Notes from My Breathing Seminar at Yoga Sutra

So on the Monday that just past, July 9th, I taught the first part of a 4 part series called “Breathing Anatomy and Techniques for Asana, Pranayama, and Meditation”. It was interesting to see the responses from the students after class. Everyone seemed like they were completely blissed out. It is amazing how deep you can go with just some simple breathing. And then if you add some techniques and some information that help people remove unwanted tension from the body caused by inefficient breathing patterns, it is amazing how much opens up, both physically and in some way that transcends the physical level. It was a great group to work with and I am excited about this upcoming Monday. Last week we worked on how the spine, the ribcage, the abdomen and the diaphragm work together in breathing. This coming Monday we are going to focus on what accessory muscles to breathing do to determine the way the body changes shape around the breath and how different patterns of holding or releasing tension in the muscles of the torso can create different breathing patterns. The interesting thing about this subject is that if you become more aware of ways of changing patterns of holding and releasing tension while breathing you start becoming aware of what your habitual patterns of holding tension are in breathing and in every day life. Being aware of these kinds of things so that you can use those patterns of work when they are useful and release them when they are getting in the way of what you are doing can be an interestingly powerful tool in all aspects of the practice of yoga and even in every day life.

Peace

UpSideDownCarl

Experiencing the Breath

It really is amazing how powerful and healing the breath can be. Just a short practice where you are doing simple postures where the central focus is the breath instead of the actual posture for itself can effect such a great amount of change in the internal system. Tension melting away, your mood changing, that ability to go far more deeply inside yourself; I guess it is hard to explain and put into words but the best things in life seem to be that way. I highly recommend to everyone out there, every once in a while to try a very simple gentle asana practice with the main focus being on the breathing in the postures. You can move into and out of the postures repetitively several times before holding them and then when holding them focusing on the breath ratio you established while moving, keeping the breath long and smooth, relaxed and even, almost like what you are doing is a breathing exercise while doing simple postures. Even just fifteen to twenty minutes of doing this kind of practice can put you in a new place and set the stage for you to hit new levels in other aspects of your practice. If you add a seated breathing exercise at the end where you focus fully on the breath you will notice how much the practice--doing postures while focusing primarily on the breath--can free your system for breathing. And then when you sit still afterwards that ability to go inside and how the breathing techniques can significantly enhance that ability to go deeper within. Freedom.

To explore more have a look here: A Breathing Seminar with Carl