A new lady in my class today, proclaimed at the end of it, that she realised she hasn’t been breathing properly for years. The class was therapeutic in its nature with the intention for students to not only become more aware of the diaphragm but also to expand their awareness of the subtle energies of Prana, our life force energy, that is flowing through our entire body as a result of the breath.
Breathing correctly was an absolute revelation for her. She left excited, glowing and hungry for more of what she had just experienced through this shift in awareness that took less than one hour. A lovely conversation started with another student who has been coming to classes for four months. Not a long time, and yet she was relaying stories about how specifically the breath work and awareness of her breathing throughout the day was helping her to respond differently to the stressful situations and challenges of her life.
In Yogic philosophy, it is said that the stale air left in your lungs from inefficient breathing is the cause of much of the stress that you experience in your mind. I will attest to this from my direct experience having suffered many years with panic attacks, hyperventilation shallow breathing and having a history of lung related conditions including pneumonia.
I’ve unravelled years of dysfunctional patterns of breathing through my Yoga breath practices. These days I rarely have an asthma attack to the point I no longer carry an inhaler. Learning diaphragmatic breathing, ujayii pranayama and instinctively extending my capacity to exhale has changed my relationship with breathing and my health for the better.
Poor breathing patterns often arise through trauma. When we don’t feel safe there can be a tendency to either hold breath or over breathe. Situations and energies that resemble those present at the trauma can easily trigger the body into flight or fight responses, so if you feel your poor breathing patterns are as a result of trauma, it can be helpful to explore with a therapist the root causes of your fight and flight reactions, whilst also retraining yourself to breathe correctly.
I’m currently reading (well, listening to) Breath – The New Science Of A Lost Art by James Nestor. I thoroughly recommend you checking it out if you think you aren’t breathing correctly and even if you think you are. It’s not a dry anatomy book but full of James very funny personal experience and experiments, about how crooked teeth is related to poor breathing and why humans have become the worst breathers in the animal kingdom.
There are many stories of many people who have overcome, what modern medicine deems incurable conditions, through learning to breathe correctly. The is why in Yoga practice the breathe always comes first. Without correct breathing we are building our physical Yoga practice on shoddy foundations.
Join us tonight for Meditation Cafe 7.30pm on zoom. We always start with Pranayama (breath work) to cultivate efficient breathing and to prepare us for deeper states of Meditation. Here’s the registration link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEldOChpzojGtJfYwKoo8EzYRXmu3dKrY6c
Meditation Cafe is free by default. If you’d like to “Buy Me A Coffee” in the Cafe to express your Gratitude, or make a donation, you can do so here:
http://paypal.me/thebendywitch
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The Bendy Witch 