06/02/2026
Breath Wellness, an Essential Care
We breathe using three different ”systems”. Diaphragm (always), trunk (everyday situations) and neck/throat (stress). Sometimes our limited movement in the joints in our thoracic spine and the ones between vertebrae and ribs causes a limitation also in our breathing. If so, our brain will instantly (breathing is really, really important for our survival eh?!) start using the muscles on the neck and throat to lift the first ribs, just to get a little more air into the lungs (like back on the savanna when we were chased by the lion) and voila! we can keep going. But (important now) that also means the brain and nervous system will now constantly be in a state of stress (long term stress is as we all know not good). If, on the other hand, the spine and trunk can have free movement, we can have the wonderful benefits of a system in good balance.
So try this as an every day well being exercise
1) Move your arms and shoulders as if you were a swimmer/boxer warming up for 30 seconds
2) Do cat & cow movements with your spine/trunk for 30 seconds
3) Breathe in deep, fill your lungs with air as if they were big balloons and keep it in for a couple of seconds, breathe out with a sigh and really empty the lungs. Repeat 3 times.
As simple as it may seem, this works. We hope you find it useful.
Breathing is both essential and existential 🍃🌱