Your Core. You’ve heard a lot about it if you’ve been to the gym or browsed through fitness sites or magazines. 

The general impression is that your core is abs, i.e. abdominal muscles, obliques, abdominal rectus muscles and back. If you’ve done pilates, yoga or strength training you have been introduced to deeper anatomical connections but here we are going to explore a wholistic vitalistic view.

Your Core is much deeper and well, more ‘core’ that you ever imagined.

Finding your core can awaken the true vitality of your life and future health.  

Instead of working from the outer silhouette of your body to find your core, working from the inside out creates the you as you were meant to be!

 Start with this Core Breathing Exercise: 

1.  Sit comfortably with your feet on the floor. 

2.  Create a comfortable posture. Sit with your back away from chair back if you can.

3.  Close your eyes and visualize your spinal column, neck and head. Exhale.

4.  Now feel your seatedness, begin your breath there. Contract those sitz muscles and inhale up, breathing up through your spine.

5.  Exhale this breath projecting the energy out through your nose and brow/forehead area. 

6. Relax your abdomen and then begin the cycle again, contract the sitz muscles, breathing in and all the way up and exhaling through your nose and brow/forehead area.

Repeat in sets of 8-10 Core Breathing Exercises once or twice a day and you will  begin to get in touch with your spine; the bones, circulation, nerves and the very core muscles that are the generators of your ‘core’ Core.

Note: If you cannot sit comfortably for any period of time this can be done lying down on your back on a firm surface with a small rolled pillow under your lower body and neck. If you are having pain please see your doctor. Naturopaths, chiropractors and traditional DOs can treat structural issues.

In Pranayama, a yoga method, it’s called Reverse Wheel Breathing because it travels up the spine on inhale and exhales out third eye then downward relaxing the frontal belly region to begin again at the base of the spine.

When contracting the sitz and abdominal muscles and breathing up and out becomes second nature, you can even extent the breathing exercises out through your finger tips and toes! As you find the value in these exercises you may be interested in Qui Gong training to advance your practice.

Health Benefits

The ‘real’ core muscles have origins and insertions on the spine. Strengthening these benefits posture, relieves back pain and helps you find your ‘core’ Core!

Core Breathing also nourishes vertebrae and discs, it activates circulation and nerve function to every area it travels through.   

Learning the representative chakra/color and organs can enhance the Core Breathing Exercise visualization.

Root chakra/Red is at the base of the spine, at the sitz muscle or pelvic floor muscles. Urinary incontinence, low libido and poor rectal tone are examples of maladies that can benefit from Core Breathing. 

You can imagine how each of these additional regions can be strengthened:

–Sacral chakra/Orange includes the reproductive organs and the bladder.

–Solar Plexus chakra/Yellow is around the belly button and stomach area. Visualize golden light stretching out from this a region to make healthy connections with the energy around you..

–Heart chakra/Green is in the center of the chest. Heal the heart visualizing green light.

–Throat chakra/Blue at the lung and neck. Gives you your voice physically and emotionally. Dispel sadness and powerlessness.

–Third Eye chakra/Indigo is the brow area between the eyes. Where you breath out is the seat of your intuition. 

–Crown chakra/Violet-White at the top of the head. Your connection with the universe. 

If you have an organ/region that you feel needs support your visualization can assist with focus and the expansion of your breath into the area.  You are in control of your healing!

Finding Your Core from the inside out is a step toward self confidence and an inner knowing on how you are built and what you want to accomplish in your health goals. 

This exercise will not magically cause a reduction in waist size or body fat, but aligning in this way is the best generator of change! Physical changes will come along as you practice the Core Breathing Exercise integrating it into your meditation and other exercise regimes. Your body, mind and spirit will strengthen from the inside out.