Beginning with Breath

I’ve heard it said, “ If you’re not breathing, you’re not doing yoga”.  Well, pretty much.  It’s about the breath. In my experience with Mark Rashid (horse trainer/author) this summer, I heard him say something like “Breath is the only function of the body we can control…yet with breath, we can affect all other functions of the body.”  Woah. Mark is very much into breathing.  As he sits on his horse and watches a student riding their horse from across the arena, he can tell if the person is breathing or not, and can often be heard saying, “Breathing right now would help”, or “Now would be a good time to breathe.” He understands and teaches how breath affects our body—how much tension/resistance we hold, which in turn affects our horses’ performance. 

My horse, Moki.

Horses are dramatically affected by our breath, tension, softness, and resistance…to the point that for each muscle we hold tense, our horse has to tense one of his muscles to compensate.  If the rider is “locked up”, it definitely shows up in their horse.  A person seen bouncing up and down in their saddle, especially to the point one can see daylight under their seat, shows a very locked up back and hips, which creates all kinds of resistance to movement. However, if the rider is breathing “like they mean it”, and staying soft and fluid, allowing the horse’s movement to flow through them (rather than resisting it) the rider often looks as though they are glued to their saddle, and the horse is freed up to move like he’s supposed to. I learned that the rider who looks to be bouncing all over their saddle is actually moving less than the rider who looks to be part of the saddle.  The rider bouncing all over is so locked up that the horse’s natural movement causes the rider—like a piston—to shoot up out of the saddle.  The rider who rides with softness, staying open and relaxed, allows all sorts of movement in their body, and it looks like they are moving less because they are moving WITH their horse, not against him.  It makes them look as though they are literally one with their horse—even though there are all sorts of movements going on—and trust me, it’s way more comfortable to ride with softness!  The body takes much less of a beating!  However, riding with softness can often feel more tiring, at least initially, because it uses so many muscles we don’t typically use on a daily basis…at least use correctly, and it takes a while for those weakened muscles to strengthen.  But strengthen they do, and then riding with softness becomes “effortless”, in a way. 

Before my horse accident, riding with softness was as natural as—well, breathing.  I didn’t even know that’s what I was doing, its just how I learned to ride—because it was the most comfortable way to go about it.  But after my accident, I became protective of my old injuries which caused me to become very locked up in the hips, legs, and lower back.  Riding became more tiring, and I developed problems with soreness in my knees that I had never experienced before.  After reading one of Mark’s books I realized why…I was riding with all sorts of resistance, both physically and emotionally.  So now I am working on undoing that, and my knees no longer hurt when I ride…and my horse is much more comfortable and happy as well.  Progress! 

So what does this all have to do with yoga?  Good question!  On the physical level, practicing any sport with resistance/stiffness/tightness puts a lot more strain on the body, especially the joints and connective tissues.  The body will simply wear out faster.  I see this in runners a lot, including myself.  Learning to run with softness, both physically and mentally has been a fun challenge.  I can go farther and faster when I run with softness…even though it takes using muscles that tire quickly because they are not used to being worked. I can do more, because I can BREATHE more when I trade resistance and tightness for being soft and relaxed. Breathe more?  Yep.

In yoga, the breath is used to move you from one asana (pose) to another.  Inhale arms up, exhale into forward fold…The breath is used to determine the speed and depth of your yoga practice. The practice of learning to control the breath, in yoga, is called pranayama, prana meaning “life force”, and yama meaning “to control”.  There are many different breathing exercises used in yoga, for different purposes. I am still learning how to do them, and why…but I can immediately tell the difference breathing has on my yoga practice, my running, and on my horsemanship. Not to mention my parenting.  I like immediate results, it’s true. 

I find it interesting that almost any discipline, from sports, to martial arts, to horse riding, to yoga, to singing… whether formally taught or not…begins with the breath.  The more I study and learn about the breath—the where, how, and why of it—the more cool it is.  And with enough practice, it becomes second nature, or “muscle memory”, basically a conditioned response.  This comes in very handy in all sorts of situations of stress. 

So I would suggest bringing your awareness to your breath today, observing how, when, where, and why you breathe the way you do.  What happens to the rest of your body when you hold your breath? Can you take a truly full breath? Can you take a full breath without force? If not, why not?  Can you change that?  How?  How do your thoughts affect your breath? How does your breath affect your thoughts?  Oh yes…good stuff.