Didn't know the interior of your lungs was like a shag rug? Oh yeah, we're talking David Cassidy and Jell-O recipes. This fascinating photo shows it all! The shaggy pink threads are the alveoli filled with blood and the blue tubes/channels are bronchioles, which carry in the oxygen and carry away the waste products like carbon dioxide, water and, if present, alcohol vapor.
Now, here's for the imagery: imagine how these shaggy filaments look as air comes rushing into the space, eddying and swirling like the fluttering of leaves on trees:
A deeper and more vigorous inhale/exhale might bend and sway enormous stalks of alveoli like this. (Yes, it's windy where I live!)
This fluttering & shimmering is happening inside your lungs with every breath. Your lungs are more than a bellows or a pair of balloons sitting statically in your chest. They move, ripple, undulate, flex and respond to the wind currents.
Now soften your back muscles, your neck muscles, your chest muscles. Breathe in and out, in and out..... in your mind's eye visualize this responsive rippling inside your lungs. The next step is a bit more advanced but still quite do-able: if you could feel this rippling undulation of the lungs within your rib-cage, what would it feel like? Stop. Think about that for a few seconds. Imagine it. Take a few minutes to just breathe and imagine feeling the lungs shimmering in your ribcage. The crucial part is the imagining of the sensations. As you get familiar with the tools of imagery, you will transform the way you relate to your body.
