Better Breathing = Better Life

Breathing is the one physiologic process that you can actually control. You can’t digest half a carrot but you can do different things with your breath. And what’s really cool is that if you don’t choose to do anything with it, the body will remember to breathe so you can stay alive! Do you know how many breaths you take per day? Some of you yoga students might have a good guess. Think of a number right now. The answer is 21,600 give or take a few. Can you imagine sitting and counting how many breaths you take in a day? Seems like a daunting task to me but the yogis did it in their quest to understand their existence.

I love exploring my existence and all kinds of energy! Teaching and practicing yoga and meditation is just a way of life for me. I love watching people explore their bodies and minds and see the way out of some compulsion or pattern they are stuck in. It brings me great joy to support people on their journey to the truth of who they really are. The tools I use are time tested and I remain totally committed to them. They include all kinds of energy work, shamanism, plant medicine and journeying into the unseen realms, all aspects of yoga, and sacred geometry and gridding with crystals, stones, rocks and fossils. If you want to take the next step, visit SuzanneGoldston.com.

Would you say you are a good breather? What does that even mean? Pause for a moment and connect with your breath. Where do you feel the inhale begin? How long does it last? What sound is your breath making? Take a few more breaths here and just get to know your own breath better. What did you learn? 

Let’s go back now and make a few adjustments. First, sit up nice and tall with the head, neck, and trunk aligned. Our posture makes a huge difference in our ability to take a good, deep breath. When we slump, it compresses the lungs and makes it harder for the diaphragm to release down on the inhale. A commitment to better or more conscious breathing means a commitment to better posture. Simply improving our posture would help us with so many things. This is something I pay a lot of attention to in my yoga classes. Small corrections in a student’s posture can be a real game changer. So let’s sit up nice and tall, both feet on the floor if possible, chest lifted and shoulders back and down on the back. Now on the inhale, let your belly expand outwards. Let it get big and round like a balloon. On your exhale, slightly contract the navel back towards the spine. Inhale belly out, exhale belly in. Put your hand on your abdomen. Make sure that on the inhale that the first movement is your hand moving outward and on the exhale the hand moves inward. Try not to make it about effort. Instead pay attention to the smoothness of the breath. Make it smooth and easy. Inhale belly out, exhale belly in. Just keep going. Get into an easy natural rhythm. Focus your attention on nothing but inhale belly out, exhale belly in. Check in that your posture hasn’t changed and you’re still sitting up nice and tall with the head neck and trunk aligned. This is the foundation of proper breathing. Basically it’s the way the creator designed our bodies to breathe. 

The lungs are vessels that hold oxygen and transport it into the blood supply among other things. The diaphragms are the breathing muscles. There are 3 of them working in tandem with each other to accomplish what we call breathing. Think of them kind of like parachutes that pull air in and push it out. If the pathways are congested, less oxygen and nutrients can be transported where they are needed and this is the cause of many diseases. The lungs also represent our ability to take life in fully. Life is a lot sometimes right? It’s hard to make sense of it all or process or accept what is happening at times. When we are afraid, we naturally and unconsciously hold our breath. The number one organ using the breath is what? Guess. Do you give up? It’s the brain. So poor breathing habits can affect mental clarity especially with the older population. They are often very shallow breathers and doing a lot of breathing through their mouths. This is not good at all. One of the ways you can really help your elders is to teach them good breathing habits. Minimally make sure they aren’t breathing through their mouth predominantly and if they are, find out if congestion is the reason why and address that. Far too many people accept congestion as the way it is when they don’t have to deal with it if they are willing to do a few simple things consistently. Breathing is a habit. And as we talked about in another show, habits are not always conscious. The body is focused on survival and self preservation so breathing is a must but that doesn’t mean we are doing a good job of it. And who taught you to breathe anyway? No one? Exactly. I think our natural instincts are good but can easily be compromised by disease, trauma, fear, fight or flight responses or just lack of attention. And speaking of a lack of attention, far too many yoga classes do not include pranayama which is loosely translated as breathing practices. It’s actually so much more than that but for our purpose right now that’s a good definition.
You might think why should I practice breathing when my body does it for me without thinking. I have enough to think about. I’m not really talking about thinking about breathing. I’m talking about paying attention to how you are breathing. And not just that, but making time each day to focus on nothing but your breathing. Breath is directly connected to mind. If you are frightened, your respiratory rate will naturally increase to prepare you to run! By the same token, if you are sad or depressed, your breathing may also reflect that and lack fullness and depth. And to top it off, modern science has proven that if we take less breaths per minute, we live longer. You heard me right. Something most of us want is to live longer. Better breathing can literally make that a reality. And if it’s been proven in the scientific world, that’s the final vote of approval many people need to sit up and take notice of this ancient way of working with your life force energies by working with your breath. 

Let’s go back now and sit up nice and talk, head neck and trunk aligned. Shoulders are back and down on the back. Spine is long and tall. THe hands can rest in the lap or on the thighs as you wish. Now inhale and let your belly completely expand outwards. Think big round belly. Take in as much air as you can. Exhale and let the navel contract back towards the spine. Come to the end of that exhale and then smoothly inhale again. Fill up to the very top remembering it’s not about effort but about attention, and exhale and release the same amount nice and smooth. Take a few more rounds. Focus the mind on nothing but the breath to make sure you are doing the very best job of breathing possible. Notice any congestion you may not have been aware of. Allow a smooth flowing rhythm. Now I want you to really focus on your exhale. Exhale for as long as you possibly can and then squeeze out just a little more. Then smoothly quietly fill up the lungs like you’re filling up a glass from the bottom up. Again, exhale slowly and smoothly as much air as you possibly can. Repeat this a few more times. If we become good exhalers it will naturally improve our inhalations. Now let your normal breath pattern return. Notice the difference. Any time you devote to this kind of practice is time well spent. I do pranayama every day sometimes more than once. It is part of my meditation practice and I know I sleep better and actually need less sleep when my pranayama practices are really on point.