our-yoga

Recently, I've been thinking about a few things relating to the breath in practice. First, I've been thinking about length and duration: How long should the inhalation be relative to the exhalation? I've also been thinking about volume: How loudly (or softly) should one breathe during practice?

Sharath has recently said some very illuminating things about the length and duration of the breath in practice. In her report on the December 18th conference in Mysore, Suzy writes that Sharath has this to say about the breath during practice:

"In practice the inhale and exhale should be the same duration – you have to bring that rhythm in you. Some people do very shallow breathing – the breath doesn’t go inside. If you do relaxed breathing so that the breath does go inside, this activates jatar agni (digestive fire). If you have pain in your lower back or pelvis, if you do deep breathing into that area, this is how the body heals."

I think this is one of the clearest and most lucid explanations that I have read in a while about the relationship between the breath and healing in asana practice (Thanks for posting this, Suzy :-)).

There is actually another, related reason for maintaining inhalation and exhalation at equal length. My teacher in Milwaukee once observed that people who are new to the practice have a tendency to have short, abrupt inhalations and long, forceful exhalations: These practitioners appear to be "sucking" in the inhalation, and then expelling the air through a longer, forceful exhalation.

Actually, I don't think it's just new practitioners who do this: "Old" practitioners also tend to lapse into this breathing pattern when they encounter challenging postures in the practice (Kapotasana is a prime example; I'm speaking from experience, of course :-)). In any case, my teacher observes that one who breathes this way ends up releasing more prana than one takes in: As a result, more prana is "lost" to the surroundings than taken in, and the practice tends to leave the practitioner more tired than refreshed. Because of this, it is important to make a conscious effort to keep the inhalation the same length as the exhalation, so that one does not lose energy while breathing.

And then there is the question of volume: How loudly or softly should one breathe during practice? This seems to me to be a less clear-cut matter. Many of us have probably heard funny (or not-so-funny) stories about Ashtangis who have loud Darth Vader breaths that can be heard a mile away (okay, I'm exaggerating, but probably not by too much...). In the course of my, uh, practice career, I have also had the dubious fortune of practicing beside a few such individuals. Actually, I don't really know how loud my own breathing is, so I probably shouldn't be judging anybody here...

In any case, I have a couple of questions here. Is there anything bad or wrong with breathing like Darth Vader, other than the possibility of annoying one's shalamates and becoming the butt of shala jokes? Is breathing loudly in any way deleterious to one's practice on a physical or prana level? Or--to borrow a turn of phrase that has become very popular in the yoga blogosphere lately--can breathing loudly wreck your body?

If you have anything to share about this, I'll love to hear from you. 

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by Baxter

Jellies by Melina Meza

As I was reading an interview in my latest yogauonline.com newsletter with physician and yoga therapist Loren Fishman, MD and his collaborator Ellen Saltonstall called Can Yoga Preserve Freedom of Movement? (hell, yeah!), a short statement from Dr. Fishman about how physical movement and the breath are connected caught my eye:

“…something that is really very poorly recognized in the medical or the yoga literature: that moving your joints is one of the strongest stimuli to breathing properly and deeply. There are little movement receptors inside all of our joints, and they send signals that go directly and indirectly to the apneustic center, one of the centers in the brain that regulate breathing.”

You may remember that a while back Nina and I wrote a post Falling for Yoga Myths about some of the things that really do stimulate and regulate our breath, and that I also did a post How Breath Affects Your Nervous System detailing the relationship between the Autonomic Nervous System and the breath. Part of my purpose for writing these posts was to correct some common misconceptions about breathing that continue to exist in the yoga community. You may recall that I mentioned that the levels of carbon dioxide (NOT oxygen) in the blood stream are monitored by the deep brain structures, and it is the CO2 levels that have some of the greatest influence on changes in breathing moment by moment. In addition, the brain and the periphery of the body are also assessing the acid/base balance of the blood, or the pH.

