Your Diamond Breath is the bridge

In your body, there are four “domes” that work together like a soft, internal support system: the perineum, the diaphragm, the larynx/pharynx area, and the inside of the crown of the head. When these domes are supple rather than braced, they guide breath, posture, and movement with far less effort.

Now look at where the parasympathetic nerves emerge in the neck and low lumbar spine, and where the sympathetic chain runs through the thoracic spine. This gives context: a soft, low, responsive belly and an easy breath help nudge the body toward parasympathetic balance. Constricted or braced breath tends to do the opposite.

That connection becomes especially important for walking. Many people brace through the middle — gripping the belly, locking the ribs — which cuts the body into an “upper half” and “lower half.” Our work yesterday was aimed at restoring the intelligence between them.

Here is a simple practice to keep rehearsing:

1. Stand and allow the belly to be soft but aware — not collapsed, not held. Imagine it low to the ground, willing to respond rather than brace.
2. Begin with a slow lean of your weight toward the left leg. Let the breath stay jelly-fish soft.
3. When your weight is truly in the left leg, gently lift the right leg and step it forward.
4. Feel that the other leg is now behind you — don’t rush past that awareness.
5. Shift the weight into the right leg the same way: slowly, softly, belly responsive, ribs wide on the inhale.
6. Lift and step the left leg.
7. Continue like this for a minute or two, as though you’re teaching the body how to trust the transfer of weight without gripping.

Walking becomes smoother when the domes are connected, the breath is integrated, and the belly is responsive instead of armoured.

Layer this in slowly. You’re not trying to “fix” your walking — you’re teaching your system how to coordinate again, bit by bit, with more ease and cohesion.

Breathing Practice Sequence

Your Diamond Breath is the bridge

• Begin at the yoga heart centre. Let the breath feel like a jellyfish — soft, flowing, unbraced.

• Inhale: sense a line of expansion moving from the heart down to the diaphragm.

• Let the ribs lift evenly in all directions (not the front bulging forward).

• Exhale: feel the diaphragm draw back up into its dome toward the heart.

• Repeat x5.

• Move awareness to the perineum.

• Inhale: sense it moving softly downward toward your seat.

• Exhale: sense it lifting back up toward the heart.

• Repeat x5.

• Connect diaphragm + perineum.

• Inhale: both gently descend.

• Exhale: both rise toward the heart.

• Repeat x5.

• Shift attention upward to the larynx/pharynx.

• Inhale: widen through the back of the throat and toward the roof of the mouth.

• Exhale: gently gather back toward the heart.

• Repeat x5.

• Move awareness to the inside of the crown of the head.

• Inhale: soft upward expansion.

• Exhale: subtle return toward the heart.

• Repeat x5.

• Connect the upper domes (larynx/pharynx + crown).

• Inhale: both expand upward.

• Exhale: both return toward the heart.

• Repeat x5.

• Bring all four domes into one pattern.

• Inhale: each dome expands away from the heart —

 perineum downward,

 diaphragm outward in all directions,

 throat wide and up,

 crown lifting inside the skull.

• Exhale: all four gather back toward the heart.

• Repeat x5.

• As it becomes familiar, add the widening of the side ribs (just below the armpits) at the top of the inhale.

• This creates a gentle “diamond” of expansion, returning softly to the heart on the exhale.