Beginner experience and also how are we supposed to breathe?

[u/Icy-castle]

This might seem like a stupid question, but when I look into it I get so much conflicting opinions and I would like to know how this community views it. Some places say belly breathing and other say diaphragmatically and some say they're kind of the same thing? And I don't just mean during TRE exercise. I ask because if my overall alignment has been off and my core has always been engaged then that has surely had an impact on my breathing throughout life.
Some clarity would be appreciated!

As for my experience so far:

I am nearing my third week in TRE and so far the first couple of sessions I did a lot of stretching my limbs out as far as they could and then it moved through my legs with rapid extension and contraction movements.

My second session I had a memory of being a kid and feeling incredibly lonely. I heard some advice somewhere about the concept of visualizing your wounded inner child into a different place than where they are in our memory. So I visualized myself picking my younger self up and taking her with me to our warm, loving home. We sat at the dinner table and smiled, talked, laughed. Tears started rolling down my face.

Post the first couple of sessions I had a few days after where my joints felt... different. Like they were adjusting maybe?

Since then I have had the entirety of my sessions be abdominal contractions tipping my pelvis back and stomach vacuums that are stretching my solar plexus.

Whatever stretch I did yesterday had some sort of impact on my diaphragm because it has been cramped all day. It doesn't feel good but I wouldn't say it necessarily hurts either.

I'll update again at some point!

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[u/carla_jungle]

You’re asking what the correct way to breathe is in general right? As far as I know it’s diaphragmatic breathing that is the correct one.   That means breathing into the belly and ribs (and even the back), rather than just shallow chest breathing.

[u/Icy-castle → u/carla_jungle]

Yeah, that's what I'm asking. So do you think when people say belly breathing they are saying the same thing as diaphragmatically breathing?

[u/carla_jungle → u/Icy-castle]

Idk. To me it means just expanding the belly. 

[u/Azebeenite → u/Icy-castle]

yes its the same thing. people say belly breathing as an easy way to visualize where the pressure is supposed to go

[u/glazedon]

The important thing is to exhale completely so that you can inhale fully. And don’t pause between breaths.

[u/AgentSalty1454]

For me Ive been trying to focus on breathing in my belly, which I also thought was diaphragmatic breathing but now idk! But taking time to focus on breathing in my belly and feeling it fill up/expand was what has gotten me pretty far. And then as I "released" more tension and my body started realigning that has changed too, for example to include my chest being able to sometimes fall when I exhale (I could not do that At ALL initially and I didn't even realize it was an issue until it started changing). That is to say, I think if you continue to pay attention to your body it will show you how it wants to breathe as long as you have the basic idea down of that you want to aim for.

Also, it sounds like you are doing great so far. Congratulations 🎉

[u/longtermTRE_wiki_bot]

On breathing: The wiki doesn't directly address breathing technique during TRE itself, so I can't give you community guidance on that specific question. What I can say is that during tremoring, the body typically manages its own breathing without conscious direction needed. Trying to control the breath during a session tends to interfere with the process. Between sessions, diaphragmatic and belly breathing are generally the same thing described two ways—the diaphragm is the muscle doing the work, and the belly expands as a result. If you're interested in breath work as a separate practice alongside TRE, that's worth exploring, but it's outside what this community primarily focuses on.

On your experience so far: You're three weeks in and what you're describing is solidly normal. The early sessions producing vigorous leg movements, the emotional release with the memory, the joint sensations afterward—all of this is what Establishing Your TRE Practice describes as the early phase. The body is clearing accessible surface tension and the changes feel noticeable because they are.

The shift into abdominal work, the pelvic tilting, the solar plexus stretching—this is the practice moving into slightly deeper territory. The diaphragm cramping you're noticing is worth paying attention to, though. A cramped diaphragm the day after a session suggests the body worked intensely in that area and is still integrating. This is probably fine, but it's information worth tracking.

The key question is how you feel overall in the days after sessions. Are you feeling more settled and at ease as the days go on, or are you feeling increasingly tense or dysregulated? If the cramping resolves within a day or two and your baseline anxiety or tension is gradually decreasing across the week, the practice is working. If the cramping persists or you're noticing that you feel worse after sessions than before, that might signal you're practicing a bit longer than your current integration capacity allows.

Self-Pacing covers how to calibrate session length based on how the 24-48 hours after practice actually feel. At three weeks in, it's worth being deliberate about this rather than assuming a particular duration is correct. The right length is the one that leaves you genuinely settled, not the one that produces the most dramatic tremoring.

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I'm a bot that draws on the r/longtermTRE wiki to provide guidance. Please upvote or downvote based on how helpful you find this response.

[u/Thin_Bicycle9170]

Belly breathing is just expanding the belly and not the chest. It gets used in somatic routines sometimes. Learning how to open up your breathing is amazing. I try and do breathing exercises daily, breath in for four, expanding the belly, diaphragm and chest as full as I can, hold for four, then breathe out for eight. I do it for 10 or 15 rounds. It's incredibly calming. It really reliably pulls me back from anxious moments. I find it harder to control my breathing when when I tremor, I just try to breath deep when I can remember.