Belly breath and arousal
What is belly breathing, why do I go on about it so much and what has it got to do with arousal?
Technophobic warning, you might find this yawn a bit of a yawn, if so, open your mouth and allow a wide stretching yawn, it is as good for you as a long slow belly breath. Then skip to the end. If you like your arousal lined with a little fact then read on.
When we fill our lungs with air and allow softness in the belly muscles, we can push the belly out on the inhale and let it come back on the exhale. The air-filled lungs push on the diaphragm, a dome-shaped muscle connected to the bottom of the ribcage which in turn pushes the digestive system in your belly. If you allow your belly muscles to loosen the belly expands on the inhale. If the belly muscles are held tight through pride of a flat tummy or tension in the body the breath can’t expand to the belly and instead fills the chest with air. To practice this lie on your back and place your hands on your belly. Feel and watch them rise and fall with your breath.
A whole bunch of things happen when the diaphragm has the freedom in your body to move up and down with your breath. The diaphragm has a couple of holes in it to allow the oesophagus and the Vagus nerve through. When the diaphragm slides up and down the oesophagus it is effectively massaging part of your digestive system. As the Vagus nerve is massaged it is relaxing your nervous system which also aides digestion (that’s why you might hear your tummy rumble on long slow exhale breathing). The Vagus nerve is connected to many parts of the body, and importantly for this conversation, it is connected to the genitals. It also enables the sense of safety in the body. When the body is feeling safe magic happens. (Science lesson is done for a moment as we are on to magic now!)
The invitation here is to practice diaphragmatic breathing with a long slow exhale. This is a down-regulating breath which will slow the body down and is great for relieving anxiety or nervousness. It is also useful when we want to slow down our arousal to allow us to last longer in pleasure or orgasmic states. When we inhale deep and strong in through the nose, fill the lungs, expand the diaphragm, let the belly move fully out and then push the full breath out quite quickly (take care to inhale and exhale fully to avoid hyperventilation) the heart is beating more quickly, blood is pumping and after five or ten of these the body is upregulating. This can feel a bit like the “fight or flight” sensations if we are not fully relaxed. The key here is to be breathing with the diaphragm and stimulating the Vagus nerve (which you can also encourage through using sound on the exhale). With all this Vagus nerve massage you will be activating the sense of safety, stimulating the pelvis and the genitals from the nervous system, pumping blood into the pelvis and genitals with the upregulating breath and rising in pleasure and arousal states. When you have had enough go back to the down-regulating breath with the long slow exhale and notice what happens in your body.
Technophobes can stop yawning and join in again now. Breathe in through the nose, let your belly rise and fall with each breath, practice long exhale breaths (down-regulating), strong inhale breaths (up-regulating), and play with your arousal states without touch and then with touch. If you don’t find this experiment useful please let me know as there are other areas can we experiment with. If you do find it useful let me know as I would love to hear your story!
Enough said, take the breath of your choice, notice what is in your body and allow all the sensations to be felt.
With love,
Sonia.
