We all breath but not all of us breath. Wait, what? Yes, it’s true we all get the basis down but not all of us breath in a way that we should. I think we could learn a lot from newborns. From that moment we are born everyone in the room waits for that first breath that leads to that wonderful sound of the first cry. As newborns we use our nostrils and full belly breath but as we grow, we start to use our mouths and chest breath, then wonder why we have a lot of problems.
When I first started to practice yoga, long before I learned to teach it all I heard from my teacher was no mouth breathing in his class. Yes, there’s times when you do use your mouth in yoga but maybe that can be for a different blog. At first it was hard for me to move with my breath and only use my nose but over time I came to love the feel of movement with my breath, the expansion of my ribs as air filled all of my lungs into the full belly breath.
Now, as a yoga teacher I have the pleasure of helping others see the value of the breath. I find it so amazing that this what seems so simple and helps every part of our body function at its best from neurological, reducing anxiety or stress to digestion, blood pressure and even aiding in reduction of some decease, is forgotten or overlooked until we are having problems. I only named a few things our breath helps with, but the list goes on and what I find amazing is that the very beginning of man in
Genesis 2:7 Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
I love how the new international version says it, God formed a man, like no one to special just a man formed from dust, but it took the very breath of God to become the man a living being, a person with a purpose. The is used when talking about something of particular, a is used when talking about something in a general, notice the differance?
When we start to forget to breath our bodies feel it and show signs of problems and if we don’t stop and realize it then our bodies will let us know in a big way. Getting so busy with life that we forget the very thing that enables us to live. The very breath of God that gave us life, he wants to be that full breath that gives life to every part of our bodies as we move through life and learn to breath with him in our movements. He was there when we took our first breath and he will be there when we take our last but it’s the middle of it all that he is waiting and wanting to be there for, if we only allow him to be. He won’t push, no that is true love. Infact he will let us breath our shallow mouth breathing not living the full life he breathed into us to be.
O, we can do something about it and it’s so simple too. All we need to do is like when I started learning yoga, listen to the teacher, invite him in letting his air fill our lungs and learn how to breath with him in our movements.
