Finding Your Inner Strength: The Diaphragm and Chakra Connection

Have you ever noticed how you instinctively hold your breath when stress takes over?

This automatic response is our body’s attempt to regain control when it feels off balance. 

But here’s the fascinating part: breath is not just a mechanical function. It’s a powerful bridge between our emotions and energy.

Tune in as we explore the transformative power of breath. 

Here are 3 ways this video might help you:

✅   Discover how diaphragmatic breathing can alleviate stress, enhance core stability, and energize your chakras. 

✅   Learn practical exercises to activate your root, sacral, and solar plexus chakras, and experience holistic healing for your body and mind. 

✅   This could be perfect for you, tf you are seeking balance, energy, and mindfulness in your daily life.

Remember, your breath is always there for you. A natural reset button to reclaim peace and balance.  to discover how you can harness this remarkable tool to nurture your journey to health, wellbeing, and a positive mindset.

So join me as we delve into the diaphragm’s crucial role in connecting our chakras and the healing power of our breath.

Want to read the transcript?

Here it is…

Have you ever noticed how you hold your breath when you’re overwhelmed?

That unconscious breath holding is your body’s way of trying to grip back control when it feels off-center.  But breath isn’t just a function. It’s the bridge between our body’s emotions and energy. 

Hello and welcome. I’m Sarah Gowans. Remedial massage, Craniosacral therapist, and emotional integration facilitator at Blossoming Me and the Healthy Learning Lounge. 

Here we are, a sanctuary where you can tap in, to nurture your journey to health, wellbeing, and a positive mindset.  We focus on helping you clear stresses, tensions, and blocks, that can hold you back from living your most fulfilling life.    

Do you ever catch yourself holding your breath when you’re stressed? Your body is  trying to take control. But sometimes that just makes things worse.

 The good news is that paying attention to your breath can help you feel more calm and centered,  even when life gets crazy.

 By focusing on your breath, you can start to feel more relaxed and energized,  and that’s just the beginning.

The Diaphragm  May Be Your Missing Link  

Nestled between our ribs and core is our diaphragm.  Our diaphragm is more than a breathing muscle. It’s a powerful connector.  It links our root sacral and solar plexus chakras,  influences our posture and digestion,  and it is deeply affected by stress.

When your diaphragm is tight or underactive, your whole system, physical and emotional, can feel stuck.  So in this final part of our series, we’ll explore a few things:

• Why the diaphragm is central to both our breath and our core stability.
• How chronic stress affects our breathing patterns, the energetic importance of breath, for our chakra and diaphragm health.
• A breath exercise to help you unlock softness and strength at home.

 

“The diaphragm is both our anchor and amplifier for our inner rhythm”, says Donna Farhi. So let’s start with your breath. Not your abs.

Number 1: The diaphragm as Our Physical Powerhouse and Emotional Sponge

Our diaphragm moves up and down with each breath, massaging our organs and supporting our spine. But under stress, our breath becomes shallow and chest-based, so our core muscles disengage and our nervous system gets stuck in high alert.

You can think of your diaphragm like a trampoline sitting in the middle of your torso. Every time you breathe in, it moves down to let the breath into your lungs. Every time you breathe out, it moves back up. To help you release this air. Now, here’s where the magic is. Our core muscles, lower back, and chakras all depend on this trampoline working well.

When we’re stressed, tired, or sitting in traffic with our jaw clenched and our breath held, that trampoline stiffens.  It stops bouncing. Our breath stays high in our chest, and our tummy tenses, and maybe your back starts to ache too. But when you use your diaphragm properly, taking full, deep belly breaths, you help it move like it should. This movement massages our internal organs, supports our core stability, and loosens the tension in our lower back. It also activates our root, sacral, and solar plexus chakras.

And here’s the beautiful ripple effect. Diaphragmatic breathing stimulates our vagus nerve, which helps our body switch from the fight-or-flight part of our nervous system, into the rest-and-digest or rest-and-repair mode. This reduces the stress hormones, like cortisol, and brings our nervous system back into balance. Further, studies show that diaphragmatic breathing improves our vagal tone, and enhances postural control .

Number 2: Chakras and the Diaphragm – The Breath Energy Connection

So energy in motion breath flows through your chakras, like light through a prism.

Think of your chakras like colorful lights in your body.  They help manage your energy, emotions, and sense of balance.  The bottom three: our root chakra, which is red, sacral, which is orange, and solar plexus, which is yellow, live right near our diaphragm. That muscle that helps us breathe when we’re stressed or always on the go, our breath is held or gets shallow. 

Now, picture stress,  long days, big emotions, too much pressure. Then the diaphragm becomes stiff, and these chakra lights start to dim, our belly tightens, and our lower back aches. You might also feel anxious, tired, or just off-center.

Your body says, “We don’t feel safe”. That’s allostatic load. The wear and tear from constant stress. It builds up when we don’t get enough recovery time. And where does it show up? Often in our lower back, where the root chakra lives. And in your diaphragm, where your breath gets tight and stuck.

 But here’s the good news. You can flip that switch. 

Breath is how we flip that switch.  By gently breathing into our belly and softening our diaphragm, you can turn these lights back on.  Your body relaxes, your energy flows, and your lower back feels supported from the inside out.

When you breathe deeply into your belly, your sides, and your back, you wake up these chakras. It’s like plugging them back in. The root chakra helps us feel safe and steady. The sacral chakra helps us feel calm and creative. And the solar plexus chakra gives us energy and restores our inner power.

When your chakras light up again, you feel safe, stable, and alive.

