Embodying Our Diaphragms | New Series!
Whole body breathing, unified consciousness, and support.
Our diaphragms are connected. They give us structural continuity from feet to crown.
DIAPHRAGMS
Diaphragms are muscular, tendinous, fascial, and nervous system weaves that support our horizontal and vertical organizations as we move and function on the earth.
Together our diaphragms form a sensitive chain of soft tissues that fan outward from our cores to our peripheral bodies. Hubs of consciousness and movement, they bridge our inner feelings with our outer perceptions. Ultimately, they are a unified system of consciousness and form.1
Connected like a mobile, our diaphragms hover one over the other suspended from above and tethered to the earth below. (See drawing above.)
Each forms a horizontal platform for the tissues above, while maintaining an intimate connection and relationship with the tissues below.
Each is supple, mobile, and contains proprioceptive and interoceptive cells — meaning each knows where it is in space, in relationship to other body tissues, and how it feels.
Each has its own purpose and function. Each receives information from its environment and expresses its own qualities and traits.
Each is an important player in the whole body structure we are calling the unified diaphragm.
In full use and ease, their harmonious movement creates a rhythmic wave of breath that penetrates the whole body.
WHOLE BODY BREATHING
Our diaphragms — all of them — play important roles in creating the continuity of whole body breathing. Their health and coordinated movements assure that every breath we take spreads through the entire body and all its varying tissues.
The diaphragmatic system provides us with continuity of breath and movement from the arches of our feet to the crowns of our heads and back again. It forms a unified structure for pumping prana and fluids through the whole body.
REALLY? WHOLE BODY BREATHING IS AN ACUTAL THING?
Yes, it’s for real. Here is a list of diaphragms that we now recognize to be keys to embodying our innate capacity for true "whole body breathing".
Crown of skull
Corpus callosum
Tentorium cerebelli
Tongue
Soft palate
Vocal diaphragm
Thoracid inlet
Thoracic diaphragm
Primary mesentery
Peritoneal sac
Pelvic floor
Arches of feet
In upcoming posts we will explore each of these individually and how they relate with the whole.
COMING SOON! THE THORACIC DIAPHRAGM
(Below you’ll find a drawing I did years ago relating diaphragms to glands and chakras. If you’re curious, there it is.)
Related Posts:
Various systems define and count diaphragms differently. The perspective presented here comes from explorations in embodiment and somatic studies. Viewed through a yogic lens, we explore body, mind, and spirit to know ourselves more fully and to understand our relationships and responsibilities to self and others.
GLANDS / DIAPHRAGMS / CHAKRAS
Ahh, how wonderful. I look forward to this series, dear Patty. You know of course, that I experience diaphragms as stingrays 😘🙏
Patty, thank you! And please, I’m really curious about corpus collosum in numerous ways but I have never explored this as a diaphragm. May I ask if you would share a tiny bit more on this? Or point me to some more info. Or maybe there will be more in a future post? Thank you again 🙏