Stress

Breathe

Posted by Ramdas on Jan 28, 2011 | 1 comment

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