I have been learning a lot about breath and breathing here. Truth be told, I have been hearing a lot about it since I started yoga, but it seems as though I am finally listening.My teachers at home would say "there is nothing to do but breathe", "let the body open up with the breathe" or "go deeper with each breath", and I would hear them and think what they were saying "sounded good", but that was about as far as I got.
I am finally learning exactly what the breath can do for our bodies. First of all, we cannot live with out it. It is the most important thing to us for sustaining life. Yes, even more important than water. If we aren't breathing then we certainly aren't drinking anything! Secondly, we can control our physiological responses with our breath...we can slow our heart rates down or speed them up simply by taking long deep breaths or fast quick breaths (try it and see what happens).
This is a very important technique to learn in our fast paced, high stress societies. We can give our over stressed hearts and lungs a much needed break and prevent diseases just by training our minds/bodies to breathe deep in a stressful situation.
The fast track to learning this technique is, of coarse, yoga; and Bikram yoga specifically. Put yourself in a heated room for 90 minutes doing intense Hatha yoga and try to breath slow and deep (normally) the whole time, do this on a consistent basis. Then, when you are in traffic, not moving, and need to be somewhere in 5 minutes...you will be able to roll with it. You (and your body) will automatically realize; there is nothing to do but breathe".
2 comments:
I can't remember to do anything but get upset when I am near my boss. I don't rememebr to slow down, I forget to smile (and influence my posture in a positive way), I can't remember how to speak nicely unless I am in a fantastic mood. The hairs on the back of my neck stand-up when I see an e-mail from him. And I haven't figured out really why. I do a good job at work. I am doing what they ask, we are making the company money. When all is said and done I think it has more to do with approval and his opinion about me than anything else. Ironically I don't respect him much. But I get so crazy when I think he is telling other people that I am a pain in his butt, you know? I get afraid. Maybe this is about my own insecurities about what I do for a living. Sometimes I feel like a fraud - like I got tossed into a role and maybe I am just not ready. It freaks me out but that is all that it is. Just thoughts and fears. I am afraid that if he doesn't support me, then he is trying to sink me or something. And that's not true.
But trying to remember even the most simple task like breath slowly and with out interruption is very difficult when I see him on the other end of the phone line. I want to throw the phone out the window and when I hang up I usually swear at it - cuss like a sailor as if it mattered or he could hear me. But he can't. And you know whose breathing is REALLY screwed up then? Yes. Yours Truely. It is another God Shot - a lesson to be learned.
Practice makes progress. I heard a speaker at the Rocky Point round-up this weekend say that Bill W didn't call the chapter "Into Thinking" He called it, "Into Action" for a reason. So applying that same principal, if I practice breathing in different, less stressful situations, maybe I'll do it well enought to do it with my boss. Someday, right?
Miss you,
S
It's amazing how something so simple and close to us can be so profound.. Breathing is definately one of those things!!
I got your message today and you sounded open - very open, on the inside.
You're probably releasing all kinds of gunk - great to remember what you wrote: Just Breathe:)
KK
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