But now, Dr. Fishman adds in a new twist to our understanding of breath! Turns out that the same nerve receptors we have talked about in relationship to balance, called proprioceptors, which are located in the muscles, tendons and joints, affect breathing, too. Not only do they tell the brain where you are in space, how fast you are moving and in which direction, but also the movement of joints, tendons and muscles stimulate part of the brainstem that regulates breath called the apneustic center. Located in the part of the brainstem called the pons, the apneustic center is involved in stimulating our inspiration or “in breath.” Movement—physical movement—stimulates increased depth of breathing, known technically as “hyperpnea.” In a serious, life-threatening situation in which the breathing was slowing and shallow, moving someone’s limbs could stimulate the breath back to healthier levels. Cold water and pain can have a similar effect on breathing.

This connection between bodily movement and improved depth of breathing is helpful news, especially when it comes to people who have been previously inactive, have become stiff, suffered a loss of vitality and notice that their breathing does not respond well to physical stresses such as an increase in work load for their body. By beginning to move the joints and limbs systematically, as we would do in a beginning level yoga class, we are (without even mentioning how to breath) going to stimulate an increase in the depth of breathing. I am sure many of you have had this experience: at the start of class, during an initial sitting meditation or centering practice, the breath and chest feel slightly tight and restricted, but when your attention is brought to the breath at the end of a balanced yoga asana practice, the breath seems to have greater freedom and depth with less effort. This body-to-brain connection of the proprioceptors and the pons of the brainstem are likely at work. Just one more reason to keep moving your body!

To read all kinds of nerdy details on the physiology of breathing, check out the article Regulation of Breathing.

by Nina

Heart and Lungs

I hope you realize by now that there are a lot of myths out there in the yoga world, such as that yoga nidra is an ancient practice or that Sun Salutations have been practiced for thousands of years. So here at Yoga for Healthy Aging, we try to do a bit of fact checking before we go ahead and write about a subject, whether it is medical, scientific, or historical. And when I edit a post, I try to confirm anything that looks a bit, well, suspect. But once in a while, I’m less than meticulous, and that can result in an error or two. After I read what Baxter wrote about the relationship between the breath and the nervous system in his post How Your Breath Affects Your Nervous System, I asked him to take a look at a related post I wrote some time ago called Your Key to Your Nervous System: Your Breath because I was concerned that perhaps my original post had errors in it. Although at the time I had been writing about what I was convinced were facts, Baxter confirmed that some of the information in my post about yawning and the affect of the breath on the nervous system, which I had learned from a yoga teacher, was actually incorrect. Baxter identified this misinformation as a yoga myth—ideas that seems to get perpetuated, despite the fact there is no proof of their validity.

So this post today is an update to my original post, with Baxter’s comments/corrections on my original statements. Well, it’s a journey for us, too, right?

YOGA MYTH: Nina wrote, “Have you ever wondered why you tend to yawn when you’re sleepy? Well, a yawn is a great big inhalation. And because your heart rate tends to speed up on your inhalation, that yawn in the middle of that boring lecture or business meeting is little message to your nervous system: wake up! On the other hand, when you are upset about something, you tend to sigh. That sigh—try one!—is an extra long exhalation. Because your heart rate tends to slow on your exhalation, that sigh while you are feeling emotional turmoil or are just stuck in traffic is a little message to your nervous system: take it easy, buddy, slow down a bit.”

BAXTER’S CORRECTION: Here’s what I found…and it does not seem to confirm your suggestions that it is the heart rate effects that are driving the yawn or sigh. There are four theories about why we yawn, none proven or much studied:

• Physiologic theory: Our bodies induce yawning to draw in more oxygen or remove a buildup of carbon dioxide. At least one studied seems to have disproved this theory.
• Evolutionary theory: Some think that yawning began with our ancestors, who used yawning to show their teeth and intimidate others. An offshoot of this theory is the idea that yawning developed from early man as a signal for us to change activities.
• Boredom theory: Although we do tend to yawn when bored or tired, this theory doesn't explain why Olympic athletes yawn right before they compete in their event or why dogs tend to yawn just before they attack. It's doubtful either is bored.
• Brain-Cooling theory: a more recent proposal is that since people yawn more in situations where their brains are likely to be warmer—tested by having some subjects breathe through their noses or press hot or cold packs to their foreheads—it's a way to cool down their brains. Cool brains think more clearly.

