Do You Do Breathing Exercises?
First things first, I too was raised by wolves. I’ll tell you all about it sometime soon, but among the many cool-but-strange things my mother did when I was a kid was practice breath of fire.
For those of you not steeped in yoga culture, breath of fire is a sequence of quick, guttural (because you used your abdomen) exhales through the nose. It sounds like a dog panting in the middle of summer, kinda fast and furious. But it’s actually very controlled. (Note to mothers: For a small child it can appear a little bit scary. You might want to explain to the kids that mommy is not hyperventilating.)
Anyways, breath of fire is a great way to energize the body, clear out toxins, clear the mind, or in a moment of rage or frustration especially—calm the eff down. Siobhan and I, when we were younger and had jerkier bosses, each had a secret place at our offices where we would go to do this.
Alas, it is still a part of my at-home yoga practice. But these days, I’ve been more focused on another type of breathing: alternate nostril breathing. This is a much slower practice that involves, as the name implies, inhaling through one nostril and exhaling through the other, then inhaling through that one—retaining the breath in between—and exhaling through the other. There’s a nifty hand position explained in this video (though she doesn’t demo the retention). The slower you can get it, the more calming it feels. It depends on the day, but I usually breath in on a 4-second count, retain for 12, and exhale for 8 or so.
It is a very powerful practice, and I believe its effects are both immediate and lasting throughout the day. As I told you guys a few weeks ago, I’ve been experiencing signs of imbalance lately that I believe are related to years of sustained stress. In my quest to set my body and mind straight, I came across an incredible book called Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life. Its author Dr. Claudia Welch, is an Ayurvedic doctor and practitioner of Chinese Medicine. She’s also a great writer.
This book has changed my life, and you’ll be hearing more about it. I aspoke to Dr. Welch on the phone for a long time this weekend, and will be featuring an interview with her on the site soon.
It was her writings that reminded me just how effective simple alternate nostril breathing can be on health. In the book it’s one of her key prescriptions for women experiencing any kind of hormonal-slash-life imbalance, and since I’ve been doing it daily I’ve noticed real changes.
Alternate nostril breathing seems to instantly quiet the monkey brain, and lull me into a more meditative state. It’s said to balance the male and female forces in the body, as well as the left and right brain. On a less esoteric note: It also clears my sinuses and helps me breathe better too. :) Do you have a breathing practice?
Yup, I do, but I’m a yoga teacher. Outside of class, it’s not a regular, scheduled thing, though. I use the different breathing practices like tools throughout the day; alternate nostril breathing to balance wayward energy, simple breath to come back to the moment, 3-part breath to calm down. You get the drift. I need a lot of slowing down.
I am really grateful to finally have a regular class, which is forcing me to rediscover some of the more unusual breathing practices that I either didn’t like (breath of fire, caused killer headaches), or just forgot about (bee breath).
That reads like some big name-dropping fest… competitive pranayama’ing! But now you have me thinking about what would happen if I did it daily again…
I’m going to give this a go! When you say imbalance, do you literally mean your balance is off i.e. vertigo? I have been experiencing that lately. Will check out the book :) thanks
I don’t, and I kind of had trouble with it when I tried it years ago. I often have a stuffy or runny nose (though much better on my current diet) that made me feel like I couldn’t do it. But maybe I just need to persevere. I’ve been thinking about it recently upon a revisiting of BKS Iyengar’s Light on Yoga.
I’ve tried alternate nostril breathing and liked it a lot. I, too, need a lot of slowing down so this is something I should be doing regularly.Thanks for the reminder!
Ha! I love breathing! But seriously though, the best thing to do in a stressful, hectic day is to just tune out for a few minutes (I like to stare vacantly into space), and just focus on breathing and nothing else. Even 30 seconds of this can make all the difference. Alternate nostril breathing is amazing when you have a bit more privacy, but regular ol’ deep breath in, slight hold, sighing breath out can work wonders, and it’s fine to do on public transportation or even in a meeting.
It’s funny but when I was younger and also had jerkier/impossible bosses (was this in Montreal for you guys too? And if so…what’s up with that!?) this was the difference between raging at the Xerox machine in tears or having a fight with a client on the phone just ’cause and being cheerful and (as my dad would say) a coolcumber.
Oh, and for breath of fire, I love Sadie Nardini’s videos for that. She keeps it just as silly as it looks, but in a totally respectful and useful way, if that makes any sense.
Totally trying it tonight!
I got into doing breathing exercises as a way to cope with panic attacks, which I used to have a lot. It started out with just inhaling deeply and exhaling for double the number of counts, or inhaling and thinking ‘breathe in calm’ and exhaling ‘breathe out panic/fear/etc’. It really helped me. Then about a year ago a good friend of mine who is a Tai Chi expert taught me one of the Taoist Six Healing Sounds. He prescribed one particular one for me to do 9 times over, morning and evening. It’s breathing while doing a simple movement, and making or imagining a simple sound – I think of it as a kind of prayer.
It is very calming and brings me a sense of focus. Also when I am doing it I picture myself in the beautiful garden in Spain where I first learnt it (you’re encouraged to do it outdoors or at least looking out at nature) and the happy memory of that helps too! Definitely good for keeping the panic at bay, dealing with stressful days at work etc. I highly recommend it!