outils: SERENDIPITY

Getting started with Serendipity

Your Serendipity CD has arrived. What now?

To work with the Serendipity CD, all you need is a place to walk at a brisk pace -- a treadmill would be even better, and a good set of headphones.

The first step is learning how to listen responsively. Serendipity is an acousticoaching CD, which makes it distinctly different from a music CD. Although you can enjoy listening casually to a music CD, you have to pay close attention in listening to Serendipity. In order to benefit from the environment of sound it creates for you, you have to open yourself to its acoustic energy, and you have to listen with your whole body and not just your ears. The more responsive your listening, the deeper your learning.

Serendipity's acoustic core is the sound of the breath cycles. Each breath cycle repeats a pattern of five steps out and two steps in at a constant tempo of 120 steps per minute. You can see this on the CD label in the BreathPlay shorthand of "5/2 @ 120." Notice that the outbreath count comes first in the 5/2 shorthand, indicating its primacy of place in the breath cycle. Each outbreath is a five-step pressurized hissing sound: "Sss-sss-sss -sss-sss." Each inbreath is a two-step relaxed aahing sound: "aaa-aah." Each breath cycle is a seven-step "Sss-sss-sss-sss-sss / aaa-aah."

Serendipity is almost 70 minutes long, giving you almost 1200 breath cycles of the 5/2 "Sss-sss-sss-sss-sss / aaa-aah" pattern. To master the basic responsive listening skill, the central skill, you must learn to match your own breathing sounds to those 1200 cycles of "Sss-sss-sss-sss-sss / aaa-aah."

In my 25 years of teaching BreathPlay, I've found that the biggest block to learning is timidity about matching those sounds. Before producing the BreathPlay CDs, I had to make those sounds myself when teaching, and I would invite people to match my sounds with their own breathing sounds. Those who right away became part of the BreathPlay chorus, adding their breathing sounds to mine without inhibition, always seemed to learn rapidly. On the other hand, those who held back always seemed to run into problems. If
you're shy about making your breathing clearly audible, I strongly recommend that you make it audible at least to yourself.

As long as your breathing sounds clearly match the "Sss-sss-sss-sss-sss / aaa-aah," you can be confident that you're BreathPlaying. In order to make the pressurized hissing sounds, you have to be actively pushing your air out, and in order to make the relaxed aahing sounds, you have to be passively letting your air in. If your footsteps are matching the steps in the breathing sounds, you have it all working together.

Once you've mastered matching the "Sss-sss-sss-sss-sss / aaa-aah" breathing sounds with both your breathing and your footsteps, the next step in BreathPlay skill-building is recognizing and responding to the voice weaves. You have to recognize a voice weave before you can respond to it, and I want to point out that you may not be able to recognize each and every one of them
at first.

In spite of our best efforts to make the words clear, you may not be able to catch some of the voice weaves at first. While they're much easier to understand than the lyrics of some rock songs, you may find yourself trying to puzzle out a meaning every now and then. My advice to you is not to get snagged on lack of clarity. As long as you keep your breathing sounds matching the CD, you're succeeding in the most important part of the learning. When you can't quite catch the words, let them go.

Chances are, the meaning will be clear the next time through, either through simple repetition or through the cues of context. You may also find that reading over the voice weave explanations will enable you to recognize the ones you missed. Scroll down to "Serendipity Voice Weaves" for some detailed discussions.

Each voice weave gives you a bite-sized bit of coaching input. Most of them are in pairs, and most are followed by a pair of empty breath cycles--that is, empty of voice weaves. It's a good idea to repeat the voice weaves to yourself in those empty breath cycles, both to reinforce the learning and to increase the responsiveness of your listening.

I strongly recommend that you use Serendipity on a treadmill at first, and that you return to the treadmill often. Possibilities open up on a treadmill, because it gives you the freedom to close your eyes and yet walk in perfect safety.

