Waking Energy 7 Timeless Practices Designed to Reboot Your Body and Unleash Your Potential

can do this, know that you’ve arrived at an exceptional starting point where breath and energy become
one.
So what distinguishes deep, natural, optimal breathing from ordinary, everyday breathing? The
diaphragm, the workhorse of the body’s breathing mechanism. The deep, diaphragmatic breathing
you’ll perform in the practices will stretch and strengthen this resilient, flexible muscular membrane
in addition to strengthening your abdominal muscles and invigorating your internal organs with a
vital, age-defying massage.
The diaphragm sits beneath the lungs and above the organs of the abdomen, between the upper, or
thoracic, and the lower, abdominal, cavities of the torso. It attaches at the base of the ribs, the spine,
and the sternum. Breathing, formally called ventilation, consists of two phases, inspiration and
expiration. Every time the lungs expand in a deep breath during inspiration, or inhalation, the
diaphragm contracts, forming into a dome shape and descending into the abdomen. Because air
always flows from a region of higher pressure to an area of lower pressure, it travels in through the
body’s conducting airways, the nostrils, throat, larynx, and trachea into the alveoli of the lungs,
causing thoracic volume to increase and pressure to fall, drawing air into the lungs. The external
intercostal muscles that run between the ribs pull the lungs up and outward, expanding the rib cage,
further increasing this chest volume. Almost all the muscles in the upper part of your body, from the
muscles in your upper neck, starting at the occiput, the base of the skull, and going all the way down
to your lower back and sacrum, participate in the breathing process.
Each time you inhale, the muscles of the neck and shoulders help to lift the rib cage in order to
accommodate the lung’s expansion. During expiration, when the lungs contract in an exhalation, the
diaphragm expands and rises into the chest cavity, and the external intercostal muscles relax, restoring
the thoracic cavity to its original smaller volume and forcing air out of the lungs into the atmosphere.
When you arrive at the first Waking Energy practice, Awaken and Play, you’ll have an opportunity
to practice deep, diaphragmatic breathing and use it as the baseline for all the other breathing
techniques you’ll learn as you move through the Waking Energy Way.
Feeling Your Rhythms: Breathing in the Practices
How fortunate are we that nature gifted us with this most flexible and adaptable design? Breathing is
unique when compared to the other functions of the body, because even though it operates
automatically, it can also be consciously controlled. This ability gives us endless flexibility both
physically and mentally in the way we live our lives—what we choose to do with our bodies and
how much we’re able to live life, how we experience life moment to moment.
There are as many different ways to breathe as there are to dance, each with its own rhythm,
depth, beat, and style, each directly affecting your state of mind, your emotions, and the health of your
body. In your Waking Energy adventure, your breath will be your most powerful ally, your faithful
companion, and the most accurate compass as you navigate each modality along your way. The
Waking Energy Way will help you to fully exploit the breath, taking an already brilliant design and
supercharging it, amplifying its already prodigious power to heal, enliven, restore, and empower.
Your mind is naturally attracted to rhythm, and it’s the rhythm, the speed and volume of the breath,