If you’re not breathing, you’re not living. Literally.
And if you’re not breathing well; you’re not living as well as you could be.
If you pay attention to your breath, you can learn a lot about how you’re taking life in. The breath is an amazing instrument for reporting the state of your internal weather systems. Take a moment to close your eyes and observe your breath. How would you describe your current internal ‘weather’? Calm, warm sunny skies? High winds and thunder showers? Once you’ve answered the question, read on.
Your breath is the link between your conscious and unconscious mind.
Amazingly, by taking control of your breath you can exert a measure of control over the state of your mind and emotions – you can control the weather inside!
If you are living in a state of chronic stress, your breath is likely shallow, rapid and clipped. You can actually choose to use shallow rapid breathing to induce a state of stress and anxiety, shifting your nervous system into fight or flight mode (sympathetic nervous system dominance).
Go ahead, try it!
You don’t want to live your life breathing this way. When the sympathetic nervous system dominates, adrenaline goes surging through the blood stream overtaxing your systems, putting you on edge and impeding the body’s ability to repair itself.
Conversely, you can address states of stress and anxiety by breathing deeply into the belly. This down-regulates the nervous system (activating the parasympathetic nervous system) and stimulates the body’s relaxation response. When the parasympathetic nervous system dominates the body heals and repairs itself and the mental/emotional weather pattern is calm and still.
Breathe better; feel better; heal better; live better.
If we can choose how we breathe (and we can!), we should opt for deep, abdominal breathing in times of stress.
Watch our stress relief videos instantly.
Read how to breath away stress.
Read more about your diaphragm.
Amanda – Thanks for the succinct yet extremely important article on the breath. I practice a yoga that is very breath centered and I cannot imagine how people practice without an emphasis on the breath. After well over 16 year of practice and over a decade of teaching I think of the breath as immediately accessible “aid” that is with me 24/7. I feel like in every situation that I encounter in life the breath can somehow enhance my experience bringing clarity, connection, or calm. The breath has such an immediate and profound affect on the quality of all aspects of life.
I love that this article centers on a person’s ability to change their internal weather with focus on the breath – what a gift to give students to feel empowered in the face of difficult times and strong emotions. It is a magical tool to counteract the stressors within our busy lives. In my current training, I’ve learned the expression “bare attention” on the breath and I think it has enormous use for practitioners – by recognizing where the breath is without changing it, we gather information about our internal state and can then use the tools described here to stimulate a sense of calm by generating abdominal breaths that can soothe us during stressful times. Magic indeed.
How has your breathing practice been enhanced or changed since taking and teaching Yoga Tune Up? I am currently in training and am finding myself challenged to consistsently find my breath
Amanda, thanks for the article, I regularly “listen to my clients” breathe and talk before we begin our session, to check their state of mind, and body.
When we are stressed, and breathing quickly, we also produce a stress hormone called cortisol. In a state of flight or flight , and you are stressed, your body finds it very hard to work correctly and holds on to calories. In saying that…. Breathe deeply to help your body burn calories and loose weight!
I teach anger management classes and always teach abdominal breathing in the first class. Generally, the students think I’m a little crazy when I assign home work of taking 5-7 abdominal breaths an hour. When they come back the next week they report being happily surprised that, Surprise! Surprise! It worked and they were much calmer.
@ Marilyn.
Great question, Marilyn. Before YTU, I mainly practiced and taught a style of yoga that treated pranayama and asana as distinct practices. One of the ways YTU training changed my approach to pranayama was that I felt freed to practice asana and pranayama at the same time! I also felt freed to play and invent new ways to coordinate breath with movement – which has literally allowed me to breathe new life into my asana practice. Enjoy the training!
Today we practiced 5 restorative hip exercises and Jill changed the breath for each exercise. Following the breath and changing it with each exercise had an incredibly relaxing effect on me. I will use this technique in the future to attain this relaxed state for my clients.
The breath is the wind of the spirit. When the spirit is low the breath seems barely there, when the spirit is agitated the breath is out of control, when the spirit is connected, the breath is long, smooth and deep. Can’t live without it!
It’s empowering for people to learn that they truly can change their relationship with their nervous system through the practice of abdominal breathing. I’ve found that just knowing they have some tools they can use — that they are not at the mercy of these feelings of stress — gives them a greater sense of well being.
The breath is so beneficial for many reasons! I loved doing this along with Thoracic breathing in Tubular Core taught by Jill in the Yoga Tune Up level one class. I found from breathing more fully I was able to relax and I was simply more aware!
This is a wonderful reminder that breath is the key to the control valves of the body and mind. I love the concept that breath can alter or shift your internal weather forcast~what vivid imagery!
I have an ever-evolving experience with my own breath patterns both on and off the mat, and am so incredibly humbled by how powerful and rich, small amount of dedicated attention breathing, can make such a difference in one’s day!
Thank you:)
Great article and a reminder that breath leads the way!
Thanks
Amanda, while I was familiar with these breathwork/ relaxation concepts -I love the way you paint the picture! As I read this, it reminds me of a general Stress Reduction/Relaxation class I used to teach for a PE Department at a college. I used to collect some pre-semester info re: medical conditions, medications, experience with stress and how it manifested for my students. It always amazed me to learn how many of my 17-24 year old students were taking prozac, zoloft, etc. Additionaly, some of the things they wrote about their stress and (lack of ) coping methods made me contemplate “what are these young adults going to do when they REALLY have adult troubles and need some coping skills”? Hopefully they learned some during the semester in my class. Now – as I read your excellent description of coping with stress in this healthy and most basic way –I wonder why we don’t teach this in elementary schools as a way for our young ones to learn the most basic “coping skills” in this stress and stimuli filled world? Thanks again for the reminder!
Actively practicing abdominal breathing the past 5 days when i can remember during my daily activities, but especially entering savasana and settling for sleep at night, has been incredibly soothing. It usually takes me a while to settle down for savasana and sleep but abdominal breathing has taken me directly into deep rest.