Understanding the Anatomy of Breath and Breathing

Humans can profoundly affect their vitality and well-being through understanding how body and breath connect. This chapter explores breath’s relationship with the physical body, as it moves and pulses with the breath, is imbued by its energy, and houses its vitality. Vitality and life force express themselves in the body as movement, essential to the human capacity to take action, learn, play, communicate, build relationships, and be in community. An optimal reciprocity between body and breath is essential to human health, resilience, and thriving. The chapter explores how breath and human anatomy interact, starting with a thorough review of respiratory anatomy, from the nose to the alveoli and tissues. It links respiratory anatomy to respiratory biomechanics to create a detailed understanding of how various structures have to collaborate for wholesome breathing to emerge. On that basis, the chapter fosters a deep understanding of diaphragmatic breathing as juxtaposed with other types of breath, including thoracic, reverse, and abdominal breathing. From there, it elucidates the connection between breath and posture, clarifying how physical movement and positioning facilitate or hinder breathing and providing guidance about accessing more wholesome breathing via physical changes and vice versa. The chapter explains the link between various breathing patterns and habitual or targeted muscular actions of bracing, collapsing, and yielding, applying this link in the context of therapeutic breathwork.