Week 1 ~ Experiencing Breath
This week we’ll be diving into our BREATH. This is a foundational aspect of any yoga and mindfulness practice.
Think about it: all day long, your body breathes for you. You don’t have to do anything or think of anything. It just happens on its own, thanks to our autonomic nervous system. That being said, most of us only use 33% of our total breath capacity or less!! That’s a lot of potential that we can tap into.
So before we get to this week’s practice techniques, let’s first give your brain something to roll around:
YOGA
“Yoga,” is a Sanskrit term. Sanskrit is of the oldest languages known to humans, deriving from the Indian continent. (Similar to how Latin is an ancient language from the European continent). Sanskrit is the language most often associated with the practices and teachings of yoga. The word “yoga” translates to English as “union” (a noun) as well as “to yolk.” (a verb.)
What this means is that inherent to this thing we call yoga is the idea that we are practicing to pursue a purpose (a goal, an achievement, an outcome - easy for our Western minds to grasp) as well as learning to participate in a process (to be present, moment by moment, without judgement, but with discernment, or differentiation).
Read that again. Take a moment to let it sink in. Go ahead, I’ll wait. 😌🕐
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Yoga is often understood as an exercise method to become more flexible. But in fact, the particular part of what we call “yoga,” which includes the poses we’ve all come to know and love, is actually called “Asana.” (Say it AH-sana). Asana often translates to “poses,” though it’s more literal translation is “seat” or “sitting down.”
Wait, what? I thought this was about moving and stretching?
It is… and the reason we do this is not just to become more flexible, relieve tension, anxiety, lethargy, get stronger, etc. etc. etc…. but it is to understand our unique and individual needs in order to become more familiar with ourselves, and achieve these goals.
It is often said, yoga is a journey to the self through the self. (Or through the self to the self, potato potahto.)
It is also said that the pelvic floor is the seat of the Self. (Self, as the capital “S” is said to represent our highest possible selves, when we are living in true alignment with our spirit… I would argue its more about living in alignment with your soul, but that’s a conversation for the next course!) If the seat of the Self exists at the base of the pelvic floor, and these poses are meant to symbolize this seat, then it can be inferred that through this physical practice of poses, breathing, stretching, trying, failing, sweating, panting, farting, etc. that we come to truly know our truest and highest selves by going through the, ahem, not-so-high versions of ourselves. We learn to go through struggles, hardships, and trial and error, which give us the perspective, the tenacity, and the gratitude to appreciate our inner strength and truest self.
Since you’re now one of the educated folk who knows about yoga’s noun-based definition as “Union,” you might have wondered, “union between what?”
Ahhhhhh, good yogi. You will see in time. For now, think of it this way:
Yoga is less a series of poses, and more a system; a map. It offers us an opportunity to understand the whole of ourselves (hence “holistic”), our unique blueprint, its many parts, and most importantly how they all relate to one another. Through practice, we have time, a place, and guidance to do the deep work of self-discovery: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, etc.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness offers us the opportunity to glimpse into the process part of our whole. At it’s root, it is the act of observing, moment by moment, without judgement, which often results in a greater capacity for discernment or differentiation. (“Ummm, yeah Calley, you already said that.”) I know. It’s important. 😌
Breathing posture
The diaphragm works best when we are sitting in such a way that our legs, hips, and shoulders are relaxed, and our spine is long and tall. I like to think of the spine as a string - imagine that we are hanging from a string out of the top of our head. This string keeps the spine being gently pulled upward, while the weight of our shoulders, arms, hips, and legs can “dangle” gently off the support of the spine.
The Breath
The breath, as we know it, consists of an inhale and an exhale. It comes in our lungs, it goes back out.
The Breath, According To Yoga
In yoga, there is a common term, “Prana.” This most often translates to “life force.” When you think about it, your breath is literally the thing giving you life. It only takes a few minutes of not breathing before your life would leave your body.
Another term that has been less popularized, but is the important cohort to prana is “Apana.” I like to think of both prana and apana as the effect of the inhale and exhale. Meaning, take a deep inhale, notice that feeling of fullness and energy filling your body - that’s prana. Take a full exhale, notice the feeling of release and settling in the body - that’s apana.
We are not just breathing for the sake of breath (the noun). We are breathing for the sake of what it does to our body -gives it new energy, fresh oxygen -aka life force- and releases unneeded energy, CO2 -a different kind of life force that plants can use. (The verb here being taking and giving, or receiving and releasing, depending on which way you look at it.)
In order to conceptualize our Prana and Apana, we will be practicing a few breath techniques this week. As you do each of these exercises please remember to not just “do” your inhale and exhale, but to “feel” them. If you’re struggling with this, it may be helpful to know that prana is said to reside in the chest cavity, surrounding our hearts. Apana is said to reside in the pelvis surrounding our pelvic floor. See if you can feel your inhales and exhales in these regions of the body as you practice each technique. Go as slow or as fast as you like.
