by Renee Lindstrom, founder, Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning
Functional Breathing Patterns sensed with somatic awareness
Often when observing the breath patterns of an individuals I will see that there is a lack of skeletal movements in their patterns of expansion and contraction in the moving parts that could be recruited for fuller body supported whole movement for drawing in air and expelling it.
The body parts I refer to are the bones and joints that create flexibility, balance, expansion and contraction, and counterbalance.
Shown here in this slideshow.
The ribs are connected to the vertebrae and sternum. They are as high as the vertebra at the base of the neck and down to the floating ribs that in some can be close to the bony ridges of the pelvic bones. 
If you look at an image of the ribs from a frontal view you will see that the attachment to the sternum isn’t bone. Rather the bone has transitioned into cartlidge and forms a joint for expansion and contraction. 
In this back view you can see how the shoulder blade comes up to form a socket where the humerus bone rests in the cradle of the socket. Above the blade at top is the end of the clavicle. 
In this picture you can see the skull on top of the vertebra in this upright position. It sits over the rib cage and pelvis. It becomes obvious that the shoulder blades, clavicles and arms are add ons to the core body skeleton. 
In this picture you will view the skull over the pelvis and the pelvis over the feet. If you look at the hip and shoulder joints you will see the round heads of the upper arm and leg bones resting in the cradle of the socket. This same round bone is in the ankle joint and the top vertebra where the skull rests. The skull forms the cradle. 
You can observe the elbow, wrist and knee joints bend however do not have the circular round ball at the end that sits in a socket. Your wrists can move in a circular motion though. Perhaps not in the same way as the ankle, hip and shoulder joints.
The above slideshow demonstrates the moving parts of the skeleton that supports whole breath through core functional skeletal movement patterns.The focus of attention in these guided patterns is movement where the muscles, ligaments and soft tissue are spontaneously moving in response to the skeletal micromovements. These micromovements with a skeletal focus treats the muscle and soft tissue as partners that follow and hold the bones in alignment. This focus is on core bone strength and the resilience of the muscles that are not resistant to functional movement patterns. Muscle strength is separate from bone strength, yet often in cognitive intellectualization does not include the understanding of the bone movement in functional postural transitions.
The patterns in The Mindfulness Body Breath workshop and Audios focus attention on education of whole function through postural transitions to enhance and improve natural rhythms of breathing. The guided patterns balance the somatic experience with the cognitive conceptualizations for increasing mindfulness through function.
More on Body Mindfulness Audio plus added bonus below: Free Intro to expanding somatic sensing in video embedded down below
These guided patterns are from Feldenkrais workshop that Renee has held since 2007. The feedback after each workshop has been positive with appreciation expressed.
Core Body Functional Breathing Audio
The Audio for Core Body Functional Breathing will guide you through patterns of movement to explore breathing with the focus on micromovements to release bones held in rigid patterns to encourage fuller intake and expulsion of breath and that is a natural function and not forced through concepts. These guided patterns generate a conscious felt sense connection to contraction and expansion through movement. This increase in awareness can support consciously releasing the constraints to blocking the resilience through the patterns of opposites that initiate contraction and expansion through bone movement that is needed for organic fuller breath patterns.
Included in this audio lesson offer is an intro and outro for the intent to learn how to engage the sensory awareness using the five senses in harmony and partnership with cognitive function. It is this practitioners experience that integration and development of new neural pathways do not develop through thinking that is dependant on beliefs, opinions and evaluative thinking. Neural pathways are developed on new actions that engage growth through novelty, exploration and discovery.
Read more on the benefits of Somatic Body Mindfulness and research of Feldenkrais below
How to purchase and enjoy – Core Body Functional Breathing Audio
How can you move a body part through function when you don’t know what it is somatically or the ability to different it from your body mass?
Intro to how to use your senses of sight (visions) and sound to differentiate felt senses of individual body parts.
In this short video Renee introduces the potential of expanding the felt sense of the bones inside through vision and imagination. Using pictures of the bone parts through the sensory perception of sight and sound the listener can focus on integrating this knowledge into their somatic sensory perception that can create a connection to the bone through the sensory ability to feel them independently through *function.
*function – postural transitions such as lying to sitting and then to standing
Read more on the benefits of Somatic Body Mindfulness and research of Feldenkrais below:
Learn More about Body Mindfulness
Some of the conditions that SBM guided patterns that Renee has observed improve are:
- Anxiety and Depression
- Artheritis
- Back and Neck Pain
- Loss of Balance
- Bell’s Palsy
- High Blood Pressure
- Shallow Breathing
- Chronic Pain
- Eating Disorders
- Fibromyalgia
- Lack of Flexibility
- Hip, Knee and Ankle Joint Pain
- Injuries
- Insomnia
- Pulled Muscles
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Parkinsons
- Locked Shoulders
- Stroke
- TMJ
Some of the Benefits that Research has shown are:
- Improved:
- proprioception
- coordination and ease of movement
- posture and stability
- well-being
- feeling of confidence
- breathing
- Decreased
- pain
- spasm
Research Evidence:
- Improves:
- body awareness: Multiple sclerosis, pain, stroke, able-bodied
- mobility
- stability
- coordination
- ease of movement
- posture
- balance confidence
- mood
- breathing
- well-being and quality of life
- sleep
- self efficacy and health locus of control
- self image
- greater recruitment of the affected part of the motor cortex (stroke)
- Reduces, decreases:
- decreased pain
- fatigue
- anxiety and stress
- medical costs
To learn more about this Research on the Benefits of Feldenkrais, go to the link in the description box and tap the link
Introduction: Grounding thru Body Mindfulness
Benefits:
- reduce and reverse aging
- increasing flexibility and resilience
- develop body awareness
- reduce body tension, pain, anxiety and effort
- increase relaxation and windows of emotional tolerance and self-connection
- improve sleep and sleep sounder
- increase body functions, cognition and emotional responses of calm, mindfulness and joy
Exploring the body anatomy through the felt senses increases inner awareness and trust. This body exploration is a different type of strength training. The difference is the focus of attention on the body, mind and felt senses through guided patterns designed to expand conscious awareness of the body function. The strength of feeling one’s body through moving joints and bones deepens awareness of physical connections as postures change, like in the shifting transitions from sitting to standing and back to sitting. Movement is a series of shifting postures. The functioning healthy body is not stationary, nor poses. It is designed for a continuous flow of integrative movement patterns.
Feedback On Body Mindfulness Introduction
“I am excited!!! This is great! It is like you are there with me step by step. It’s what all of us are looking for, real Feldenkrais support” S
“That was great, Renee! You have such a calm and lovely voice. I’m happy to add this to my calming strategies. Thank you. ” H
“I really like this sort of thing and would welcome further “installments” in the series and/or a revised version of this one. I liked the pace at which you spoke, not too rushed and left enough time to do the exploration of the particular area of the body to which you were drawing attention.
I liked that you offered options re leg position (straight out or with bolster under knees) but wondered whether one position or the other is preferable. Or is it just that one would notice different things, depending on how the legs are positioned?” K
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Copyright 2014 – 2026 Renee Lindstrom, GCFP
Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement®, and Functional Integration®, are registered service marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America
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