“Nothing can so pierce the soul as the uttermost sigh of the body.”
-George Santayana
What asthma taught me about releasing
Happy new year! I’m not really one to make resolutions because sometimes I struggle just with the act of releasing the previous year. How can I let the events, struggles, triumphs, and feelings of last year go? Yes, even the triumphs…in my opinion, we must let go of the weight of last year to go forward into 2024 with our heads up.
I wanted to mention one very powerful force in my life that has taught me about release: asthma. I was first diagnosed with asthma at the age of 8; it has come and gone, been mild and sometimes severe, and here I am at age 43 still working with it. I won’t lie, it’s a pain in the ass and I’d gladly live without it but now and then I pause to have some sort of ironic gratitude for this chronic disease because it’s what first brought me to yoga as a teenager.
If you have asthma, or know someone who lives with it, you might know that asthmatics often have difficulty in exhaling fully; they don’t need to take deeper inhalations, they need to release tension and train the exhalation to be deeper (and keep the inflammation down in the respiratory system, reduce stress, eat well, etc…). In fact, anyone can benefit from more complete exhalations and that is one of the things I wrote about in my last post on the breath, where I gave some guidance on Deerga Swasam (Three-part breath). Deerga Swasam is about bringing fullness to the breath; cleansing breath is about releasing that fullness.
Has there been an event or aspect of your life that has taught you about release? Did you grasp that lesson on release mentally, or were you able to embody it as well?
How to do cleansing breath
Cleansing Breath is so simple; just think of it as a sigh with intention. Sighing is emotional, sometimes an unconscious reaction to things and it can be done in an air of frustration or anger, melancholy or regret. I don’t know about you, but when I sigh from a place of emotion, it is almost involuntary, or unconscious. With Cleansing Breath, you do it on purpose and with awareness of how the breath fills and then leaves the body.
This can be done seated, standing, or even in a yoga posture (though I recommend simple yoga postures that don’t require much effort so that you can get the full effect of the release). Whatever position you’re in, exhale fully and pause at the bottom of the exhale for just a moment. Then, as you inhale, let the belly relax, the rib cage expand in all directions, and the chest lift. As you exhale, open the mouth, drop the jaw and sigh the breath out. This can be done quietly or with vocalization. You can also do this slowly and smoothly or more forcefully.
Do I pause at the top of the inhale?
Whether you pause at the end of the inhalation is up to you. It might come naturally to pause before the big release that comes with your long exhalation, but the simple answer is, pause if you want to and don’t if you don’t want to! The emphasis should be on the exhalation.
Adding movement
Cleansing Breath is very dynamic. Some breathing practices are subtle, but this one invites some movement into the body, even if it’s just the movement of the shoulders as they rise with a full inhale and fall with a vigorous exhale. Breath of Joy is also a great way to release stress and tension; it utilizes big, sweeping movements to bring the breath in and then it ends with a sort of Cleansing Breath. If you do Cleansing Breath in a standing position, it can be nice to inhale and bring the arms up overhead, then exhale and let the knees bend slightly as the arms fall to your sides.
Finding words to describe your breath
Rushing, releasing, dynamic, vigorous, cleansing, cathartic, tidal wave, avalanche…these are some words that come to mind when I think of describing the qualities of cleansing breath. What do you think? Can you find other words to describe this way of breathing? Please share in the comments!
Integrating it into your life
You know how people always say to stop and take some deep breaths when you feel stressed? What does it really mean to take a deep breath? If deepening the breath means sucking in as much air as you possibly can, then I’d say it’s definitely not the best route to stress relief.
Some say that taking a deep breath can actually make things worse when you’re anxious or stressed. When the tension is high and you find it hard to smooth out or relax your breath, Cleansing Breath can offer a way to shake off stress and anxiety so that you can prepare your body to use a longer, slower breath to instill a state of calm.
I suggest practicing Cleansing Breath once or twice a day at scheduled times so that you can more easily access it in times of stress. Do this when you feel relatively calm so that it can become familiar and easy. That way, when things don’t feel easy, you can take refuge in a few Cleansing Breaths.
Let me know if you try it and how it goes! The trick is to make time for it and to remember to do it:)
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I didn’t know some of this about the breath and asthma like the difficulty finding that longer exhale! Thanks for sharing 🙂