“Breath: The Song of the Soul”

“I find belly breathing to be really challenging[….] Also, I feel like I am often behind the teacher’s cues for breathing. Any suggestions?”

If you have ever watched a baby breathe, you have noticed how her belly will rise when she inhales and that her belly will fall when she exhales. Somehow, though, as we age many of us lose this natural capacity for full, deep breaths. Some hypothesize that we created shallow, upper chest breathing to prevent our bellies from looking too “full”; regardless of the cause, in our yoga practice we have many opportunities to reconnect with this most natural breath. Physiologically, when the belly rises with the inhalation, the diaphragm lowers, thereby allowing more room for incoming air; conversely, when the belly falls with the exhalation, the diaphragm lifts, thereby helping to expel the air from the lungs. It’s a method that facilitates greater depth of breath and calm in body and mind. Belly breathing is a sort of “gateway” breath before embarking on the more challenging, and transformative, pranayama exercises. And it’s arguably the most deceptively simple of the breathing exercises.

When in a yoga class and the instructor calls out a breath with a movement—for example, “Inhale lengthen, exhale twist”—it’s important to follow your own breath to its capacity instead of curbing it to heed the call of the next breath; i.e. finish your inhalation before initiating the exhalation, and vice versa. Honor the currents of your breath and allow yourself to experience its connection to your physical practice. Trust that you won’t fall behind. Trust in your own practice.

I find the very etymology of the word “spirit” to be comforting and highly applicable in yoga: it comes from the Latinate word “spiritus”, which means “breath”. This adds a whole new appreciation to the word breath’s sister word: respiration. That breath and spirit are entwined in the linguistic world is but one reference of their connection: vast Vedic literature regards the breath’s dual identity as a system that is both voluntary and involuntary; i.e. a system that is both physical and spiritual. Borrowing words to put the sentiment simply, and beautifully, “In the breath, the soul finds the opportunity to speak” (Faulds).

--Autumn