Inhale, Exhale, Relax

When it comes to coping with stress overload, your breath is one of the best remedies there is...and it's free!

By Richard Rosen

You'll probably notice that watching the breath immediately initiates a chain of changes in it. First, it slows down. As it slows, its ordinarily rather ragged movements smooth out. And as the breath smoothes out, the space it occupies in the body increases.

When we breathe, most of us usually expand only a limited portion of the torso, generally in the front around the lower ribs and upper belly. Often, our breathing is restricted and shallow; ideally, it should be deep and full, so each breath cycle expands and contracts the height, width, and depth of the whole torso.

To experiment with consciously expanding your breath, sit in a chair with your spine erect—or, better yet, lie on your back on the floor. Put your fingertips lightly on your lower belly, just above the pubic bone, and try to direct a few inhalations into this space, expanding the belly each time. Once you can do this, move your fingertips to the spaces below your collarbones, placing your pinkie tips on the sides of the sternum and splaying the rest of your fingers out to the sides.

Then, for a few inhalations, see if you can gently expand these spaces. Be careful to keep your throat as soft as possible as you do this, because there's a counterproductive tendency to tense it as you inhale into the upper chest.

Once you can move the breath into the lower belly and upper chest, try to awaken your entire back torso, an area that is terra incognita for many people. As much as you can, breathe into your back body, feeling how it balloons and then deflates with each breath cycle. Once you can feel this, experiment with filling all of your newfound spaces with every breath.

Sometimes just watching and expanding your breath for several minutes can have a surprisingly positive influence on your energy level or mood. You can multiply this effect significantly by using pranayama—breathing exercises tailored to have an effect on specific moods and conditions. Based on knowledge cultivated and refined by the yogis over thousands of years, these exercises intentionally alter the speed, rhythm, and space of the breath.

One brief caution before you begin: Never, ever, overdo it in any breathing exercise. If you begin to feel uncomfortable, go back to your everyday breath. Never force your breath to do anything it doesn't want to do.

How will you know when your breath is telling you to stop? If the unpleasant feelings you started with become even more unpleasant, that's your cue. Your breath, believe it or not, possesses an innate intelligence, honed over millions of years of evolution. Learn to trust its messages and all will be well.

Traditionally, the practitioner does pranayama while sitting on the ground, with the spine long and erect. But those of us who aren't accustomed to extended sitting in such a position often find ourselves aching and fidgeting after only a short while; this interferes with our concentration and the efficacy of the breathing remedy. If this is the case for you, sit in a chair or, better still, try lying on your back on the floor.

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