Why do we sigh? As it turns out, sighs do seem to work like the brain’s reboot button for regular breathing. According to a 2010 study Take a deep breath: The relief effect of spontaneous and instructed sighs, during mental stress, the volunteers’ breathing became more and more irregular as participants increasingly relied on deliberate breath control, at which point, a sigh occurred, causing automatic regular respiration to kick in again. Furthermore, muscle tension steadily built up before a spontaneous sigh and decreased afterward, supporting the idea that sighing helps release tension.

YOGA MYTH: Nina wrote, “It turns out that by intentionally taking in more oxygen (either by speeding up your breath or by lengthening your inhalation) you can stimulate your nervous system and that by taking in less oxygen (by slowing your breath or lengthening your exhalation), you can calm yourself down. It’s that simple.

BAXTER’S CORRECTION: It is actually likely not that simple, as the effect I described in my post How Your Breath Affects Your Nervous System really more clearly explains what happens: the inhale speeds up the heart rate (not because of O2 levels) and the exhale slows it down (not due to O2 levels, but due to the nerve input from breath cycle to heart). As the heart rate slows more over the course of five minutes of 1:2 ratio breathing, for instance, the slower heart rate is monitored by the brain and leads to even further turning on of the parasympathetic Rest and Digest response. And, in fact, carbon dioxide levels in the blood stream have a much greater influence on the rate of breathing than O2 levels, and are monitored much more closely by the brain moment by moment and lead to adjustments in the ANS tone of whether sympathetic or parasympathetic nerves are stimulated. The importance of “getting more oxygen” in is a myth that has been propagated for a long time by yoga teachers in this country. For further information, see Leslie Kaminoff’s article What Yoga Therapists Should Know About the Anatomy of Breathing.

CONCLUSION: Well, we're all learning this stuff together. Even Baxter went ahead and did a bunch of new research. And, sigh, at least I was right about sighing.

I found this out the hard (?) way this morning. As I started my practice this morning, I couldn't help thinking about Grimmly's recent posts about the length of the inhalation and exhalation, and paid more attention to my breathing. It turns out that I start out with fairly long breaths in Suryas A and B. And then, for some inexplicable reason, once I get into Trikonasana, my breaths suddenly start getting shorter. Not sure why I do this; it's not as if the standing postures are particularly physically challenging. Anyway, I noticed this tendency, and tried to compensate by deliberately making my breaths longer. Boy, did that make Virabhadrasanas A and B harder; my thighs were positively burning. Turns out I have been slacking in the standing postures without even being aware of it.

The interesting thing is, once I got into primary (starting from Paschimottanasana), my breath automatically regained the length it had in the Suryas without any effort on my own. Curious, don't you think?

In any case, I have Grimmly to thank for bringing my attention to these fluctuations of my breath during practice. Moral of the story? I don't know... do not be dismissive of other blogger's musings about practice?

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I was chatting to someone recently and she commented to me "I've been to all these yoga classes, but I'm just not clear about the breathing".

So today's Yoga Tip - first in a new series on my blog! - gives us a few simple guidelines about breathing in yoga.

First of all, a quick review of what happens when we breathe.

When we inhale:
- The diaphragm descends towards the abdomen
- The rib cage and lungs expand in all directions: up, sideways and backwards

When we exhale:
- The diaphragm rises
- The rib cage and lungs contracts
- The abdomen contracts

Generally speaking there are 4 types of movement in yoga: forward bending, back bending, side bending and twists.

• Forward bending and twisting compress the abdomen, diaphragm and lower rib cage; so these should always be done on an exhale.

