The Bodywork Perspective ‑10 Step Breathing Exercise

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10 Step Breath­work Exercise

Now that you’ve made progress with Breath­work, here’s a 10 step breath­ing exer­cise that also intro­duces you to some of the Body­work Pres­sure Points.

This video shows the postures for the 10-step Breathing Exercise.

10 step breathing

10 Step Breathing Exercise with music and counting

For this series of 10 pos­tures, the breaths will be short­er, per­haps an IN 1–2, OUT 1–2 pace, and each posi­tion in the series will be repeat­ed for 10 breaths. Read the list through and find the points before starting.

I’ve includ­ed pic­tures to help you locate the points on your body.

Take the normal breathing posture, lying on your back, knees up.

Position 1 — open and close eyes 

Open your eyes wide on the in breath and scrunch eyes shut on the out breath.

Repeat 10 times. 

Posi­tion 2 — jaw points 
  • Open and close your mouth to find your jaw hinges. Press on both sides of your jaw

Place your fin­gers on your jaw hinges and mas­sage firm­ly, while tak­ing 10 breaths.

Posi­tion 3 — occip­i­tal indents 
  • Locate the inden­ta­tions where the skull meets the neck

Place your thumbs deeply into the occip­i­tal inden­ta­tions — mas­sage firm­ly, while tak­ing 10 breaths.

Repeat 10 times. 

Posi­tion 4 — col­lar bones 

Find your col­lar­bones. Using your fin­ger­tips on the top side of the col­lar bone, press in and mas­sage at the cen­tre of each col­lar bone, while tak­ing 10 breaths.

Posi­tion 5 — inter­costal spaces 
  • chest diagramFind your ster­num (breast bone — orange above), using the fin­gers of both hands. Slide your fin­gers out­ward. You’ll feel your ribs. At the point where the ribs con­nect to the ster­num, insert your fin­ger­tips into the inter­costal spaces, (the spaces between the ribs — red above.) 

Insert your fin­ger­tips into the inter­costal spaces (the red points on the illus­tra­tion) on both sides of the breast-bone. Mas­sage firmly.

The breath pat­tern changes for this posi­tion only. Take 2 sharp in breaths, and then exhale fully. 

Repeat 10 times.

Posi­tion 6 — raise and low­er arms

Raise your arms straight up on the in breath, let them fall to your side slow­ly dur­ing the out breath.
Repeat 10 times.

Posi­tion 7 — rub belly 

Rub your bel­ly in a cir­cu­lar, clock­wise direc­tion, prefer­ably inside your clothes, while tak­ing 10 breaths.

Posi­tion 8 — Bridge Pose 

Go easy with this one! Don’t overextend!

Scoot your heels clos­er to your butt. Push your back up into the yoga BRIDGE posi­tion and hold it, while tak­ing 10 breaths.

Low­er your­self back down. 

Posi­tion 9 — pubic bone 

Return to the nor­mal breath­ing posi­tion. Either under or over your cloth­ing, find the top edge of your pubic bone, and mas­sage in a clock­wise direc­tion, while tak­ing 10 breaths.

Posi­tion 10
Touch your knees and ankles togeth­er. Press your legs inward (hard!) while tak­ing 10 breaths.

Then let your knees flop wide open.

Rest, and reflect on what your body is feel­ing,
and any emo­tions you are aware of.

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