Every breath you take

By NATHAN STEELE

Yoga is everywhere these days. From Madonna to TV infomercials, from fitness centers to high schools and hospitals, people are discovering the joys and reaping the benefits of this age-old health system.

Unfortunately, many people might be reticent to try yoga because they compare themselves to the models in the media and feel they could never bend that way! (See Diane Butler’s Life in the Family Laner  on page 11). Well the good news is, you can reap the benefits of a yoga practice without becoming a human pretzel.

Yoga is more of a practical science for self-care and personal growth. The regular practice of yoga brings the opposing demands of activity and rest, tension and relaxation, and strength and flexibility into balance. With less of our energies devoted to that bad back, or worries about our general health, we have more energy to devote to our families, communities and professions.

The components of a yoga session are simple to understand. A yoga practice begins with a short period of centering. Next follows a sequence of postures or asanas. The postures and the movements between them alternately stretch one side of the body while contracting the opposite. This cycle of compression and release, of careful movement coordinated with deep breathing has profound physical benefits.

Lying down in relaxation completes the session. With the body resting in comfortable stillness and the attention focused on the breath, the body assimilates the work accomplished during the postures. This period of attentive relaxation should leave you feeling mentally alert yet calm, physically energized yet relaxed.

As long as these three elements—centering, postures, and relaxation—are included, a physical yoga practice can be quite brief, say 20 minutes or so.

The breath is essential

Yoga science places a great emphasis on the quality of breathing. Without food, most people can survive for some 60 days. Deprive a person of water, and he or she would live only about six days or so. Without air our bodies cease to function after about six minutes. Air then, is the most important nutrient. Indeed, healthy people will pass about 35 pounds of air in and out of their bodies each day. With this perspective, it is easy to see the importance of healthy breathing habits.

The mechanics of breathing are fascinating and easy to understand.

In a healthy breath, air is drawn into our lungs primarily by the action of a dome shaped muscle called the diaphragm. If you feel around the bottom of your rib cage with your fingers, you will be touching the lower rim of the dome. The upper surface of the diaphragm sits about a hand’s width up from your lowest ribs. As you inhale, the diaphragm contracts and lifts your ribs out and up. When we exhale normally, we relax and the elasticity of the lung and chest wall pushes the stale air out.

Inside the lungs, the incoming air fills many thousands of tiny thin walled sacs called alveoli, which are surrounded by the finest network of the tiniest blood vessels. The oxygen we need for life moves easily from the alveoli through the walls of these blood vessels where it is picked up by red blood cells. Waste products of our metabolism—mostly carbon dioxide—move the other way and are expelled when we exhale. There is a lot of surface area in the lungs. Picture it this way—if every square inch your body’s of lung tissue were spread out flat it would completely cover an area about the size of a football field. Now imagine a constantly moving layer of blood—one blood cell deep—completely covering this expanse and you will have an idea of how our lungs can do their job.

Breathing, unlike other functions of the body can be brought under conscious control. To observe and improve the quality of your breath take five to 10 minutes each day to lie down comfortably face up on a firm surface. Use cushioning under your knees and a small pillow or rolled towel to support your neck as needed. Relax. Quietly breathing through your nose, make both inhalation and exhalation equal in duration, smooth and without pauses. With each breath, waves of pressure cycle through the whole body. The heart speeds and slows slightly. All of our abdominal organs feel the action and release of the diaphragm. Digestion, elimination, immune and nerve functions are all supported by the act of breathing. Each inhalation stimulates and each exhalation relaxes us. Careful regulation of the breath can settle the mind, reduce anxieties, and allow us the freedom to skillfully manage life’s circumstances. Yoga brings transformation through self-study and the breath is its most powerful tool.

[Nathan Steele is HITA Certified Yoga Teacher and Co-Director of Bio/Alchemy - Yoga Studio in Honesdale. He can be reached at 570/253-9122.]