Stop and take a deep breath
What’s the most important thing that keeps us alive? Food? We can survive for a few weeks without it. Water? We can survive for a few days without it. Without breath however, you can’t last more than a few minutes. So, it’s our Breath! We breathe without thinking, we do it from the first moment we are born. But, do we really care about our breath?
I can’t forget my first yoga class 12 years ago, when the teacher started some breathing techniques and my first thought was: ”Is he trying to make me blow like a balloon?”. I couldn’t understand why I had to make my breath deeper or to pause it (kumbhaka). It took me a lot of time and practice to understand how important it is to breathe correctly. I was in Pashcimottanasana (seated forward bend pose) when I realized that working with my breath, I can go deeper into the pose. After that I tried it in more poses and I started being focused on my mat and stopped thinking about anything else outside of my mat. I learned how to be present!
Someone once told me that he doesn’t like yoga classes, because he will let no one tell him when and how to breathe. There is a reason why an instructor will tell you to inhale in cobra and exhale in forward fall. They are not trying to be bossy, crazy people (although a bit of craziness is not bad…), they are actually trying to help you improve your practice, which will consequently improve your health.
Every day, we have so much stress and so many things to do and 24 hours are not enough. Do you know what is the way to relax? Breathing! The first thing is to listen to your breath and observe it. You can use earplugs and close your eyes to hear your breath better. Is it too short? Do you pause between the inhalation and exhalation? Does your inhalation and your exhalation have the same duration? Slow down the tempo and take some nice and long breaths from your nose. Enjoy every single breath! Try it for 5 minutes and you will feel more relaxed when you finish.
What’s my favorite sound? My breath. It makes me feel strong, alive and that I can do anything I want.
It doesn’t matter if you are at work, home or outside, just stop everything that you ‘re doing and take a deep breath!
