Box Breathing (Four-Sided Breathing)
Shaping our breath
Unlike "Internal Awareness," which I only do once or twice with LMA practitioners, box breathing is something I encourage practitioners to do every time they come to the Learning Lab. It's not about awareness but setting an audible rhythm—like a count in to a musical piece. Training is physical music. You, as the practitioner, attune to its melody.
Since we are engaging with the body and physical movement, the language of LMA tries to use physical descriptions, sensations (like sounds), or comparisons as much as possible.
Since you can't watch yourself move, nor is self-monitoring even helpful, you rely on sensation, perception or imagination, and experience to drive movement. The same sensors that tell you that you are touching a table are the same ones that tell you how you are moving your arm. The tissues of your body tell you what you are touching or how you are moving.
Giving mechanical instruction is not always helpful. What's more relevant and valuable is describing a shape, an external object, or a physical task rather than describing yourself.
Box breathing is a type of four-sided breathing. A box has a shape and sides. Our breath also has a shape. By shaping our breath, we regulate ourselves and make ourselves shapeable.
Learning is often referred to as shaping. In physical movement, that's a literal truth. Physical movements are just shapes. Shaping yourself means physical learning. Tension and an environment of tension prevent learning. Since movements are just shapes, what actually needs to be learned are shapes, and the learning language should describe shapes. Shapes and interacting with shapes make sense, whereas words are abstract and meaningless to the body. Try explaining the physical movement of a squat to someone who has never seen that exercise. Those words will mean nothing. Telling them to sit on an imaginary chair is meaningful.
Behaviors can be modeled. Give them something to model or a mental model to shape physical behavior. Show them a squat, have them imagine a chair, or have them sit on a bench. Describe an experience, like seeing a child squatting and playing with toys. Give them substance to engage with rather than abstract words. The physical description of a squat doesn't live in the world. Give them something that exists in the world—something they can grasp.