On Holding Your Breath
On returning to the healing and calming power of the breath… and a simple practice to tune in.
In these wild and trying times, do you find yourself holding your breath, maybe a bit more than usual?
So often we hold our breath, in times of challenge, stress, and even trauma.
Whether working the front lines, stuck at home attempting to work with restless children needing attention, navigating new financial hardships or simply reeling from the uncertainty of what is and what will be, life feels stressful and demanding for many of us right now.
Since this pandemic began, and more recently in looking at “returning to normal” or re-opening, I have been ever more aware of this collective breath holding:
waiting until that moment we can re-emerge from our homes, socialize, hug each other, go to restaurants, remove our masks…
In the last couple of weeks, as the temps have increased in Arizona and stay-at-home has continued, it has been a real balancing act of managing work and the basics while holding space for my child’s tears and meltdowns and his desperate missing of friend time and human interaction.
In spite of my best efforts to reframe for him (and me), and to provide lots of hugs, empathy and resilience-building techniques, I’ve witnessed in numerous moments my own breath holding – and admittedly, periodic prayers for an exit strategy.
And as I have done many times in life and most recently, I reminded myself – and him – that I needed to return to that beautiful and sacred healing space that is my breath.
I imagine – and hope – this might resonate.
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In the practice of yoga, the breath (pranayama) is as important as the postures or movement (asana).
We breathe consciously, using the breath to deepen into the physical postures, to ground into our presence here on this earth, with body-mind-spirit awareness.
To hold the breath in yoga is to restrict and constrict, to cut off our awareness, to risk injury in difficult poses. When we have experienced stress and trauma, we tend to constrict the breath and may, in a sense, find ways to exit our bodies, in order to avoid being with what is hard and scary.
Holding our breath and waiting, though, is not in service to our individual and collective well-being, healing or next steps. And in fact, it may prevent us from accessing our inner healing capacity and finding our inner calm that we so need in these times.
As yoga teachers, we teach and remind students to bring awareness to and deepen the breath, acknowledging that it can heal, cleanse, ground, help us to grow and enhance our “prana”, our vital life force.
When the postures grow difficult and more intense, it is ever more important to return to the steadiness and grounding of the breath to keep physically safe and mentally steady. We engage our breath to stay present to whatever is.
As with all things yoga, that which we learn and do on the mat can be used to serve us, as we learn and do in our lives, off the mat.
Thus, if we are in a challenging yoga posture, seeking growth on our mat, OR we are challenged in our personal lives, in the middle of a pandemic with unprecedented demand, hard conditions and uncertainty, we can use the breath to find our center, our inner wisdom, our calm, and to help us grow and enhance our life force.
Breathing deeply, steadying ourselves, grounding, enhancing our healing capacity, this is in service to our individual and collective well-being, healing, and a path toward a new and better “normal”.
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I invite you to pause for a moment.
Take a big breath in through your nose, and exhale fully through your mouth.
Take another inhale, feeling expansion in your ribcage, feeling your spine grow taller.
As you exhale, keep the feeling of expansion as you breathe out until empty.
Breathe in, expand.
Breathe out, find empty.
If you’re finding yourself dancing with anxiety and worry, let your exhale be a little longer than your inhale.
Now imagine breathing in through your heart, breathing out through your heart.
Imagine breathing in kindness, self-compassion, the deepest, most tender care you can imagine for yourself. And then breathe it out, as an offering to another dear to you, near or far.
Repeat. Many times.
Do this simple breathing and awareness practice for 3-5 minutes, as many times a day as you need. This shifts the state of your nervous system, allows you to come into the present moment, and helps you to tune into your own inner guidance.
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Here’s to all of us breathing deeply, through whatever we are experiencing, for however long we are here.
I’d love to hear how your breathing is - and how you are - right now.
I’ll be sending out some information soon on an offering for us to breathe and pause together.
For now, may we all return to that beautiful and sacred healing space that is our individual - and collective - breath.
Many blessings, and wishes for good health and well-being for you and your loved ones,
Kelly