tools: USING THE TOOLS

BreathPlay CDs

The BreathPlay CDs provide breath-by-breath AcoustiCoaching in a variety of tempos and breathing patterns. You'll hear hissing outbreath sounds and aahing inbreath sounds setting up a basic tempo beat. For instance, with the 5/2 breathing pattern (five steps out, two steps in) you'll hear "sss-sss-sss-sss-sss / aah-aah". You'll also hear, woven into the breathing patterns, the BreathPlay refrains, or voice-weaves, which help build the skills and reinforce the learning.

"Ou-ou-ou-ou-out / ii-in" The outbreath and inbreath sounds are not smooth and steady, but rhythmically stepped. The steps in the breathing sounds match the tempo beats of the footsteps. Simply fit your steps to the tempo and match your breathing to the breathing sounds, bringing breathing and movement together.

"Make-your-out-breath-strong"
The active outbreath is the central BreathPlay skill.

"Make-your-bel-ly-strong"
You push your air out by pulling back your abdominal wall.

"Pull-your-bel-ly-back"
When you pull your belly strongly back for each outbreath, you build strength in your belly.

"Push-your-air-all-out / re-lax"
The more air you push out, the more air returns. You relax for the inbreath, letting it happen. Skill in active outbreathing comes quickly for most people. It takes longer to master passive inbreathing.

"Five-steps-breath-ing-out"
It doesn't take long to build skill in metering your breathing so that if fits with the step count.

"Make-your-bel-ly-flat"
This flattening of your belly on each outbreath helps whittle your waistline.

"Breath-ing-out-your-steps
Step-ping-out-your-breaths"
The more you practice BreathPlay, the more breathing supports moving, and the more moving supports breathing. Breathing and moving become so deeply integrated, it's not clear which is driving which.

"Give-your-out-breath-out / re-ceive"
This inbreath voice-weave emphasizes the passive inbreath. You receive your inbreath, rather than taking it.

"You-can-make-it-work / re-lax
You-can-make-it-play / re-lax"
You can master this skill, and you can have fun along the way.

"Each-breath-switch-es-sides"
If you focus on the fifth count in successive breath cycles, you'll notice the switching sides. The BreathPlay breath cycles all take an odd number of steps, like the 5/2 seven-step cycle, and the 6/3 nine-step cycle. This is a built-in balancing feature, ensuring that each side of the body is equally stressed.

"Pull-your-na-vel-back / re-lease"
This focus on the navel is the first hint of the precision in the active
outbreathing skill.

"Nav-el-back-and-down / let-go
Nav-el-back-straight back / let-go
Nav-el-back-and-up / let-go"
Focus on the navel, and try to pull it back and down, then straight back, then back and up You may not notice it at first, but keep playing with it and you'll find that these three ways of pulling back generate three distinctly different feelings.

"Pull-your-bel-ly-back / re-lease
Pull-it-back-some-more / re-lease
Pull-back-e-ven-more / re-lax"
The BreathPlay active outbreath is a much more complex skill than you might at first imagine. With continued practice, you'll master a number of ways of pushing air out, each with different benefits.

"Bel-ly-flat-ribs-in / re-lease
Push-your-air-all-out / air-in
Bel-ly-back-ribs-in / re-lease"
Pulling the belly back creates a slight pelvic tilt, which stretches the
lower back. Letting that pullback move upwards into the ribcage pushes more air out and moves the spinal stretch from the lower into the upper back.

"Lo-wer-ribs-pull-in / re-lease
Lo-wer-ribs-pull-back / let-go
Ribs-pull-in-and-back / re-lease"
Pulling in the lower ribs develops an unusual strength and control and integrates the work of the downward-pulling intercostals with the abdominal muscles. On the inbreath, these bent ribs spring back like a bow on the release of the bowstring, helping the belly to pop forward and the diaphragmto drop down.

"Pull-your-shoul-ders-down / re-lax"
One of the most common symptoms of stress is neck and shoulder tension. Pulling the shoulders down on the outbreath is an easy and effective way to release this chronic tension.

"Out-breath-tuck-your-tail / let-go
Out-breath-tail-bone-tuck / rock-back"
Pulling the belly back tends to pull the pubic bone up, thus tilting the pelvis and tucking the tailbone. The pelvis rocks back when you relax.

"Squeeze-your-bu-tocks-tight / 0-0
Squeeze-your-bu-tocks-small / air-in"
Squeezing the buttocks tends to increase the abdominal contraction and to help flatten the lower back.

"Shoul-ders-down-ears-up / let-go
Ears-up-shoul-ders-down / re-lease"
When you push your ears straight up, away from your down pulling shoulders, you stretch your neck, completing the spinal stretch.

"Shoul-ders-down-chin-tuck / re-lax
Ears-up-tuck-your-chin / re-lax"
The chin tuck is a subtle but powerful part of the complete spinal stretch. It's the top-of-spine equivalent to the pelvic tilt.

