Practice: Back To Back Breathing

Jenna Zaffino  

Hi, I'm Jenna. And and I'm Sterling. Wellness to your back to back breathing practice. This is a partner practice that's designed to help us understand the differences in the way we breathe. So you'll need a partner and if you would like to use a chair for this practice, simply turn the chair back to the side so that you can be connected with your partner back to back. If you'd like to join us seated, then we're gonna go ahead and turn and get ourselves back to back. So, wanna start by just and nuzzling up as close as we possibly can. Of course, you're seated with your own support system, and then you're also feeling the connection to your partner. 

And initially, this is just kind of one of those things we may have done in grade school, just kind of doing that little back to back dance, but we wanna just settle in, relax, find your comfort, and just begin to breathe regularly, however you would normally breathe. As always, we're encouraging an inhale through your nose and then exhale through your nose or through your mouth. But if you need more breath, more volume of breath, please feel free to choose the breath that works best for you today. So, as we start to breathe, just turn your attention towards the back of your body, your muscles, your skin, the back of your rib cage, and your lungs, and just see if you can notice both your breath and the movement that's happening in your back and then once you have a good idea of what that feels like then start to notice your partner's breath and the movement that's happening in their back. Let's take about 4 or 5 breaths just to tune in here. And then once you've completed your 5th breath, we're going to start to play follow the leader. So I will be partner a, the person who is doing my role can be partner a, and Sterling is going to be partner b. And all that means is that I'm going to be doing the breathing purposefully and Sterling's going to be doing the noticing. 

Alright? So when you're ready, staying back to back, partner a is just gonna take about 3 or 4 really purposeful inhale and exhalation. Patient can be as deep or as shallow as you like. Of course, partner b is still breathing during this time, but doing more noticing than anything else. Yes. We're going to investigate. Sterling, what did you feel while I breathed? 

Sterling Lato

Although slow expansion mostly around your ribs, right below your shoulder blades, pushing into my back gently, kind of like a waving motion coming back out of it, though. 

Jenna Zaffino

Mhmm. Soothing. I like that. A soothing motion. Good. And if anything, like, what do you think that breath can tell you about me? 

Sterling Lato

Your breathing is deeper into your belly. It's not so much of a, like, a chest and shoulder breath. So you really expand your lungs fully. You seem very intentional. 

Jenna Zaffino 

Okay. 

Jenna Zaffino 

Okay. So we could kind of draw and a conclusion that maybe the way that we breathe is also the way we go through life. And also, we can look at any challenges we're having with breath as a means of noticing how we move through our challenges as opposed to just life being challenging your breaths. Great. So, what I notice about Sterling's breath is that it's very wide and expansive on the sides. It doesn't move as much back to front. It's more side to side like the bucket handles we've looked at in previous videos. And from what I know about Sterling, I could make an educated assumption that she has a wide range of interests and just points of reference. 

Sterling Lato 

Is that Fascinating. 

Jenna Zaffino 

Yes. Multi faceted, maybe. Alright. So and of course, you know, this is not we're not using a crystal ball. We're playing around. We're getting to know each other through our breaths and looking for a little connection and not to worry if there's no very specific clear connection right away. All of this is just a means of gathering more information. So now, we're going to try to meet each other in the middle. 

Jenna Zaffino 

With you and your partner, the idea is that as you sense your partner's breath happening, you try to and of match it and see if both of you can feel like 2 breaths become 1. So if you have any limitations today in your breathing, then for a partner who doesn't have limitations, you're going to try to meet the level Patient volume of breath with compassion and with a sense of honor, not looking to fix or enforce or influence their breath, but more acknowledging that we're here together, breathing together. All So let's take a couple rounds of breath, and then we're gonna bring it into some movement. So as we begin, we'll just start to find our inhalation. Sometimes it can help to close your eyes and then your exhalation when you're ready. Just looking for those moments when you can meet each other where you are at. You might notice that there's a natural leader or follower. The idea is to give over a bit of the control if you're the leader and look more for collaboration. 