Of course, you have to find a comfortable way of resting your hands before you can walk with closed eyes. When I put my hands on my treadmill's hand rests, the position is anything but restful. As a matter of fact, it forces an uncomfortable stooped posture. On the other hand, when I rest the insides of my wrists on the left and right ends of the treadmill console, my posture is naturally upright, and I feel very much at ease.

It's a good idea to warm up on the treadmill before you start Serendipity. The tempo of 120 steps per minute supports a brisk walk, and, depending on stride length, that could mean any speed from about three miles per hour to five miles per hour. When you push PLAY, you'll hear the 5/2 breath cycles at the 120 tempo, and your first concern should be to match the CD exactly by adjusting your stride length, the treadmill speed, or both. Breathe and walk with the sounds, and you're off on your serendipitous journey.

Serendipity Voice Weaves

Serendipity is the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not
sought for. It's a personal magnetism for pleasant surprises. The word comes from the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip, the heroes of which kept making happy, useful, and unexpected discoveries.

We believe Serendipity is the perfect title for this first BreathPlay CD. It's surprising in the first place to find that such a fundamental change in breathing works at all. It's even more surprising that it works so well in so many different ways--all the way from the body acme of physical performance through the soul salve of relaxation to the mind zenith of creativity.

A Personal Environment of Sound

The Serendipity CD creates a personal environment of sound by combining three elements: the breathing, the voice weaves, and the BreathMusic.

The outbreath and inbreath sounds are distinctly different from each other. While both are stepped, the outbreath sounds are a pressurized hissing and the inbreath sounds are a relaxed aahing. The hissing reflects the use of pursed-lips to partially block the outflowing air and thus to create backpressure within the lungs. The steps in the sound, "sss-sss-sss-sss-sss," help you get the footsteps and the breathing working together. The inbreath aahing sounds reflect the relaxation of the pursed lips pressurization to allow the effortless inbreath, opening the airways so that fresh air can enter all by itself. Like the outbreath "sss-sss-sss-sss-sss," the inbreath "aa-aah" is stepped, to help you get the footsteps and the breathing working together.

As the voice weaves provide you with breath-by-breath bite-sized bits of coaching, they also reinforce both the breathing patterns and the step tempo by weaving the words into the steps of the breathing sounds. The words are whispered because we've found that whispered words open the way into the natural trance that BreathPlay creates, whereas spoken words tend to distract. If you listen closely, you'll notice that the inbreath voice weaves are actually whispered while breathing in. It's a subtle detail, but it's all part of giving you skill-building cues. While you're responding to the voice weaves, you'll find that you can counter the established
active-inbreathing habits with the active-outbreathing skills of BreathPlay. When you've been BreathPlaying long enough, you may find, as many have, that your new skills have become your new habit.

Carlton Williamson's BreathMusic is a unique musical form, organized as it is not structurally, around the bars and time signatures of traditional music, but organically, around the patterns and tempos of BreathPlay. When you first hear it, you might appreciate it simply as a delightful accompaniment to breathing and walking, but repeated responsive listening will reveal how wonderfully it supports learning the BreathPlay patterns. The BreathMusic is beautiful, but not merely decorative. It's an integral part of the learning process. It helps your body and mind dial in to BreathPlay by giving you a wealth of additional learning cues.

Acoustic Energy

These three elements of BreathPlay combine to give you a personal
environment of pure acoustic energy. As you let that energy breathe you and move you, you'll find that it keeps giving you those pleasant serendipitous surprises.

Because some of the voice weaves are so close in meaning to others that further explanation would not add understanding, this review does not contain every single one of them. However, they are in sequence for ease of reference, and the time of first appearance is indicated. If you familiarize yourself with them, you'll create a deeper appreciation of the skills you're building. You'll also find it easier to identify the words as you hear them. In spite of our best efforts to ensure that the words are clear and easy to follow, we believe it's worthwhile to review, so that you'll recognize a
meaning you might otherwise have missed.

