A Regulating Breath Practice I Learned From My Dog
Have you ever tried a fancy pants breath practice that was supposed to help you center and ground but left you feeling more disconnected with your body and breath than when you started?
If this is something you even secretly struggle with, I would love to share a profoundly regulating breathing practice that I learned from my 85-pound Rottie that helped me fall in love completely with breathwork.
As a non-linear thinker, I struggled with structured breath practices until my dog, Raspberry, shared her breathwork wisdom
Every breathwork practice I’ve tried, including those taught in meditation and yoga classes, would leave me feeling like a shitty failure…
No matter what I did, I couldn’t align my breath with the teacher’s counting.
I’d be inhaling when I was supposed to be exhaling.
Or, I was chronically behind because it takes me longer than others to shift from fight/flight/freeze breathing to deeper belly breathing.
Sometimes breath practices would almost feel like a TEST, and I would fail it, every time.
I have to admit I felt relief the first time a friend shared they felt the same way. I was like, “Huh? I’m not the only one?” Since then, other friends have even shared that they have been told by meditation teachers that they breathed “wrong”. Have you ever felt this way?
Professional Silly-Billy and Breath Master, Raspberry, demonstrating one of her favorite ways to practice “Counter Pressure Breathing” to relax her spine
A dog’s wisdom for reducing somatic anxiety
Raspberry was a LARGE AND IN CHARGE, 85-pound Rottweiler who LOVED hugs. When she was still alive, several times a day, she would shove the door to my office open with her big ol’ head and shuffle in, and flop onto the office rug and ask for hugs.
She took her midday floor hugs seriously.
While we hugged it out, this girl loved as much pressure on her body as possible. Raspberry lived with a fair amount of somatic anxiety and she would ask for as tight a squeeze as I could give her to help her regulate and calm herself. It worked beautifully - for both of us.
It was during one of our floor hugs that Raspberry taught me about a technique she called counter-pressure breathing. Counter-pressure breathing (according to Raspberry the dog) was what she would do to create healthy somatic pressure to help her regulate herself. She’d create this effect by laying on the floor and sensing the fluctuating internal and external pressure she felt within her body and against her body with each and every breath.
Counter-pressure breathing helped Raspberry ground into her center and calm herself when she felt anxious. And I’ve got to tell you, it feels freaking fantastic.
If you struggle feeling like you breathe wrong, or perhaps find yourself holding your breath as an effort to just get stuff done, or if you could simply use a moment to calm and ground right now, I’d love to share Raspberry’s counter-pressure breath practice with you. It’s truly a breath practice for people who hate breath practices.
There’s no counting.
There’s no fixed inhaling or exhaling.
And there certainly isn’t any outside pace or rhythm you need to try to keep up with.
Instead, it’s about you simply witnessing your breath as it does what it does best.
Raspberry’s Counter Pressure Breathing Technique
* * I’ve recorded this practice and it will be available soon on Insight Timer. Be sure to follow me on the app to get an update when it’s ready for you! **
In honor of Master Breath teacher, Raspberry, if you are able and moved to do so, I invite you to lay on the floor for this practice. Find a comfy spot and if you have an animal friend nearby, even better :)
As you settle in for this practice, I’d love to remind you that your breath knows how to breathe.
Your job can be to simply witness its wild, slightly chaotic, beautifully unique-to-you rhythm.
There’s no need to force breath. There’s no need to even breathe deeper; your breath is free to do what it does best.
Give your breath artistic license to create its own perfectly unique pace, flow and depth.
Give breath permission to dance within you, with your lungs, your heart, and your muscles.
Sense your breath’s rhythm moving through your body.
Sense into what opens within you as you inhale.
Sense into what releases within you as you exhale.
Sense into the internal pressure created by your breath,
along the insides of your ribcage,
along edges of your organs,
and along the front of your spine,
When you feel ready, shift your inner listening to notice the pressure created between your body and the floor as you breath, naturally, calmly.
Explore what you can do to surrender to this counterpressure.
Let it help you notice and define the edges of your body, and the support from the floor, from the earth below you.
Let this pressure you can sense wrap you like a soothing, loving hug, drawing you closer to your center and the here and now.
Stay as long as you’d like here in this centered place and simply witness the extraordinary beauty of this movement created by your breath,
Let its rhythm teach you about your body, your spirit and their deep love affair with one another.