• Side bending compresses one side of the abdomen and lower rib cage, but expands the other side. Generally we do side bending on an exhale, but it can also be done on an inhale, depending on the intention.

• Back bending causes the abdomen to elongate and the ribcage to expand, so generally we backbend on an inhale.  However, when the abdomen expands it can reduce our core stability, which might lead to more strain or pinching on the lower back - so for a more protected and stable back bend, try back bending on or at the end of an exhale, while focusing on contracting the core muscles.

So, with those basics in mind, we can figure out how to breathe in almost any pose. For example, Utanasana is a forward bend, so we would do it on an exhale. Conversely, coming back up from Utanasana, comparatively, has the same effect as back-bending (the rib cage expands), so we would do it on an inhale. Triangle pose is a side bend, so we would  generally do it on an exhale.
Of course, sometimes it gets a bit complicated. What about headstand? Well, the way I think about it is that the preparation pose for headstand is like an inverted forward bend, so coming up from headstand is like coming up from Utanasana - done on an inhale.

Remember that these are just guidelines - at the end of the day, you should always do what feels right!

Any topic you'd like to hear tips on? Just leave a comment!

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The stress dis-ease

Stress is a huge issue for millions of people around the world. Health professionals now know that elevated levels of stress have a huge physiological impact on the body as well as the mind. If the stress is not relieved, the body engages in a "fight or flight" response, drawing energy away from other vital functions. After only a few days or weeks of elevated stress a person will start to experience notable side effects: body aches from clenched muscles, headaches, insomnia, digestive problems. Over time, the immune system is weakened and we become prone to illnesses, have increased or decreased appetite and our basic bodily functions like the bowels, hormone production and menstruation can be affected.

And of course, stress also affects our relationships, as we are prone to mood swings, irritability, depression, outbursts of anger, anxiety and uncharacteristic behaviour. Stress has also been linked to serious and chronic conditions like heart disorders and ulcers.

The good news is that there are some simple techniques (including movement, meditation and breath work) that anyone can use to help reduce the physiological condition of stress.

 

Breathing away Stress

The following pranayamas - techniques for working with the breath - can be practiced by anyone and are effective at calming the mind and the body (although if you feel any strange side effects or/and have a medical condition, caution is of course the best way forward!). They can be practiced one by one, or in the sequence suggested here. I also recommend you get a timer - use a function on your watch or phone, or download a free app - so you're not spending energy thinking about the duration of the exercises. Also, please note that the effects of each breath, given in parentheses, are generally accepted but not universal - the results will be different from person to person. In addition, these are results of a regular practice - a one-off attempt may not lead to noticeable improvement although you should be able to feel some calming effects even after only once.

These can be practiced together or individually, any time, anywhere! On the train, on a plane, in a long line, with the kids, at your desk, even in your car (with the eyes open of course)! But for absolute best results, find yourself a nice quiet space, maybe light a candle or two, play some relaxing music, and get some comfy blankets and pillows so you can sit and lie down comfortably.

1. Belly breathing (3-5 mins)
(Calming, relieves anxiety, reduces anger, stabilises mood swings)

[Once you've practiced this technique for a bit, belly breathing can be done sitting or standing and is super-effective if you need a quick calm-down breath, because you can do it anywhere, even mid-meeting or conversation, without anyone else really noticing. But to begin with, try it lying down. The first few times, it can also be helpful to place both hands on the belly, although eventually you may not need them anymore.]

Begin lying down with both hands on the belly, eyes closed. Take a few moments to become aware of your breathing. Then as you inhale, try to channel as much of your breath as possible into the belly, feeling the hands rise as the belly expands. As you exhale, feel the hands fall back towards the body. Once you are comfortable, make the breaths slower and deeper.


When you practice this breath, your chest and shoulders should remain fairly still, since you are channeling the breath into the belly. To check this, try doing belly breathing with one hand on the belly and one hand on your upper chest. If you are belly breathing correctly, the hand on the belly should rise and fall, while the hand on the chest should stay relatively still.

