I’ve got balls!
These toys are super useful to help create better breathing which leads to better emotional health, less stress reactivity and better aerobic capacity.
HOW does one ball do all that?
They make amazing tools for releasing tension in the abdominal wall where stress & tension often sits out of conscious awareness and restricts our breathing. This can also happen from vigorous athletic training. 
Many people I see for breath coaching carry tension in their shoulders, neck, abdominal wall or back. All of this can restrict our ability to breathe and sometimes make us feel more tense (this is called a negative feedback loop).
The antidote to this often includes mobility exercises such as with these mobility balls, heat on the abdomen from a heating pad or hot water bottle, and movement such as twisting, inverting and stretching to create expansion. Sometimes simple awareness of the tension is enough but if it persists, try experimenting with some of these tools.
If you feel your breath in shallow or unsatisfying, check in with yourself on where you feel tight or restricted. I offer simple functional breathing assessments. If you feel like breathing is stressful for you or something you worry about, don’t sit in silence hoping it will just get better, I’d love to help you break any embodied patterns of tension that might be holding you back from being at your best.
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