your diaphragm should expand. The diaphragm is that muscle that activates respiration. If you breathe in, the air comes in. As the diaphragm drops the air comes in, belly comes out, pelvic floor drops and the backside of your body moves outward. You expand like a bellows.

When you exhale the opposite happens. Your belly comes in, your back moves in, your pelvic floor rises. This is the greatest exercise in the world for your core. This focused breathing with a mental connection is awesome for your core. In Tai chi there’s a part of your body … In Chinese medicine there’s a part of your body, you can’t feel it, you can’t see it but you can feel it but you can’t see it. It’s called your lower dantian. I picture it being about the size of a softball in between my belly button and my pubic bone. When you breathe in, air comes in, diaphragm drops, you are storing energy around this lower dantian, spooling it, building it.

As the belly expands the backside of your body moves down and the pelvic floor drops. You’re spooling this energy around the lower dantian. I’m inhaling, I’m exhaling. When I inhale, my belly comes out, diaphragm drops, belly comes out, pelvic floor drops. Exhale. Belly comes in, pelvic floor rises. As I’m inhaling the energy spools. As I exhale and things contract and the diaphragm rises, that energy spins off the lower dantian, comes down around your pelvic floor, up your spine and out your arms. You’re moving this energy from your belly around the lower part of your body out your arms, circulating this energy.

Prostate trouble, reproductive trouble, all of these things that are plaguing people today. Pelvic floor weakness, urinary incontinence, all these things could be helped by doing this breathing. What you’re going to do is you’re going to find a quiet time. You have to quiet your mind. Quiet your mind and you’re going to inhale through the nose bringing your arms up close to your body. Belly expanding, pelvic floor dropping. Exhaling, pelvic floor raises, belly comes in, diaphragm raises. Inhale, diaphragm drops, belly comes out, pelvic floor drops. Exhale, pelvic floor rises, belly comes in.

From the side, inhaling. Exhale. Do about 10 to 15 of these breaths. Starting with longer ranges of motion with your arms, eventually shortening it up so it moves from being more physical to more mental. You’ll feel that energy in your hands. Your hands will actually feel heavy. As I inhale the air comes in. That’s a yin action. As the diaphragm drops, belly expands, pelvic floor drops, it’s a yang action. As I exhale diaphragm rises, pelvic floor rises, belly comes in. That’s a yin action. As the air is expelled out the mouth, that is a yang action.

You’re building yin/yang balance. In chiropractic we call it an autonomic system balance. This helps balance your nerve system. Get away from [pounding 00:05:01] yourself all the time with CrossFit, with heavy-duty aerobic activity. Start doing some breathing. It’ll change your life. Have a great day.

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Dr. John Murray

Dr. John Murray

"Empowering our patients to understand that their lifestyle choices make a difference is the greatest thing we can do."