Pranayama
Breathe
Have you ever heard me or another teacher say that in a class? I’m sure you probably have. Why do we, yoga teachers, bring up breath so much? Breathing is such a simple action and one that we each do unconsciously hundreds, even thousands of times a day. Without breath, the 
body dies just as without a heart beat the body dies. Unlike a heartbeat, however, it is very simple to control breath, just think the words “long slow inhale, long gentle exhale” and the breath immediately lengthens and slows. As the breath slows, the body relaxes and the mind becomes calm and focused.
Breath is the bridge, the link, between the body and the mind. If the body shortens the breath, the mind becomes agitated. If the mind shortens the breath, the body becomes agitated. Both are fight or flight responses with the body and mind preparing for action. Now, don’t make any changes and just notice your own breath. What is it like? If you’re like the majority of people, the breath is shallow—filling the top third or so of the lungs—and the breath is fairly rapid. Shallow, rapid breath is the body’s signal to the brain to prepare for fight or flight. Most of us live on the cusp of our flight or fight response, why? We live under constant, low-level tensions.
When the body is well fed, it has a capacity for activity and when it needs more food, the body experiences hunger pangs. Everyone knows how to relieve hunger pangs: Eat something! Similarly, the mind has a capacity to deal with tension but once the tension exceeds the mind’s capacity, tension becomes stress. When stress goes unresolved, it lowers the capacity of the mind to deal with tension which means more of the tension becomes stress and, very quickly, a vicious cycle forms. You may have experienced this yourself, one thing after another piles up in your life and the stress builds and builds until finally, one little thing “goes wrong” and BOOM! Emotions explode. How those emotions explode is different for everyone, for some it might be raging anger or torrents of tears and for others it might be mind numbing depression. Regardless of the shape of the explosion, the root cause is the same: Stress but why, why are so many of us so very stressed?
Unlike hunger pangs, most of us are unsure how to relieve stress. We may have means for temporarily treating stress such as taking a luxurious bubble bath or running a few miles or working out at the gym. Usually, however, these are only temporary fixes and stress levels quickly race back to unhealthy levels. So, how to relieve stress? Breathe. Too simple, right? Remember breath is the signal to both body and mind to prepare for fight or flight. It is also the signal to mind and body to relax and be at ease, the key is long, deep inhales and gentle, slow exhales. Have you ever heard someone say, “Take a deep breath and relax”? Take five, ten or even fifteen minutes right now and breathe. Long, deep inhales and gentle, slow exhales. Notice how simply changing breath changes the level of relaxation in the body and the level of ease and peace in the mind.
Now, there are other tools to help release stress, if there weren’t then I wouldn’t say, “Breathe. Relax. Let go. ” but I’ll write about those other tools in upcoming entries. Until then, remember to breathe.
Jai Bhagwan
Read MoreBreathe. Relax. Let Go.
I have been trying for four days to write an entry here. I had a topic in mind and I’ve written quite a bit but it just didn’t feel right, didn’t really fit. It was actually to the point that I could not force myself to continue writing on the topic. What was the horrid topic? Life is full of ease when one is happy. It’s true and I can teach anyone how to live with ease and how to be happy no matter what shows up in life. Yoga is about ease, freedom, liberation. It is about living happy, content and with a sense of ease. That, however, is not what was coming out of my fingers as I typed; so, I let it go.
There is a very clever aspect of yoga called svaadhyaya or self-study. This basically means that I observe my own actions and reactions and learn from them. As soon as I let go of the need to write about ease and happiness, I noticed that I felt happy and at ease. Why? Was it because I gave up on something hard? Was I just taking the easy way out?
“The path of least resistance is the path of the loser.”
~ H. G. Wells
“The path of least resistance makes all rivers, and some men, crooked.”
