Have you ever seen a jellyfish in the ocean? It expands and contracts as it moves through the water. It looks as if it is breathing. Every inch of our torso can move with breath.

Child’s pose is a great exercise to explore your breath and how if affects your body. Come into a comfortable child’s pose with the knees apart and big toes touching. First bring your attention to your abdomen. Relax your belly and let the breath move the belly in and out. Notice any other parts of the lower torso that can move when you breathe in this posture. Notice how, when the belly expands, the front of the ribcage and the hips move toward your thighs. Notice how the sides of the waist expand and the ribcage opens laterally. Now bring your attention to your lower back. Keep breathing and feel how the breath allows the lumbar spine to spread sideways. See if you can feel movement all the way down the lower back into the buttocks, even into the sit bones of the pelvis. Relax the buttocks and anus and bring the breath even deeper into the pelvis, which will create the sensation of the anus and perineum opening. When the body is free and unencumbered by tension the whole torso breathes, gently and gracefully moving like a jellyfish. Breathing in child’s pose is an especially good posture to get the lower part of the torso moving with breath.