When I was 20 years old I took my first yoga class. During savasana, where you get to relax for a couple of minutes at the end of the class, the instructor had us breathe-in and send our breath to different part of our body. I didn’t understand what she meant. “How do I do that? Send my breath? Oh well, here goes nothing.” And I did. I breathed-in and sent my breath to my ribs that were sore. I hadn’t realized I was tight in this area until my breath brought attention to it.
After about three months, my body felt amazing. I was powerlifting at the time so I was always sore. Hence the yoga class. It was part of my active recovery. It helped to decompress my spine after I consistently overloaded my spine with heavy weight on training days. I started noticing that many of the aches and pains dissipated with regular yoga practice. The two-minute session at the end of class became my favorite part of the hour. Sending my breath to where ever my body needed seemed to be the icing on the cake. I fell into a deep sleep and wondered into dreamland for what felt like hours yet it was only 2-3 minutes. Those minutes were priceless.
I now use breathwork in my daily life. During the day when I’m working, being a mom, being and wife and yoga at home. When life gets hard, frustrating, everything’s going wrong, that’s the real life equivalent to getting into an uncomfortable position in yoga class. Your body screams at you to, “Move! Don’t stay here! What are you doing? This is uncomfortable.” You then remind yourself to “breathe…” and your body relaxes. You’re better able to hand the discomfort. You focus on your breath, allowing your breath to guide you through the challenging moments.
Learning to breathe in yoga class has helped me in more situations than I can count. Our bodies are wise. When we are still and allow it to guide us, it helps us get through the hard times and heals many of our discomforts.