2. Chandra Bhedana Pranayama - moon breath (5-8 mins)
(Calming, cooling, improves sleep, reduxes anxiety or panic)

Begin this pranayama kneeling on the floor, with your hips resting on your heels. Put cushions underneath your feet and knees, and between your heels and buttocks if that's more comfortable. If you're not comfortable on the floor, sit on a chair with both feet on the ground, about hip width apart. Take a few deep breaths here.

Once you are comfortable, raise your right hand and place your index and middle finger on the forehead. Your right elbow should be hanging loose in front of your body. Use the right thumb to close the right nostril. Breathe deeply and slowly in through the left nostril. At the end of your inhalation, release your thumb and use your ring finger to close your left nostril. Exhale a long deep breath through the right nostril. Continue breathing in through the left, out through the right. For best effects, keep the spine straight and the belly completely relaxed.

When you are done (Try about 3 minutes to begin with, working to 8 minutes which is considered a good time for the breath to be effective), sit quietly and breathe normally, and observe the effects.  This is a good one to practice about 20 minutes before you go to bed - or even in bed if you can't sleep!

3. Bastrika - the bellows breath (3-6 repetitions)
(Reduces stress, depression, anxiety, headaches, and boosts the immune system. This is an energising breath so best not performed at night - try it first thing in the morning, or use it in the office during a break!)

If you can, sit in a kneeling position to perform this breathing technique, with your buttocks resting gently on your heels. If that's not comfortable for you, sit on a chair with both feet flat on the ground, about hip distance apart.

I've given you two variations here to try. For both, begin by taking a long full breath in through the nose, filling the belly and chest as much as possible.

Variation 1 (classic variation): Raise your arms all the way above your head as you inhale, taking a deep, full breath. Exhale rapidly in one go, "blasting" air out through the mouth and bringing the arms down rapidly as you do. As you inhale again, raise the arms all the way up. Repeat 10 times initially, building to 3 sets of 10 with resting breaths in between.

Variation 2:  Bring your hands to your hips. Take a deep, full breath in, and as you exhale, "blast" the breath out through the mouth in short bursts. As you do so, begin to bend forward at the waist. It may take a few tries to get the rhythm that is right for you, but when you do, you should end up "blasting" the breath out in 6-9 short bursts, with the last of the air leaving your lungs as you reach the lowest point (lying on your knees, with the head resting on the floor or a pillow). Repeat 3-6 times.

After the last repetition of either variation, remain folded forward with your head resting on a pillow or the floor. Breathe normally and observe the effects for a minute or so.

 

How it works

 

Stress and Yoga Asana - a postscript

Many health professionals nowadays recommend yoga for people who are overly stressed. However, your average yoga class today may not actually be a stress-reducing experience. Dynamic forms of yoga, especially if there is not a lot of time for relaxation at the end of the class (10 minutes should be the minimum, but I've been to many classes where only 5 mins, or 3 minutes are left for relaxation!) may not bring your body and mind out of stress. Some of the most dynamic forms also seem to bring out in us a competitive and self-critical edge as we are challenged by the postures - not exactly a way to let go of anxiety!

If you are seeking a yoga class for the explicit purpose of reducing your stress, give yourself the gift of really doing it right! Find a class that is relaxing and breath focused. Yin Yoga and restorative yoga are especially good for stress relief because the long, supported stretches activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is concerned with rest, nurture and healing.

Blog image from: http://lessonsonstress.tumblr.com/

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I was just watching David Garrigues' latest blog post, and the two videos that he has embedded in the post. Wow, the man is like a walking Encyclopedic Ashtanga Exclamation Mark! I really want to go study with him someday. I hear that he is now in Kovalam teaching a workshop. While I, of course, am here in this snowbound tundra of the upper midwest. Why, oh why does everybody seem to be in India except me?

But lamenting and complaining isn't going to get me anywhere. So I'm going to try to say something useful here. Back to David G's post. I've only seen the first video (I plan to save the second one for when I have a little more time later today). In the post and the video, David talks about the relation between receptivity and effort in the practice, and how breath helps us to become more receptive in the midst of effort.