The first goal to set is to listen to the entire CD, responding to each voice weave as you hear it. Once you've succeeded in doing that, you can venture beyond the basics into intermediate and advanced levels of skill. Ian Jackson, the creator of the BreathPlay model, has been exploring this realm for over 25 years, and continues to talk about his ongoing discoveries with refreshing enthusiasm. In other words, there seems to be no limit to BreathPlay explorations. Wherever you go, there you are, able to go deeper
and further.

Voice Weaves / Times

Ou-ou-ou-ou-out / ii-in 00:17
The first voice weave sets the basic BreathPlay pattern of active outbreaths and passive inbreaths. If you listen closely, you may be able to tell that the inbreath voice weave is whispered on an inbreath. All the inbreath voice weaves are whispered on inbreaths.

Make-your-out-breath-strong / ---- 00:49
The outbreath is not just active, but strongly active.

Breathe-ing-with-the-sounds / let-in 01:13
A key to dialing in with the BreathPlay CDs is the breathing sounds. Notice that the sounds are stepped rather than steady. Instead of "ououououout / iiin," you'll be hearing "ou-ou-ou-ou-out / ii-in." The steps in the sound help build the skill of fitting the footsteps into the breathing patterns; in this case, five steps for the outbreath and two steps for the inbreath.

Pull-your-bel-ly-back / air-in 01:17
The pullback of the abdominal wall displaces the abdominal contents back towards the spine and up against the underside of the diaphragm, creating a greater upward doming of the diaphragm, and thus a greater outbreath (and consequently, inbreath) volume.

Breath-ing-drives-your-steps / ---- 01:27
Step-ing-drives-your-breaths / ---- 01:31
The stepped breathing sounds help establish the tempo of the footsteps, and the footsteps help set the tempo of the breathing patterns. After BreathPlay skills are developed, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell whether breathing is driving movement or movement is driving breathing. Breathing and movement become seamlessly integrated.

One-two-three-four-five / six-sevn 01:41
Some people find the count especially helpful in recognizing the repeating outbreath/inbreath patterns. Notice that the "six-sevn" is whispered on an inbreath, and that the seven is pronounced as the one-syllable word "sevn." Notice also that the emphasis is on the first, middle, and last steps of the five-step outbreath. Those three accented steps are all on the same foot, and that same foot changes from one outbreath to the next. If footsteps one, three, and five fall on the left foot in one breath cycle, they will fall on the right foot in the next breath cycle.

Push-your-out-breath-out / re-lax 01:55
This voice weave reinforces the activity of the outbreath and the passivity of the inbreath. Because the active inbreath is virtually universal "taking a breath" sounds natural to us, whereas the active-outbreath equivalent, "pushing a breath," does not.

Five-steps-breath-ing-out / re-lax 01:58
This voice weave reinforces the outbreath count and the inbreath relaxation. It takes practice to build the skill of metering the outflow of air so that each step pushes out about one fifth of the full lung volume. It takes more practice to learn the further skill refinement of pushing out a little less than one fifth with each step, thus leaving extra volume for a decisive increase in outbreath force on the fifth and final step.

Give-your-out-breath-out / re-ceive 02:23
This voice weave brings out the giving/receiving balance in the breath cycle. You make the outbreath happen, and you let the inbreath happen. By pairing giving and receiving, the voice weave presents a refreshing perspective on breathing and a metaphoric hint of the balance of giving and receiving in life.

Breath-ing-act-ive-out / re-lax 02:54
This voice weave reinforces the activity of the outbreath and the passivity of the inbreath. The active outbreath is actually easier to learn than the passive inbreath. We are habituated to working for our inbreath, and our use of language reflects this, as in the commonly heard urging to "Take a deep breath."

Out-breath-e-ner-gy / ---- 03:33
Breath-Play-en-er-gy / re-lax 03:47
Breath-ing-en-er-gy / re-lax 03:51
The outbreath, with practice, feels more and more like a focusing and expressing of energy. As you gain skill, you'll actually be able to sense a subtle surge in your walking movement with each outbreath, and you'll experience each inbreath as a relaxing and recharging phase. You let the energy in with the inbreath and you literally ex-press it on the outbreath, as you push or press it out.

