Stress management and relaxation are just two of the benefits you will find with yoga as it bleeds over into daily life. Even when I am not actively practicing yoga, I use yoga breathing to relax during my day. This is to be expected since deep breathing relaxation methods are used to manage stress.
The In Breath
In yoga, you want to breathe in through the nose. You should avoid belly breathing and rather expand your chest to open your lungs. When you are engaging your core, it is impossible to belly breathe. In vinyasa yoga the breath moves with the poses. When a pose is difficult, you will often find you hold your breath. As in life, the difficult times require you to keep breathing when the instinct is the opposite.
The Out Breath
You want to breathe out through the nose as well, and it is a forceful exhalation that produces a whooshing sound. A new yogini must find the heavy breathing in class a bit odd. This is called ouija breathing, which warms the body and improves oxygen usage.
This breath helps push more air out of the lungs. This really allows a dramatic release of tension. It feels a bit like ‘blowing off steam’, and it is an amazing breathing relaxation technique.
Yoga class usually includes a few cleansing breaths as well. In this case the exhalation does come through the mouth with a sigh. Typically these are used right after a more challenging sequence. In life it is important to incorporate these sighs during or after some of your more intense challenges.
In my daily life, I will automatically find myself practicing deep breathing relaxation. I find my yoga practice has created this automatic response for me. Without consciously trying, I will begin taking deeper breaths when I need it most. Occasionally I catch myself holding my breath when tense, and this gives me the opportunity to switch to deeper breathing.
I’ve heard yoga instructors say that a single, conscious breath makes a yoga practice. This allows the stress management benefits from yoga to bleed over into life. You will enjoy the fact that relaxation with yoga breathing becomes automatic over time. Yoga just may be the only breathing relaxation technique you need.
Tags: Yoga