We inhale and exhale around 20,000 times a day, yet very few of us are conscious of our breathing
Breath is what makes yoga, yoga! Yoga translates into “union” or “yoke” in English – it’s the union (or yoking) of breath, body, and mind.
In fact, when yoga began centuries ago, it was only really about the breath and meditation; postures did not play a part in it!
Yoga poses or asanas were introduced solely as a method to achieve optimal breathing, and there were only about ten of them.
In week one of our Bend and Breathe Yoga Flow from Rugby, we explored how our emotions control our breathing; When we are stressed, our breathing is shallow and ragged; when we are calm, are breathing is smooth and fluid.
But we can turn that around and let our breath control our emotions. When we learn to pay attention to our breath, we learn to pay attention to life in a completely new way. By consciously breathing you can influence what you are experiencing and regain control.
In our practice, we looked at a simple equal breathing technique, called sama vritti. It’s an equal length inhale and exhale that you can try on and off the mat to calm the mind.