Fo-cus-on-the-sounds / re-lax 04:15
Way-deep-in-the-sounds / re-lax 04:44
Let-your-self-go-deep / ---- 04:57
The combination of the breathing sounds, the voice weaves, and Carlton Williamson's BreathMusic, will tend to create a natural trance state, in which you move with clear rhythmic focus while developing a state of deep relaxation.

Hear-it-in-your-mind / air-in 05:25
Ech-oh-in-your-mind / air-in 05:53
Most voice weaves are followed by at least two measures of breathing sounds. The best way to tap into the CDs acoustic energy is to listen responsively. Once you've used the CD enough times, you'll become increasingly familiar with the voice weaves and their sequence. You'll be able to focus on building the skill described in each voice weave as you hear it. In the measures with no voice weaves, you can repeat the most recent voice weave to yourself, creating an echo of it in your mind.

Make-the-bel-ly-strong / re-lax 07:10
Make-it-flat-and-strong / ---- 07:14
Bell-ly-flat-and-strong / re-lax 07:17
This cluster of voice weaves focuses on the body shaping effect of the active outbreath. In pushing air out by pulling your belly back, you are using each outbreath to trim your waistline.

Watch-the-fives-switch-sides / six-seven 08:03
Out-two-three-four-five / ---- 08:06
Out-two-three-four-five / ---- 08:10
All the BreathPlay patterns take an odd number of steps for the complete breath cycle. The Serendipity CD repeats a 5/2 outbreath/inbreath pattern throughout. Each complete breath cycle takes seven steps, and the odd-step count ensures that each breath cycle ends on the opposite side from the one that precedes it and the one that follows it. By switching sides with each breath cycle, you create balance in movement.

You-can-make-it-work / re-lax 09:16
You-can-make-it-play / re-lax 09:20
This pair of voice weaves encourages you both to succeed in building the BreathPlay skill and to build it playfully.

Learn-ing-with-your-breath / air-in 08:31
Play-ing-with-your-breath / air-in 10:12
Fo-cus-with-your-breath / re-lax 10:26
Ba-lance-with-your-breath / re-lax 11:08
Po-wer-with-your-breath / air-in 11:50
This cluster of breath weaves emphasizes that your BreathPlaying gives you much more than mere air supply. It provides an ongoing learning experience that continues to develop your body awareness. Again, the learning has that playful quality that marks the natural learning of childhood. Although it's playful, this learning provides serious benefits, including increasing the ability to concentrate. The odd-count breath cycles automatically bring about balance by ensuring that each breath ends on the opposite side of the body than the one that preceded it and the one that will follow it. The
BreathPlay outbreath trains the body's core musculature so effectively that power and skill are optimized.

Each-breath-switch-es-sides / six-sevn 12:46
Fo-cus-on-the-five / switch-sides 13:00
This voice weave pair provides an opportunity to clarify your sense of the way each breath cycle automatically switches sides. By focusing on step five, the last outbreath step of each cycle, it's easy to follow the way it switches from one foot to the other. This voice weave puts the focus on the fifth and final outbreath step of the seven-step breath cycle. This fifth step, the completion step of the of the outbreath, sets up the passive inbreath of the sixth and seventh steps as a rebound of that final force.

All-air-out-on-five / air-in 13:32
A basic BreathPlay skill is the ability to meter the airflow of the outbreath steps so that there's enough air left to put a strong sense of finality into ßthe feel and sound of the last outbreath step.

Watch-the-fives-switch-sides / re-lax 15:43
Fo-cus-on-the-five / re-lax 15:38
This reinforces the automatic body balancing set up by the odd-count BreathPlay patterns. Actually, you can watch any step in the breath cycle switching sides; however, the last step of the outbreath tends naturally to have the most forceful airflow.