Let's try 2 more cycles of breath and of course, if you like this you can do as many more as you like. Now with our connection, we're going to begin to play follow the leader with a bit of movement. So partner A, the person who's in my role, is going to start to bend their spine forward as they breathe out. So let's both take a breath in. I'll start to bend my spine forward and Sterling is just gonna follow me, which means maintaining the connection and bending her spine backward a bit. And then from here, I'm really in the driver's seat. So, as I come back up through the center, the pressure from my back is gonna inform her where to go. And we might take a little side bend over to the side, breathing into the open space. 

So, this little exercise as you continue to explore the movements of your back becomes kind of like a partner dance. The good news is you can't do it incorrectly. So, it's a matter of just staying connected, noticing breath, moving with each other. Finding different ways to move your spine, maybe even some rotation. As long as you keep yourself connected and breathing, you're right on track. And then, let's come back and switch partners, so now, Sterling is going to take over. It can be really hard to let go of that control. I am not the leader. 

I am not the leader. This is a good exercise for those of us who are leaders. We tend to take control of the group project. And again you can go as far or long as you want with this but let's kind of recover back to center. So the last one we're gonna do is just a little bit of almost like a magic trick of breath. So Sterling will focus on her left lung, the left side of her rib cage, and I'm gonna focus on my right side of my rib page. We're just gonna see if we can breathe into the side. So when we're ready, we'll take a big breath in and then relax. 

And then I'll breathe into my left side and she'll breathe into her right side and relax. So what I'm noticing right away is your my belly breath is meeting your wide breath. Yes. And it's doing 2 separate things. So I'm gonna try to make my breath a little wider and you try to make your breath a little belly Alright. Let's try right and left. I'm doing right, Sterling's doing left. That's different. 

And then I'll do left and you do right. One more time each side. Good. And then let's just separate slightly. So inch yourself away from your partner. So you're not connected, but you probably feel a little heat between the 2 of you. Yeah. And then just take a couple breaths here with that space between, imagining that your breath could actually reach out and touch your partner. 

Finding any connection that might be available between the 2 of you. Maybe one more time. Yeah. Alright. Yeah. How was that experience for you? I learned a lot about how I breathe. You learned a lot about how you breathe? Yeah. 

Sterling Lato

I found a lot more space lower in my body 

Jenna Zaffino 

Okay.  

Sterling Lato 

Than I usually have. When we separated, I found my body trying to still connect with yours. 

Jenna Zaffino

So Yeah. I was pulling I was breathing back more than into my sides, which is really nice. Yeah. And I found, like, the width. You're you're you're you breathe really wide, and I've I had to find that in in my own Interesting. Rib cage, which is interesting because sometimes our breathing can influence and or restrict our shoulder movement, and I tend to have a lot of tension in my shoulder and upper back, so that was really nice. And we wanted to demonstrate this part of it for you because the conversation is a really integral part to just taking the next steps, which is purely being curious with the way that you can access breath, that you can share breath, and that you can let someone else's breath influence you. Breathing is as much about oxygenation and feeling the body as it is about energy exchange. And so there's this beautiful image that we're all breathing the same breath at some point in time. 

Jenna Zaffino 

So to consider that the person next to you is similarly breathing the same breath as you, a person miles and miles away across the world is also breathing a breath at the same time as you. It's a nice, yeah, idea to keep us interconnected. But for our purposes with the partner practice, it is a really great way to calm down, to heat up. 

Sterling Lato 

Definitely heat up. 

Jenna Zaffino 

Heat up? We were hot. 

Sterling Lato 

Jenna Zaffino  

My hands are a little sweaty, so Yeah. And just to share an experience. So for your weaving well-being tip, I encourage to wind down way to wind down at the end of the day or to kind of get yourself going especially on a day where maybe accessing breath is a little more challenging. Let someone else help you. I have a friend who says, let it be easy, but don't be mad when it is. I always think about that when attempting to ask for help, especially for those people who have a challenge asking for help. 

Sterling Lato 

Sleep behind this bush. Yeah. 

Jenna Zaffino ‘

Yeah. No. Not any of us over here. Well, we wanna thank you for joining us in this practice. I hope that you got something from it and that you continue to return to it. Remember, you are strong and resilient and the small moments that are shared truly do matter. We'll see you soon.