There is this one kind of yoga that I got attached to years ago. After every class my brain felt like it had melted into my body. It was as if I’d had a massage or a nap. Everyone would stand around after class and wonder about what exactly we were experiencing. At the time I was enjoying several different styles of yoga and pretty much liked them all, but this brain body phenomenon, this caught my attention.
What I thought I liked was being told when to inhale and when to exhale. It sounds silly, but I found that when I was first learning yoga, I would be concentrating so hard I would forget to breathe. Often I was using muscles I hadn’t used or balancing in ways I’d never balanced. Being told repeatedly to breath in and then to breathe out was brilliant.
What I didn’t realize then and what I understand now, is that the breath cues were specifically placed. On the in breath we would open out stretching our arms wide, on the out breath we would draw in, tucking. When we raised our arms it was on an inhale When we were folding forward, an exhale.
I used this method when describing Butterfly-Breathing in my book. Even doing this for a few moments will affect our nervous systems in a positive way.
Today I attended a breath to movement yoga class for the first time since leaving CA. It was so sweet to walk out with that familiar feeling. I miss being reminded to breathe regularly. I think I need to go back to my online practice. It’s how yoga stayed in my life during Covid. I dearly love in person class, but my brain loves breath to movement yoga, so, yeah, I need to incorporate this back into my schedule.
Peace Kit 