Breathing Freely

Breathing is nourishment to the body. Like food and water, we need to inhale and exhale consistently to be alive. The more I have worked with my breathing, the more I have become aware that it is deeply intertwined into the emotional body. Breathing deeply and freely is a liberating and freeing experience. However, with layered trauma and heavy emotions it can take some time to get to that space. I am still very much on my journey to breath more freely. I am excited to share the insights into breathing that have arisen from research and experiences. Over time I have found some interesting techniques to free my breath. To free myself.

When starting my yoga teacher training, I realised just how restricted my breathing was. Prior to embarking on the journey of yoga, I had experienced panic attacks were breath became this elusive thing that for a time I could no longer attain. Without having the tools to unpack this I felt I was at the mercy to this emotion of panic. It crept up on me when I least expected it and completely consumed me. This was a time in my life when I took the biggest jump I had ever taken. Leaving a “prestigious” degree opportunity in Trinity College, Dublin behind to fly to Indonesia and embrace yoga before starting my Natural Medicine studies. My safe environment evaporated and with the pressures of moving country, self-care fell quite low on my list of priorities.

It feels like I went to that yoga teacher training to find my voice. I was met by two incredible women. I am profoundly grateful to them every day. I could see the freedom in them, the strength, the authenticity. Seeing women like that in that time of my life was completely transformational. They knew how to breath freely and move freely. They worked with their bodies for years to strengthen them and gain flexibility. What comes with the combination of those two qualities is the ability to expand. To expand means to take up space, at that time in my life I felt terrified to share my voice and fill big spaces. Drawing attention to myself was my worst nightmare. Merging with the surroundings to purely observe was my forte.

Leaving my home country to move to Indonesia was the constriction and that was mirrored in my breath. Pressure and constriction are needed for birth. The baby moves through the pressure of the birth canal. As we come out of the vagina, we expand our arms and legs and take our first bellowing breath. The constriction of my decision to take the leap of faith led to a rebirth of myself as I came to the other side and expanded in my yoga teacher training to take those deep breaths. Each day stretching the muscles in my torso with breath and poses. I could feel myself coming to life in a brand-new way. Inviting in those deep breaths grounded me in my body and sent the message to my body that it is okay to take up space.

What happens when we constrict our breath?

When taking in less air we are not expanding our lungs fully. This means the diaphragm is not pumping the organs beneath it. The movement of the diaphragm against the stomach and intestines is what keeps them moving and flowing. Fresh blood easily flows in to retrieve nutrients. Any immune cells or repair cells that are needed can reach the digestive system. Waste can also be removed through respiration or through the colon. Peristalsis needs this stimulus to keep moving. From a psychosomatic perspective when we have shallow breath, we do not believe we are safe in our environment and we are struggling to cope with what is going on within our lives. This effects the digestive system from working optimally which is interpreted as struggling to digest life. From not feeling safe in our lungs and breathing, we struggle to digest what is going on in life.

Through the breath we process emotions. Next time something uncomfortable happens or you are feeling challenging emotions, watch your breath. It is intriguing to notice that when you do not want to feel something that is coming up, you will stop breathing. Maybe not enough to notice that you have in that moment. However, over time that stress signal to the body builds up and turns into what we call anxiety. All emotions either flow through us or are stored in the body. When the breath stops, the body then stores that uncomfortable emotion within our cells. When the breath opens again and we work on expanding it, a lot of emotions can rise to the surface to be released. People have been known to lose huge amounts of weight from just doing breathwork.

There are many versions of breathwork. I have found the most beneficial for me is syncing my breath with yoga flows. Within that process it naturally facilitates a deepening of my breathing as I sink into my practice. Another option is to lye flat on the floor and set a timer for between 10 – 30 minutes. Take a deep breath, use half of the inhale to expand your stomach and the other half to expand your chest. Exhale out of the chest and then out of the belly. Continue this cycle for as long as your timer. It can be nice to do this in groups to keep the motivation going throughout to breath deeply.

During the day, a diaphragm constrictor that many women contend with is bras. They are stretched tight all the way around the torso which encourages shallow breathing. By pressing the boobs toward the body, it encourages the closing of the chest and shoulders. Leaving the bra at home can allow you to roll your shoulders back, open your chest, and free breath expansively throughout the day. I see this related to how women are seen in society today. Shutting away that powerful feminine strength can be seen in many ways. Harmful contraceptive pills, working 9-5 every week of the month, hospitalized birthing. We are encouraged to hide so much of ourselves. Hide the sanitary pads, do not speak about the contraceptive struggles, put your boobs away. An interesting experiment could be to leave the bra at home for the week and see how you feel. It could make some interesting shifts to how you feel throughout the day. You deserve to breath freely. You deserve to take up space.