Try placing your hands on your belly. Inhale and imagine filling your belly, expanding it like a red balloon. This is your root chakra.  Gently watch the colour now turn to orange, for your sacral chakra. And finally, lifting just above your navel, letting it turn to yellow for the solar plexus chakra.  And then finally exhale. Letting your belly soften.  

According to Jack Kornfield, “Each breath is a chance to return to the center of who we are”.

 

Number 3: From Holding to Healing –  Why Breath Changes Everything

 Many of us have trained ourselves out of natural breathing, whether through trauma, posture, or pressure. We’ve learned to hold, brace, or even flatten our breath.

 But we’re doing ourselves a disservice here, because breath is our body’s built-in calming tool. When we’re rushing, holding in emotions, or constantly being switched on, hypervigilant, and on edge, our breath gets short and shallow. It is telling our nervous system to stay alert. Like you’re always being chased or pressured.  And over time,  that pattern can create tension in our belly,  pressure in our chest, and pain in our lower back.  It shuts down our diaphragm and dims our energy centers, our chakras.

But here’s the magic.   When we bring our awareness to our breath and let it soften,  we can start to shift everything.  We can calm our nervous system, ease tightness in our diaphragm, and lower back,  and light up our root, sacral, and solar plexus chakras. You improve your vagal tone, helping your body to relax and heal even more.   Breathing fully, helps our whole self  come back online.

 Breath is the most  powerful reset we have. Accessible anytime, anywhere.  So it is time to relearn the most basic rhythm of life. Your  Breath. Start with awareness  and then invite softness.

 Want to know  where your diaphragm is?

Try lying down on your back, placing something soft, like a soft toy or a small cushion, just at the bottom of your ribs, and watch as you breathe in and out.  That movement is your diaphragm at work, doing its job.   

One Exercise to Support Your Diaphragm and Your Energy

And our final piece of the puzzle,  an exercise to support your diaphragm and energy.

 There are a few steps. Start by sitting or lying in a comfortable position.

Step 1 – Inhale for the count four and then exhale for the count of four.

Slowly  building this up to six  or eight, as you feel comfortable.  Let the breath lengthen  without strain.  Feeling each inhale expand, and each exhale soften and release tension.

 Step 2 – Diaphragmatic breathing

• Place a hand  on your belly and one hand  on the side of your ribs.
• Inhale slowly through your nose, feeling your belly rise and your ribs expand sideways.
• Then exhale  through your mouth and nose. Letting your belly and ribs  gently return.
• Focus on the 360 degree area around your whole torso, and
• Gently breathe, expand, and relax, and come back to your baseline.

Do this for another five breaths.

And finally:

Step 3 – A short chakra light visualisation

• Closing your eyes and taking another deep breath in.
• As you inhale, imagine your breath filling your root chakra with red light, your sacral chakra with an orange light just below your navel. And finally, your solar plexus chakra just above your navel with a golden yellow light.
•  As you exhale,  feel the tension draining down and out through your body,  releasing any tension into the earth,  and repeat this several times with each breath, allowing the colors and sensations to grow even more vibrant and vivid. Repeat this several times. With each breath, allowing the colors and sensations to grow even more vibrant and vivid.
•  And finally,  closing this energetic practice in stillness, with one last deep breath. Rest your hands gently, over your heart, and one hand over your belly.  Take in one breath deeply in, and out. Letting your breath settle  and your body feel grounded, centered, and calm. With this In-breath, say to yourself – “I soften”. As you exhale, say “I return to my center,  to myself”.

 

 And in conclusion,  just notice  how much your breath is bridging your journey back home to yourself.  Your breath is your built-in reset button.  It connects every part of you, muscle, mood, and energy, and it’s always available and accessible.  When life pulls you off center, you can return anytime by returning to your breath.

So let it guide you back to your core, through your core, your hips, and your spine. Let it realign your energy. Let it bring you home.

 

Thank you for joining me in this series. I hope you found value in it.  And if you did. Please like and share it,  and join us next time for more tips to nurture your health, wellbeing, and positive mindset  to support you in living your most fulfilling life. 

May you move from your center, breathe from your power, and live rooted, flowing, and free.

So from my heart to yours,

Namaste. 

Sarah xx

Interested in further reading?

Unlocking Gut Health: Eastern Meets Western Wisdom

Relaxation Revolution: The Secret to Alleviating Lower Back Pain and Enhancing Your Well-being

Are Tight Hip Flexors Causing Your Lower Back Pain?

Beyond the Ache: The Amazing Link Between Fascia, Pain, and Emotional Well-being

Back to Balance: Clearing Lower Back Pain by Balancing Your Kidney Meridian

About Blossoming Me

BlossomingMe offers a fully integrated approach to your wellbeing. Located on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. Sarah is our Cranio-sacral and Remedial Massage Therapist and health and lifestyle coach. She can help relieve those problematic knots, tightness and other specific ailments to promote a healthy recovery. These complementary massage therapies can be combined to suit your needs, and include: craniosacral therapy, shiatsu, acupressure, reiki, remedial, swedish, and body-mind-massage. 

Our qualified Osteopath, Alexis, offers a drug free, minimally invasive, “hands on” treatment focusing on the musculoskeletal system with its associated muscles, tendons, ligaments, membranes, bones and joints. Alexis takes a functional approach. This means that she focuses on the way a component (body part, tissue or group of tissues) performs its role, as well as the way the body works, performs and integrates as a whole. Our team can support you to improve your posture and therefore your overall health.

**Disclaimer** The information provided by BlossomingMe, on our website, in our courses, and in our blogs and posts, is for educational and informational purposes only. The information provided on this site and social outlets is not, nor intended to be, a substitute for profess

ional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health professional before you make any changes to your health regime, before dealing with new symptoms, and, if something you have read here has raised any questions or concerns regarding your situation.