~ Napoleon Hill
By not writing on a topic that was hard, am I now a loser or in danger of becoming crooked? I often say, “Breathe. Relax. Let go.” Am I encouraging students, friends, family and myself to simply take the easy way out? No, if you have been in my class and heard me say, “Breathe. Relax. Let go.” then you know that I usually say that while everyone is holding a pose. Knees frequently are shaking or arms are trembling and there I am saying, “Breathe. Relax. Let go.” The easy way out would be to hold the breath, struggle and force yourself through the pose. In the beginning it actually takes more discipline to simply breathe, relax and let go because that is exactly the opposite of what most of us naturally do.
Sometimes struggle, hard work and great effort is exactly what is needed and sometimes, quite often actually, it is simply ego trying to control the situation. The question then is how can one tell the difference between needed effort and optional, unhelpful effort? Ease. Sound crazy? Maybe it is, maybe it is but before making that decision, consider this: Have you ever done something hard but completely enjoyed, even felt refreshed by doing it? This almost always happens for me when I’m mowing my lawn. I have almost 1/3 of an acre of grass to mow so I know I’ll be at it for a while. I also know that if I’m distracted by all the other things I would rather do that mowing the lawn will be a terrible drag. Knowing that I don’t want to be miserable, I let go of whatever else I could be doing and just focus on mowing. When I do this, all the work of mowing comes with a sense of ease.
The same basic thing happened with this blog post. The first topic filled me with struggle and effort and there was absolutely no ease in it. This entry, on the other hand, has almost written itself. Both required the effort of typing and thinking and feeling and editing but one was a moment to moment struggle and the other was a breath of fresh air.
Remember, when the going gets tough, the tough breathe, relax and let go.
Jai Bhagwan
Read MoreStudent Question: Waiting to Exhale
Debbie writes: “I am struggling with long deep inhales. The exhales seem easy, but I am having difficulties with the inhales being long enough to get in place in a pose. Then I tend to hold my breath until you say exhale, or I go ahead and exhale and I’m supposed to exhale for the next move but I’m supposed to be on an inhale.” In short, Debbie’s breath is not matching the cues being given in class and this feels disruptive for her. Breath is intended to increase stillness, relaxation and ease and to not introduce disturbance; so, if breath is causing disturbance during your sadhana, you have an opportunity to create more ease simply by working with the breath.
First, remember the intention of breath: Breath increases stillness, relaxation and ease. Second, remember this simple rule about breath: Hold the pose, do not hold the breath. This rule is always true during a regular asana sequence. Keeping these two points in mind, there are three options for working with the breath that may be helpful.
Fix It
The first tendency many of us have is to think that this is a breathing problem that needs to be fixed. This problem can be fixed by regular pranayama practice or through other means of strengthening the cardiopulmonary systems like running, aerobics or some other exercise. With effort and time, lung capacity will increase and the problem will be resolved. I do not recommend this for various reasons.
Flow With It
The teacher has just said, “Inhale and step the right foot back into lunge,” but you just finished an inhale and need to exhale. Unless the teacher is a drill sergeant, it is very unlikely that “Inhale right now” is what the teacher is directing you to do; so, simply remain in place until your next inhale.
I very frequently say “On your next inhale/exhale move” and yet I always see nearly the entire class immediately move, only one or two students actually wait for their breath. Waiting for the breath allows your asana flow to follow your own natural rhythm rather than mechanically following directions. This approach will help you see this as an opportunity rather than a problem and I do recommend this approach, very highly.
Let It Be
There is also the distinct possibility that just remembering where to place hands and feet in each pose is about all you can manage right now and throwing breath on top of it is just too much. If that’s the case, just let go of focusing on breath for now. Just remember to always hold the pose and do not hold the breath. As you continue your sadhana, you will find that the asanas come naturally and you can focus more on breath. I would encourage any student in this situation to first experiment with the flow of breath as I note above but, again, if that still creates disturbance then just let it be for now.
Hold the pose. Do not hold the breath.
Now Breathe. Relax. Let Go.
Jai Bhagwan
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