Breathing Better
We all know how to breathe. From our first breath, we've more or less nailed it. Through yoga, we refine and deepen and direct this skill, to better nourish the nervous system and feel the power of the breath in everything we do. We come to understand through feeling it that breath is a conduit through which prana (energy) moves within us, shapes us and carries us along.
"Just breathe" has become such a buzzy cliche—from bumper stickers to t-shirt slogans—that it's easy to discount. But, remember that first yoga class you ever took when you were invited to slow and deepen your breath with the curiosity of a deep sea explorer? I do. I was only 15, attending a class with my boyfriend's mother. Honestly, I was just trying to win her approval by accepting her invitation. But the gentle prompt to pause, to turn inward, and simply slow and deepen my breath was astonishing. For a 15-year-old in the grip of adolescent turmoil and hormonal pandemonium to feel a palpable downshifting of the nervous system? Well, that's empowering. I wouldn't have been able to put words to it, and back then "empowering" was not a word we tossed around, but it was profound enough to get me through the door of a yoga studio a few years later, when social anxiety and auditioning terror had me in their grip and I needed better coping techniques. And this time the practice stuck.
I hope you will join Erin on Saturday and learn how you to 'breathe better", truly a skill that will enrich your life and your yoga practice. Scroll down for more information and to register.
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“Pranayama is one of the most important and practices in yogic lifestyle. By practicing pranayama, the yogi is able to control the nervous system of the body, thereby obtain gradual control over prana or the vital force.
To breathe means to live and to live means to breathe. Every living thing depends upon breathing and cessation of breathing is cessation of life itself. From the first cry of the infant to the last gasp of a dying man there is nothing but a series of breaths. Yogis count life not by number of years but number of breaths. We constantly drain our life force or pranic energy by our thinking, willing, acting, etc. Every thought, every act of will, or motion of muscles uses up this life force and in consequence constant replenishing is necessary, which is possible mainly through breathing alone.
Just as oxygen is carried through the blood stream to all parts of the body, building up and replenishing, so is the prana carried to all parts of the nervous system. If we know that Yogis get most of their energy from the air, then the importance of proper breathing is readily understood. Whoever practices breathing regularly and systematically can feel in his own body this great effect of absorption of pranayama.”