Pull-your-na-vel-back / re-lease 16:48
Nav-el-back-and-down / ---- 17:05
Nav-el-back-straight back / let-go 17:16
Nav-el-back-and-up / ---- 17:30
Back-and-up-ribs-in / ---- 17:34
The navel progression helps you refine your outbreath effort. Instead of pulling back the abdominal wall as an undifferentiated muscular mass, you practice a progressive sequencing, from low in the abdominal wall, step by step upward, to include the ribcage. Many people find it surprising how easy it is to pull the navel back in the three directions (back and down, straight back, back and up). Pulling the navel back and up gives a hint of the feeling of pulling the lower ribs in.

Pull-your-bel-ly-back / ---- 19:07
Pull-it-back-some-more / ---- 19:11
Pull-back-e-ven-more / ---- 19:15
At first, it's an achievement simply to reverse the breathing effort by using the pullback of the abdominal wall to push the outbreath out. Once that pattern is established, though, the next step is to practice it with more force and more precision, so that the work of breathing out actually builds strength and definition in the abdominal muscles. When you're responding to the BreathPlay music and voice weaves, you're not only elevating breathing beyond mere air supply, you're also elevating walking beyond mere locomotion. Walking becomes a way of building physical strength within the body's core
musculature. Along with the muscular strength, there's the mental strength of coordinating skills by focusing them on that core.

Bel-ly-flat-ribs-in / ---- 19:25
Bel-ly-back-ribs-in / ---- 19:32
Lo-wer-ribs-pull-in / re-lease 19:43
Lo-wer-ribs-pull-back / let-go 18:46
Ribs-pull-in-and-back / re-lease 19:50

Spinal Breathing
Flattening the belly and pulling in the ribcage are the first and second parts of a three-stage outbreath that stretches the spine. If you let the muscular momentum of pulling back the abdominal wall continue naturally upward, the insqueezing of the ribcage becomes the next step. It creates an additional upward excursion of the diaphragm, furthering the work of the abdominal wall. In teaching this refinement, I've usually held my hand up for BreathPlay workshop participants, pointing out the imaginary playing card between my thumb and forefinger. I then bring thumb and forefinger together, asking what they imagine happening to the playing card. "It bends up," is the usual reply. So then I ask what happens to the diaphragm as the belly wall pulls back. "It domes up." And when you then insqueeze the ribcage? "It domes up more." So the active pullback of the abdominal wall creates an increased excursion of the diaphragm up into the chest cavity, and then the
insqueezing of the ribcage further increases the volume of the outbreath by creating an even greater upward excursion of the diaphragm.

Too much effort for too little return? Maybe, but maybe not. BreathPlay practice does more than just coordinating the work of the primary and accessory respiratory muscles, more than just recruiting the abdominal wall to support the work of the diaphragm. It also builds the same extraordinarily dynamic torso classical dance training builds -- that is, the ballet torso, with its extraordinary development of the torso's core musculature. Each outbreath is, in essence, a spinal stretch.

It's not necessary to take the active outbreath this far, but doing so makes each outbreath part of a process that builds both core strength and core skill. When using BreathPlay as part of a training process, you occasionally enter periods of deliberate overexertion on the outbreath, as a kind of interval training (like a BreathPlay fartlek). You work the outbreath so hard for so long that you push the muscles of the abdominal wall to the fatigue point. You use this BreathPlay fartlek in training but you use a different kind BreathPlay to generate a winning edge in a race. You focus on working with precision and power that your competitors can't match, taking
advantage of the core strength and skill you've built to play the BreathPlay patterns with the utmost economy of effort.

The lumbar stretch is obvious, because the pulling back of the abdominal wall tends to lift the anterior portion of the pelvis, so that the lower back flattens as the belly flattens. The cervical stretch is not so obvious, but refined BreathPlay completes the outbreath with a slight tucking of the chin. Think of the occiput moving up slightly at the last count of the outbreath. So the outbreath begins with a subtle pelvic tilt that brings the pubic bone up towards the chin, and ends with a subtle skull tilt that brings the chin down towards the pubic bone. The result is a complete spinal stretch, moving from bottom to the top, from sacrum to skull, over and over, with each outbreath. With each inbreath, the spinal stretch is relaxed.

