Breath is an incredibly powerful tool at our disposal to regulate emotions, manage stress, and improve our overall health. Yoga philosophy has acknowledged the importance of breath for physical well-being and calming the mind for over 3,000 years. It’s why so much there is so much attention to the breath in a vast array of teachings. Breath awareness is key to our asana practice. More importantly it is the foundation to advancing any pranayama practice to connect to our energetic life force. It seems so obvious, we’ve been breathing since the second we were born. It is something we don’t even have to think about. We breathe.
As a baby, we experience freedom and expansion in our breath. If you've ever watched a baby sleeping, you’ve witnessed the beauty of the innate breath - easy full breaths that expand the belly. However, when uncomfortable, a crying baby contracts the belly, restricting the breath to the chest and engaging secondary respiratory muscles. Without a deeper diaphragmatic breath, not only does this exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide become inefficient, but it shifts the nervous system into survival mode.
Physiologically, quick and labored breaths can strain our cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Psychologically, dwelling in anxiety and depression can wear down our spirit. By practicing daily, we gain the ability to consciously regulate our breath. The body signals discomfort through gasps and sighs, in attempt to break a holding pattern. Be conscious of the language of the body.
Breath Inquiry: A short breathing practice to practice anywhere, anytime.
How does your body feel as the inhale draws in with expansion and the exhale releases out with contraction?
Is there a quality to the breath? Heavy, light, warm, cool…
Is there a texture to the breath? Choppy, smooth, sharp, soft…
Where is there resistance in the body? Shoulders, chest, belly…
Deep Diaphragmatic breathing: The 3 part Breath.
During moments of intense emotional reaction, our breath feels drastically different from when we are calmly aware. However, a consistent awareness practice enables us to intentionally restore a normal breathing rhythm.
Set aside 10 minutes at least once a day to practice the 3 part breath, to engage deeper diaphragmatic breathing. This will bring deep restoration to the entire being. It can even promote sleep on those restless nights.
The Practice: Listen to the podcast 👆 or read the transcript here 👇:
Starting on your back. Lie down comfortably. You can either extend the legs fully or come into partial recline. Take a moment to settle and notice how you can align the body for optimal comfort.
It may mean that you keep the knees bent and widen the feet so the knees just prop up each other up it might mean you lengthen the legs but just take a moment to adjust your hair if you have anything in the way there anything pulling at the skull if you feel like your shoulders are shrugged up you can walk them down if you feel any overarching in the low back you can scoot the buttocks to the heels And for a few moments, focus on the exhalation.
As you exhale, feel the weight of the body melting into earth, feel everything start to soften. As you begin to settle into the mat, as you begin to arrive to your practice,
Begin to watch the thoughts. As you begin to notice distractions. And you can take a moment just to observe all of these things. Observe all the sensations in the body. The thoughts in the mind. The feeling as the breath draws in. And as the breath falls out.
How do you feel emotionally right now? What are you bringing to the mat?As you're here on the mat, what's showing up to be seen, to be heard? - to be known.
We're just seeing what it's like to exist in the present moment. For now, be guided from the inside out. Even as you hear my voice, be guided by your own sensations.
Keeping part of your awareness on the body. And shifting part of your awareness to the breath. How does the breath feel as it moves? How are you breathing right now?
Are you in your natural breath without any thought? Or because we are in position here to really work with breath, have you already shifted to a deeper breath? Just seeing where you are.
We'll begin to work with a three-part breath. I've learned this from various teachers, but there's one way in particular that resonates the most for me. In creating a full breath: Inhale- chest, ribs, belly, and then exhale belly, ribs, heart. And that's nice because it leaves you in your heart. Not only that, but it mimics, for most people, the flow of their natural breath. So you don't get so caught up in trying to follow along. You can go with something a little easier.
Feeling that light feathery air come in through the nose as best you can instead of the mouth tracing it down and bringing it into the chest, really focusing on the expansion at the chest, feeling the chest rise, feeling the collarbones widen.
You might notice the back ribs, the back of the shoulder bleeds, press into earth. But notice the full expansion, really working into that full expansion, guiding that inhalation in slowly. And at the very peak of the inhalation, let the inhalation fall and soften into the exhalation and let that exhalation fully draw back out from the chest.
And now we'll take the breath a little deeper in the body, drawing the breath down to the ribs. Feeling that full expansion at the ribs as the breath opens you up a little more fully and widens.
As you begin to pull the breath a little deeper in the body, you may notice other places in the body start to kick in with a little tension. I usually notice it in my shoulders or my jaw, but just noticing where it might be for you if it's true for you.
But seeing if there's anything that starts to work as you deepen the breath, maybe places in the body that really don't need to come into play. Take couple more breaths just to really find that full three dimensional space at the rib cage.
And then -Taking the breath even a little deeper on the inhale. It may move through the chest and the ribs, but really look for the expansion in the belly, that full ballooning of the belly as the diaphragm descends.
Letting the peak of the inhalation naturally fall into the release of the exhalation like a wave rolling in, and from the crest, it falls back out. So beginning to practice this wave-like motion of breath as you inhale, Breath draw through the chest to the ribs. Activating the diaphragm as you breathe nice and full and deep.
And then exhale, softening belly, ribs, and chest.
You can breathe. At your own graceful pace, inhaling chest, ribs, belly. Exhale, belly, ribs, chest. Resting in the heart for a moment. And then beginning again. Anytime the mind drifts off and guide it back to the breath.
Watch the breath. Actively guide the breath through these three parts of body as it rolls in and guide it back out. Resting in the heart just for a suspended moment or two before the next inhalation initiates.
Breath draws deeply in. And the breath falls completely out.
Take 10 full breath cycles in this way, two more waves of breath, drawing it down. And releasing it out.
Breathe Easy: Use Your Breath to Calm Your Mood and settle your Mind.
Emotions, thoughts, and mood can all disrupt our natural rhythm, and create a cycle where an altered breath pattern perpetuates a moody nervous system in fight, flight, or freeze reactions. We have all experienced moments of anxiety where our breath quickens, heart rate escalates, and the body constricts. In those worried moments, our thoughts fixate on the next moment- then the next- and the next. Without even being conscious of it, our breath follows suit. The exhalation is cut short grasping for the next inhale, an uneasy cycle of breath is established. Similarly, when we are deeply engrossed in spinning thoughts, we may unknowingly hold our breath, resisting the next one. It's almost like we hold it all in just so we can keep our s**t together.
Breath awareness is both a skill and a tool. Incorporating awareness into our lives can help restore a sense of steadiness during emotional reactions. The first step is to remember to breathe during elevated moments, feeling it in the body and noticing the subtle sensations and qualities of each inhale and exhale. A simple breath inquiry not only grounds us in the present moment but also helps us recognize patterns that perpetuate physiological and psychological cycles.
For More Breathing Exercises to Manage Mood, check out:
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