Improve your Breathing and Strengthen your Lungs with Sherry Zak Morris, Certified Yoga Therapist

Hi, I'm Sherry and I'm a certified yoga therapist and I am here today to help you feel better. If you're in the process of healing or recovering, then you need a little bit of movement and a little bit of energy and that's what we'll be doing today. We'll focus on breathing and bringing in some energy. Your body is fighting really hard when you're healing, isn't it? We have to give our bodies all good things in order to heal well, which means we have to get good sleep, we have to eat nutritious foods, and we have to breathe and we have to move. If you do all those three things, then you're going to heal well and you're going to recover faster. So in today's class, we're going to focus on breathing and bringing in energy. As always, make sure you talk to your doctor about doing a new exercise program. And remember, you're the boss. Do the things that feel good and if it doesn't, then skip those. But I hope you come back and practice with me often because you will find that you will get stronger and you will heal faster if you practice with me. Are you ready to begin our breathing and energy class? Here we go. So we'll start first by just warming up the body. We want to have the body open for lots of breath so that more energy can come in. So the first thing we're going to do is just take your hands and open and close them. Yeah, we're going to start to move everything and we're going to start to see things that are getting a little bit stuck, unstuck. Good. And then twirl your wrists a little bit. Good. We're going to shake it out a little bit. Very good. Okay, we got those fingers moving, huh? So in order to breathe deeper, we need to open up the upper part of our body. So we're going to do that in a gentle, slow way. The first thing I want you to do is just take one hand to your shoulder. Doesn't matter which one. And we're just going to move the elbow up and down a little bit like this. Good. Remember, just do things that feel good. Don't overdo. Good. And then take your elbow in and out a little bit. Yeah. So just work in the shoulders and all the muscles around it, which will help us breathe bigger and deeper. Good. And then take a little circle backwards with your elbow, like you're making a circle with your elbow. Good. And then forward a little bit. Good work. Okay, let's do the other side. So here we go. One hand to your shoulder, up and down a few times. Just warming up the body. Good. And then crisscross a little bit forward and back. Good. Front and back. Good. And then we'll roll it backwards. Backwards we go. Good. And then how about forwards a little bit? You're doing good already. Good. Now let's take both hands, put them on your shoulders, and let's do the same thing, up and down a little bit. These are like your wings, huh? Yeah. Good. And then we'll come forward and we'll go out. Good. And come forward and out. And again, forward and out. Now we're going to circle backwards. Take your time. No rushing. Good. And then circle forwards. Good. And then release. Oh, do you feel a little bit looser right now? Let's see if you can take one shoulder up like this. Good. And then down. Take the other shoulder like this. Very good. Look how talented your body is. Up and then down and then up and then down. How about both up like this? Up, up, up. Down. Good. And another one. Up and down. Very good. Now nod your head up and down like you're saying yes. Up and down. Yes, yes, yes. I want to get better. Yes, I do. Good. And then we'll go back and forth like no. No, no. I don't want to be sitting around too much. No, no. Don't want that. Good. And back to the center. Now we're going to do something called the teacup. So I want you to take one hand out and pretend you're holding a teacup and you're going to give it out to a friend to the side of you. Good. And then bring it back in and then take it out. Good. And bring it back in. Now you're going to turn and look. Give it to your friend and bring it back in and turn and look. Give it to your friend and bring it back in. Good. Teacup to the other side. Remember, we don't want to spill it, so keep your palm nice and wide and open. Good. Take it out to the side. Give it to your neighbor. Good. To the center and out to the side. Good. And center. Now we'll look at our neighbor. Out to the side. Good. To the center and out to the side and to the center. Good work. Now we're going to turn the other way. We're going to look at the other neighbor. So hold that teacup. We're going to take it out to the side. Give it to your neighbor, but look at the other neighbor. Good. Back to the center and then out to the side and back to the center. Let's do the other side. Do you remember what we're doing? We're taking it out, but we're looking the other way. Back to the center and then take it out and back to the center. Good work. Both teacups on the tray now. Take them both out and back in. Take them both out and back in. Let's do two more times. Out and in and out and in. Good work. That really opens up the chest in order for us to breathe a little bit deeper. So now we're going to start our breathing practice. The first one is called Smell the Rose. So what we're going to do is we're going to take a hand and we're going to reach over, grab a rose, bring it back to us, and we're going to smell the rose like, oh, beautiful aroma. And then blow the petals like this. Good. The other side. Pick a rose way over there. Bring it back in. A nice big smell. Breathe it in. Then blow out the petals. Good work. Let's take a little bit higher. Take that rose. Bring it back to us. Take a really good smell. Breathe deep and blow those petals. Good. And another one. Really high up there. Bring it down. Smell it good and blow those petals. Very good. Now we're going to blow out our birthday candle. So take one hand. You have your birthday candle here and we're just going to take a nice breath like this and flicker the birthday candle like this. Good. Do it again. Inhale and flicker. And one more time. Inhale and flicker that candle. Good work. Now take your arms out to the side like they're big, long, wide wings. Spread your fingers nice and wide. Good. And