Think of the contraction of the ribcage as the middle part of this spinal stretch. We have the pelvis, the ribcage, and skull, attached at the bottom, the middle, and the top of the spine. The BreathPlay outbreath starts the stretch at the bottom with the initial abdominal contraction, continues the stretch through the middle with the ribcage contraction, and completes the stretch at the top with that subtle skull movement.

Again, too much effort for too little return? I think not. As I've pointed out in other contexts, BreathPlay elevates the breathing process beyond mere air supply. It helps the torso muscles gain strength and dynamic functionality. The core structure of the body comes alive through the function of breathing. Each outbreath stretches the spine from bottom to top and each inbreath releases that stretch. This is so central to my conception that I once considered calling BreathPlay "Spinal Breathing."

You know how gravity helps create the rebound inbreath? The active outbreath displaces the viscera, pushing that mass of tissue and fluid back towards the spine and up against the underside of the diaphragm. It's real work, because that mass is upwardly displaced against the downpull of gravity. When the belly is released, of course, gravity pulls it all back down, and the diaphragm follows.

A similar rebound effect occurs with the insqueezing of the ribcage. You literally use muscle to bend bone here, and, like the bent wood of a bow when you release the bowstring, the bone springs back when you release the insqueezing muscles. The rebound relaxing of the abdominal wall, the effortless flattening of the diaphragm, and the rebound release of the ribcage are all interconnected parts of the passive BreathPlay inbreath.

The voice weaves "Pull-your-ears-straight-up" or "Push-your-ears-straight-up" will begin to make sense when you connect them with the full spinal stretch. Those particular voice weaves help insure that the chin tuck does not degenerate into a forward tilt of the skull. When you think "Pull your ears up" along with "tuck your chin," you get the subtle movement that completes the spinal stretch with a slight cervical flattening. Think lumbar flattening with pulling the belly back, thoracic flattening with pulling the ribcage in, and cervical flattening with pulling the ears up.

One of the most common mistakes I've seen in beginners practicing the active outbreath is what's commonly known as the abdominal crunch. They crunch the ribcage down towards the pelvis, usually with an accompanying forward lean. I give these "crunchers" the corrective image of the two ways to squeeze water out of a sponge. You can either crush (crunch) the sponge or stretch it. Crushing the sponge is the most obvious way of squeezing the water out, but you can also take a hold of both ends of the sponge and stretch it by pulling them strongly apart. The water will get squeezed out by the stretching, just as surely as by the crushing.

So the BreathPlay outbreath works in many ways. It pushes air out by pulling back the abdominal wall. It further pushes air out by contracting the ribcage. It even further pushes air out by stretching the spine...

Pull-your-shoul-ders-down / re-lax 20:14
Squeeze-your-bu-tocks-tight / re-lax 20:17
Out-breath-tuck-your-tail / let-go 20:32
Out-breath-tail-bone-tuck / rock-back 20:36
The neck and shoulder muscles tend to tighten as stress and fatigue build up. You can release that tightness by using your outbreath to pull your shoulders down as you stretch your neck up. Release the stretch and downpull with each inbreath. The alternation of stretch and relaxation will tend to dissolve the tension. Squeezing the buttocks tends to reinforce the outbreath flattening of the abdominal wall, and both tent to tuck the tailbone. When you release the squeezing and the flattening, the tailbone will rock back.

Squeeze-your-bu-tocks-small / air-in 20:21
You can help yourself build BreathPlay skill by imagining that your lungs are in your buttocks, so that squeezing them small squeezes the air out. A common party toy is a tightly rolled paper tube that straightens out as you blow into it and rolls itself back up as you let the air out. If you imagine that air squeezed air out of your buttocks is channeled into your spine, like the air blown into the rolled tube, it will reinforce the idea of the outbreath stretching and lengthening the spine.