"Ears-up-stretch-your-neck / re-lax"
Pushing your ears straight up stretches your neck. The BreathPlay outbreath stretches the spine from bottom to top.

"Five-steps-stretch-your-spine / re-lease"
This stretch is subtle, but since it repeats with each outbreath, it has a deeply relaxing and energizing effect. Think of a slight flattening of the spinal curves- first lumbar, then thoracic, then cervical.

"Ac-tiv-ate-your-spine / 0-0"
One of the key features of BreathPlay is the use of breathing to mobilize the spine.

"See-your-spine-glow-bright / re-lax"
This demonstrates the use of BreathPlay patterns to project images into the body.

"Pull-your-bel-ly-back / re-lease
Pull-it-back-some-more / re-lease
Pull-back-e-ven-more /re-lease
Make-it-hol-low-out / 0-0"
With repeated BreathPlay sessions, you'll gradually learn how to put more strength into the pullback of the abdominal wall, and you'll be building even more strength by doing so.




Dear Ian:

I'm writing to give you my feedback after having worked a few months with the zooming and serendipity CDs.

Both CDs are very nice. I'm surprised (really) to notice that the music doesn't tire after running the CDs over and over again. It's not boring, it's not loud in your face, it's interesting music that nearly everybody finds pleasant to listen to. Very clever.

My goal is not to make me 30 seconds faster or better. My goal is to fully enjoy the experience of working to stay in shape. The CDs help to keep the mind focussed, they help to keep the mind listening to the body and I believe that this process helps me to better enjoy the training. I find myself on the lifecycle following the zooming process but sometimes I switch my mind to my back and move a bit to feel the response in my back. I don't try to stop this process of switching attention to different parts of the body, from breathing to the back and to the legs, and back to breathing. I believe the zooming CDs help this process, as they are always there to take me back to the controlled mind/body breathing process. I also find that even though I may be working a bit on back position, when I return to the music, most of the times I'm still synchronized. Apparently, the synching with zooming tapes takes also place at a more subconscious level if I keep my mind on listening to my body. When I start thinking about completely different things, such as watching the overhead TV sets, then the synch gets lost and the controlled breathing process falls apart.

I've also found that the serendipity CD works very well with the elliptic treadmill machines. In contrast to regular treadmills, you're always in contact with the elliptic machine and you can easily set the resistance to get to any desired target HR. The big advantage is that you can close your eyes on the elliptic machine, which you cannot do on the treadmill (if you go at a reasonable speed).

I continue to be pleasantly surprised by how well the BreathPlay techniques mesh with the book (breathworks by Nancy Swayzee) that I mentioned earlier and with the Pilates technique. As I have a back condition (spondylolisthesis), I'm always looking for techniques to improve lumbar stabilization and the BreathPlay CDs allow me to work cardiovascularly in combination with attention to lumbar stabilization. For a long time I've assumed cycling worked only the legs (and buttocks), but now I see that complete trunk stabilization and proper exercises for the breathing mechanism can be combined within one bike ride. This makes cycling to the BreathPlay CDs actually a very well rounded form of exercise. The other issue that is big in BreathPlay as well as in breathworks and Pilates is concentration/awareness on what you're doing. I feel that the Zooming CD facilitates this process.

At one point you sent me an email on your experience as a beginning dancer where you discussed the idea of getting deeper and deeper understanding of the same movements. I really liked that discussion and I find it one of the key applications of the Zooming/Serendipity CDs--to facilitate this kind of mind/body connection. Not just with respect to breathing but also beyond.

You mentioned to me that you are in the process of trying to bring the BreathPlay technique (at reduced pace) to a larger audience. I very much support this effort. In my opinion, the BreathPlay technique has more to offer than any of the complex machines currently available in fitness stores. I think that the key to progressing in fitness training, whether for competition or weight loss, is improving awareness and concentration on the play between mind and body when you move. BreathPlay is a great facilitator
for this process. An analogy comes to my mind here. In an effort to lose weight, many people jump from one diet to the next, hoping to eventually hit the perfect weight loss diet. Similarly, with the same goal in mind, weight loss for instance, new workout machines are being introduced every week, each one promising even faster and better results. Apparently we're supposed to hate physical training and it has to be done as quickly as possible, preferable completed with an absent mind. The BreathPlay CDs asks the user to reach beyond mindless repetition. They ask for attentive listening and
active breath-by-breath response. However, for that very reason, they offer remarkable and long lasting benefits. Perhaps the greatest benefit is that they help create such a deep enjoyment of movement and breathing that the user is strongly motivated to stay active. We all know that diet and exercise are necessary for weight loss. Because they make fitness activity appealing and enjoyable, the BreathPlay CDs can help weight loss by making the exercise part easy.

Best regards,

Dr. Bert de Vries