The Lumbar, the Lungs and the Tug

When you think about breathing and the spine, you might consider that the diaphragm attaches at TX, an inch or so above the bottom of your sternum. But that's not all! The actual lung attaches to the lumbar in a very complicated and influential way. You can see in the picture that it is asymmetric (sometimes the mirror of this) and attaches to more than half of your lumbar. As the lungs shrivel and expand, these attachments tug and release. To shrivel and expand, the lungs need to slide smoothly inside the rib cage — but do they? They can be snagged, and when they snag, that impacts your lumbar.

The important thing from a Feldenkrais perspective is that you become aware of that relationship. (Yes, sure, it would be nice to untangle the snag. But first, awareness.) You know that line in Feldenkrais about moving to become aware? The trick is to find a position and a movement and a quality of breath that highlight this relationship so that you can see for yourself whether you want to reorganize. There are several great lessons for this, but just now you could try rounding your back and huffing and puffing as though into your lumbar. Use the strength of your breath to accentuate the shriveling and stretching of your lungs, but also use the puffing-uppery of your breath almost as though it were a soft push that you were using to find a lump. Can you feel the asymmetry? The tension on your lumbar?