then flap your wings a little bit. Good. This expands your chest, opens up your ribs, opens up your lungs. Good. And see if you can just fly a little bit higher. Why not? Flying feels good, doesn't it? Yeah. Very good. And then release it. Good. Now take one hand across the opposite shoulder and we're going to push away like this. Push and come back in. And we're going to go like this. Push and come back in. Now we're going to do it with the breath. We're going to go inhale and exhale. And inhale and exhale. Good. To the other side. Hand to the opposite shoulder. We're going to push two times. Push, back in. Push, back in. And then on your inhale. Inhale and exhale. And inhale and exhale. And release. Good work. We just opened up the front side of our body, the front of our lungs. But guess what? Our lungs are a pear-shaped organ, which means it's little on the top and big on the bottom. And guess what? It's broad too. It goes way back into your back. So we're going to open up the backside of our lungs now. And we're going to do that with a little sequence called hug a tree. So this is what it looks like. We're going to take a big hug like this, like a big hug around a big tree. Good. You got that? So we're opening up the upper back. Good. And then we're going to pull the energy in like this. So we're going to inhale and we're going to exhale. Pull that energy in. Oh, you got it. Here we go. Inhale. Hug your tree. Exhale. Pull the energy in. One more time. Inhale. Hug your tree. And exhale. Pull the energy in. Good work. Now we're going to work the side of our lungs, right? So we're going to open up the rib cage right in here. So we're going to take the hand to the shoulder like we did before. And we're going to go down and up a few times. Good. Now the next time your elbow comes up, I want you to lean a little bit to the side. Good. And come back. And then lift it up and lean a little bit. Good. Now we'll do it with the breath. So we're going to inhale and exhale down. And inhale and exhale down. Now we'll take it to the other side. So put your hand on your shoulder. When we lift it up and down and lift it up and down. Now we're going to lean. So inhale. Lean. Exhale down. Inhale. Lean. Exhale down. And inhale and exhale. Good work. Take your shoulders and roll them like this. Beautiful. And how about flapping your beautiful wings? Good work. You did great today. Good. Shake out your hands a little bit. And then release them. Good. Now we're going to do a little bit of side stretching. So we're going to move the breath all around in your upper body. And know what's really important about that is that when we can bring in more breath into our lungs, we're going to have more oxygen to heal our bodies. Very important to bring in oxygen in order to heal everything that needs to be healed in our bodies. So take one hand and reach all the way over across. Good. And then bring it back and then reach the other one all the way over. Good. And bring it back. Now we're going to reach like this. Bring it back. I'm going to turn around and we're going to drop it. Good. Here we go again. We're going to reach. We're going to grab. We're going to turn around and drop. Good. To the other side. We're going to reach. We're going to grab. We're going to turn and drop. And we're going to reach and grab and turn and drop. Good work. Roll those shoulders again. And then flap your wings. Good work. Now we're going to come into a little swimming pose. So take your hands and we're just going to swim like this. Yeah. Oh, gliding. Beautiful gliding. Opening up the heart. Opening up the lungs. Good. Good. And then how about a swim stroke like this? Doesn't have to be too big. We're just doing a little paddling here. Good. And how about the backwards one? The backwards stroke. Rolling backwards. Twisting a little bit if that feels good in your body. Good. Breaststroke again. Here we go. Cut through that water. That feel good? Are you ready for the power one? I think you are. Let's do it. This is called the butterfly. It looks like this. We're up and over the waves. Good. Take your arms and go up and over the waves. Two more. Up over the waves. And again, up and over the waves. Good work. How do you feel? Let's see if we can take a little deeper breath. Here we go. We're going to inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. Good. And two more. Inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. Wonderful. We're going to end it with my favorite breathing pose and it's called pulling taffy. Taffy is a kind of candy that gets really hard and stiff, but when it warms up, it expands and it gets very pliable. And that's the same thing with our lungs and our bodies. When we warm up, then everything opens up a little bit bigger. So pretend you've got a piece of taffy here, right here in your hand, and we're going to pull it. Oh, it's hard to pull. So pull it, pull it. Good. And it comes back in. We're going to pull it a little bit more. You can do it. Pull it and then bring it back in. So let's try it with our breath. So we're going to inhale, pull, exhale, bring it back in. Inhale, pull it longer. Exhale, bring it back in. Let's do two more. Here we go. Inhale, pull, pull, pull. Exhale, bring it back in. And how about a really big, long taffy stretch? Inhale and exhale all the way down. Oh, let's pull the taffy up. So here we go. Inhale, pull it all the way up. Good. Bring it down. Pull it all the way up and exhale. Bring it down. We'll flip the other hand up. Here we go. Inhale all the way up. Exhale down and pull all the way up. Pull that taffy. It's hard. I know. Good. And release it. Now we'll go diagonal. Here we go. Inhale, pull and reach. And bring it back to the center. And inhale, pull and reach. And back to the center. Let's do it one more time. Let's really stretch that taffy. Here we go. Pull, pull, pull. Inhale and exhale. And last one. Inhale, pull, pull it. And exhale, release it. Do you feel a little more energy in your body? I hope you do. If you come back often and do this practice with me, you'll find that you're going to breathe a lot better and you'll heal a lot quicker. Thanks for joining me for the breathing and energy practice. Until the next time, namaste.