In the first video, he talks about one very common experience that many Ashtangis have: You are in a vinyasa, inhaling up into upward dog. And then suddenly, in the middle of updog, you discover that your lungs are full, and you just can't inhale any further! What do you do? Stop breathing? David's answer is surprisingly commonsensical: Take an extra breath (duh!). When the questioner asks further, "But should we try to finish updog in one breath?" David's answer was, "Yes, but you need to work on the ability to do so."

The idea, as I understand it, is to do your best to follow the vinyasa breath count, but not to force it. Due to many different reasons, every breath that we take will naturally be different in length and duration. And for the same reasons, every updog and downdog will also feel different. It certainly won't help matters to try so hard to make your breath so long that it starts to feel unnatural and forced.

But as I was watching the video, it also occurred to me that even though every updog and downdog is different, there is also a certain distinctive kind of feeling that accompanies both updog and downdog. Here's how I think of it: Doing yoga is kind of like withdrawing into the bottom of a well. Whenever I do updog, it kind of feels like I am using the inhalation to float up to the top of the well to get some fresh air. And when I go into downdog, I feel like I am going back into the bottom of the well to reground and recenter myself for the flight "up" into updog and into the next posture in the sequence. At any rate, this is the image that occurs to me as I was watching David's explanation in his video.

There is something else in David's post that really speaks to me. He writes:

"The deepest person within each of us knows the larger, more comprehensive nature of things beyond the limited appearance of things that the ego and senses apprehend. Learning to identify ourselves with this greater perspective is the subject of receptivity. When we use our ego and senses to become aware in an inward direction, we will find that there is a sort of knowing that has its own direction, its own intelligence, its own necessity to fulfill something through us. And so in a practical, on-the-mat way, receptivity is the sustained effort to give up control enough to receive the wisdom that lies within our inmost core. And then to follow the direction of this wisdom with as much trust as we put in our ego and our ideas and feelings of how we control or shape our lives through our choices."

Notice that David does not say that we should get rid of our ego (like this is even possible). Rather, he says that we should "use our ego and senses to become aware in an inward direction", to "find that there is a sort of knowing that has its own direction, its own intelligence, its own necessity to fulfill something through us." It is in the nature of ego to want to extend and to achieve, to want to make this or that "mine", "my own." Anybody who has ever over-extended or injured himself in the course of practice knows where this can lead :-)

But I think David is suggesting that perhaps we can harness this same extending, achieving drive of the ego, and shine its light inwards and use it to attain greater self-understanding. In other words, the same ego that can over-extend outwards can also be made to turn inward and help us to understand our minds and bodies better. Recently, a teacher gave me some interesting advice in working with my knee. He wrote,

"...do allow yourself the coming time to learn what your knee likes to do (rather than what you like your knee to do for you) and in that process expect no linear line ahead. you'll most likely be surprised of what you can do, as well as of what you cannot do. also, your knee will be sensitive to weather, sleep, diet, emotion and so forth."

The first time I read these lines, I almost cracked up. It reminds me of something a former U.S. President once said ("Ask not what your knee can do for you--ask what you can do for your knee!"). Very simple, commonsensical advice, really, but not always easy to follow. But I think the same idea as what David was talking about in his post applies here: Rather than allow the ego to indiscriminately extend outwards, try to get the ego to listen and find out what the body needs, and work accordingly.

Alright... I think I'll sign off here. Can't write much more without overextending myself and violating blogging drishti (I guess the same rules apply to Ashtanga blogging as to practice :-)). As always, if you have anything to say, I'll love to hear from you.          

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This song has been speaking to me lately... it seems to perfectly embody the concept of aparigraha, or non-grasping.  Not to mention re-igniting my teenage crush on this amazing voice.   There is a lot going on here at the moment and slowly but surely it will be coming out here...  In the meantime, sit back and enjoy this beautiful song.

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