Your breath happens so naturally that you often give it very little of your conscious thought or attention. Breath is life, it nourishes and supports your nervous system, it shows up in how you express your impatience, your relief, your exertion of energy and your ability to self regulate.
We are all predominantly a society of shallow breathers that manage to negate the importance of it, to notice its characteristics and just how it supports and sustains you on a day to day basis; because you are simply too busy or caught up to notice.
Yoga as a wholistic practice delves into the breath and offers you an experiential practice where you are able to consciously watch, feel, participate and unite with something so vital to your wellbeing it seems a refreshingly new concept to explore when you arrive there.
Begin By Noticing
I’ve talked about the Two-Minute Rule when you start to set up a new habit. In starting and sustaining a home yoga practice – the same rule applies to creating a more regular ‘breath-awareness’ practice for yourself.
Choose a space, dedicate whatever time you can afford, to simply sit and notice as much as possible and ‘do just that’; lovingly, patiently and non-judgmentally.
For you that might begin by paying attention to the way your body moves with your breath. Are you aware that one particular part of your body from your chest to your belly extends more than another area? You might notice it as a sensation that brushes your nostrils with a cool stream of air as your breath moves in and a warmer flow as your breath makes its way back out.
Then, you might become aware that there is a calmness settling over you like arriving somewhere that gives you the deepest sense of peace. Allow yourself the luxury of focusing your attention long enough on a single-pointed focus; this might just be your breath or even a particular sensation that your awareness is drawn to.
For some, you might notice that your attention has just moved from your breath to a rather long ‘to-do’ list and this is totally normal. It takes practice to retrain something that is habitual. It takes a good deal of your patience and kindness to observe your inner dialogue instead of identifying with it. You are NOT your thoughts. You have control to redirect your energy and awareness to where it most supports you. Take it back!
Deepen Your Awareness of Your Belly
As you become more aware of your breath, chances are you will watch for it more often throughout your day. You might start to notice situations that suppress it as well as opportunities that allow it to breathe, with intent. Then, you might feel ready to deepen that practice.
Deepening your awareness targets a more conscious effort to invite your breath into particular parts of your body and a great place to begin is in your belly, whilst laying on your back. Your belly breath will likely offer you the fullest potential and deepest experience of the breath.
You might notice that as you inhale the belly rises and as you exhale it softens back towards your spine. See if you are able to match the length of the inhale to your exhale OR better still lengthen your exhale until you have exhausted it (without strain). You might like to take at least six breaths into the belly to become more familiar with its movement and qualities.
Tune In To the Movement of Your Ribs
Now see if you are able to isolate the movement of your breath into your ribs. This might likely feel as though they are expanding outwards and upwards and away from one another on your inhale and being corseted in towards each other on your exhale.
If you learn best through ‘touch’ and ‘doing’ then I invite you to bring your hands to rest on your outer ribs and connect with the movement in a more meaningful way to you. Just like your belly breath; pause here long enough to become familiar with the qualities and how this breath supports you.
Explore Your Chest Breath
If you think about yourself in a stressful or fight-flight mode, chances are when a situation you are experiencing has passed you notice that your breath was shallow and you felt totally unsupported by it. It might have even felt like you had stopped breathing altogether.
The capacity to breathe into your chest alone, without the other two components supporting it, might feel a little limiting. It is with this in mind that you might only consider the experience of the chest breath briefly OR at least long enough to feel its qualities in comparison to your belly and rib breaths.
You’re on your way to a More Conscious Breath
Once you commit to a more conscious awareness of your breath, and a dedicated practice that supports that consciousness, you will begin to reap the rewards on a mental, physical and physiological level. It can be a transformative practice that you begin to crave more and more often.
Remember, a class environment with an experienced teacher is always the best environment to be supported and guided through deeper practices of breath awareness. Use their knowledge to your advantage.
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