Shoul-ders-down-ears-up / let-go 21:17
Ears-up-shoul-ders-down / re-lease 21:21
This is a subtle movement, and yet it can generate very obvious stretch sensations in the neck and shoulder region. Think of the two actions in opposition-the ears pushing up and away from the shoulders, and the shoulders pushing down and away from the ears.

Shoul-ders-down-chin-tuck / re-lax 21:45
Ears-up-tuck-your-chin / re-lax 21:49
You stretch the upper part of the spine by pushing the back of the head straight up. The chin tuck creates a slight rotation of the skull which stretches the neck without titling the head forward.

Five-steps-stretch-your-spine / re-lease 22:38
Ears-up-stretch-your-neck / ---- 21:52
This is the first invitation to sense the entire spine stretching upwards over the five steps of the outbreath.

Out-breath-keeps-you-strong / ---- 29:03
Breath-Play-keeps-you-strong / ---- 29:06
This pair of voice weaves gives a general positive affirmation about the long-term effects of continuing to build BreathPlay skills. If you practice on a regular basis, your skills will become so well established, you'll find yourself using them throughout the day in a variety of situations.

Act-iv-ate-your-spine / re-lax 32:33
See-your-spine-glow-bright / re-lax 32:36
This voice weave pair hints at the way BreathPlay can be used to develop the ability to project imagery into the body.

En-ner-gy-in-sound / re-lax 36:10
This voice weave is a general affirmation of the acoustic energy the CD gives you. As you listen responsively to the CD, breathing and moving with it throughout, the combination of breathing sounds, BreathMusic, and the voice weaves will work as an energy source for you. When you finish, your body will feel charged up with energy, not depleted and drained. You'll come to appreciate the CD as a reliable companion.

Beyond the Basics: Weaving live voice weaves into the recorded voice weaves.

One of the many voice weave pairs is "Make-your but-tocks-tight / re-lax.
Make-your-but-tocks-small / air-in." The first times you breathe your way through the CD, you can simply incorporate those actions into your BreathPlay. As you'll discover, the CD works naturally to bring about a state of responsive listening--that is, listening with your body instead of just your ears, responding to the bite-sized bits of coaching input by doing what you hear.

Once you've got the basics down, though, you can take your BreathPlaying to deeper levels. You interact with the voice weaves on the CD, sometimes inserting your own voice weaves into breath cycles that are without words, and sometimes inserting your own weaves on top of the existing weaves.

For instance, I've been playing with what I call the party toy image. I
bring up visual memories of the traditional party toy that's a tube of rolled up paper with a cardboard mouthpiece at one end. I imagine the tube unrolling and straightening out as I blow air into it. I play with the image, using the 5/2 out/in pattern to time the unrolling and the rolling back up. Five outbreath steps for the unrolling (straightening out), and two inbreath steps for the rolling back up. I play with the image so that it's as if I'm holding the mouthpiece in my mouth as I walk.

Then I imagine that my lungs are in my buttocks, so that as I respond to the voice weaves "Make-your but-tocks-tight / re-lax. Make-your-but-tocks-small / air-in," I'm forcing air out of my contracting buttocks and into my hollow spine, making it flatten its curves as it inflates in a way reminiscent of the party toy unrolling as it inflates. So the outbreath air inflates the spine, flattening its curves and stretching it tall.

At the same time, I overlay another voice weave, "Pull-your-shoul-ders-down / re-lax." I use my imagination to connect the overlay voice weave with the "Make-your-but-tocks-small / air-in" voice weave by visualizing the buttocks contracting into themselves, the butt cheeks dimpling in with the contraction, thus pulling down non-stretch cords attached to the center of the butt cheeks at the bottom end and to imaginary football-style shoulder pads at the top end.

So the contraction of the buttocks is simultaneously activating two opposing actions -- the upstretching of the spine and the downpulling of the shoulders. It's really fascinating the way those opposing actions seem to clarify each other.