Breath Awareness - How to Breathe in Everyday Life?

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hi,

I recently started to practice being conscious of my breathing patterns during everyday life - when in the office, commuting, reading, before falling asleep at night, etc. Together with some simple breathing exercises it was very effective in reducing stress and increasing energy levels, which I am very happy about.

However, the books and articles I’ve read do not tell you much about how to breathe during regular daily activities. Most of the information is about specific pranayamas and exercises. The information on regular everyday breathing is very vague and often conflicts between various sources.

I have created a cheat sheet of the ideal way of breathing that I should be aiming towards during daily activities:

-Always breathe through the nose. Try to keep both your nostrils clean and uncongested. Notice which nostril is the dominant one and how it affects your mental state.

-Aim to extend the breath and take less breaths per minute. Breathe as slow as you can without feeling breathless and disrupting your natural rhythm.

-Breathe deeply using the three part yogic breath - inhale with the diaphragm first, then expand the ribcage, then raise the top of the chest slightly. Aim to take sufficiently deep breaths that without blowing yourself up like a balloon.

-Try to have the exhale twice as long as the inhale. If you’re more active shorten the exhale so you’re not out of breath.

-Take short pauses on the inhale and exhale, so long as it feels natural and doesn’t disrupt your breathing pattern.

-Keep an upright posture and shoulders back so your ribcage is free to expand and contract.

-Try to make no noise during inhaling and exhaling.

-Eliminate any jerks, pauses, and irregularities during breaths. It should be smooth and done at the same rate throughout the inhalation and exhalation.

If anyone has any advice on this it would be really helpful. I’m looking for an ideal everyday breathing pattern that I can train to be a habit over time.

Also, I’m wondering whether the 3 part yogic breath is an exercise to be done or the way you should be breathing all the time.

Thanks

Sparky

#2

Hey Sparky,

Since you asked. I love your enthusiasm, and what you suggest here is “not bad,” but lets take a closer look.

How does one extend the breath? By emphasizing stronger, and longer, exhalation. You want to reach a threshold where you are working harder on exhalation than inhalation: contracting the abdomenal wall to squeeze the air out and releasing with inhalation: passive inhalaion. That’s No. 2, right behind always breathing through the nose.

What does “Breathe deeply” mean? Does that mean taking big breaths (refer to above).

Abdominal breathing is the foundation of both rib and clavicle breathing. Most people, in fact most beginning yogis/yogins, are not capable of second or third stage breathing without compromising the first, which is counter productive. Stick to using your abdomenal wall to squeeze all the air out as mentioned above. That’s enough for at least 10 years or more of yoga practice. Second stage, or rib breathing happens naturally AFTER abdominal breath is completely developed, third stage even longer after that, so it’s not to be rushed.

“Exhalation twice as long?” It’s ok to do so as an exercise, but in daily activity, just exhale fully as referred to above and let the rest happen naturally.

If you want to exercise breathing control, rate and capacity with something daily, when walking, inhale 4 steps, exhale four steps. Or, when that’s not enough, then 2 steps inhaling, 2 steps exhaling, on stairs for example. As long as it’s the same for both and an even number: 2, 4, 6.

If you want to be serious about coordinating breathing with daily activity, along with this walking exercise, breathe in the direction of your movement: inhale when you reach over your head or stand up, exhale when you bend over or sit down. That sounds easy enough, but what it means is you have to be aware of the breath just prior to your action, i.e., if you’re about to bend over, you have to inhale just before; if you’re going to stand up, exhale just before, so that you can take the next breath appropriately.

Connecting to repetitive tasks is a good way to do it. When folding laundry, inhale as arms go up, exhale as they come down. When unloading groceries from your cart, exhale bending into the cart, inhale picking up and extending them onto a counter. This is yoga awareness in your daily life: bringing the divine into your life.

But you’re on the right track. I hope this is also helpful.

peace,
siva

#3

Very helpful info. Thanks to both of you. I always had trouble with holding my breath especially when upset. Now I’m aware of it and working on it. I often catch myself not breathing. As a result of this I have even had voice problems.

#4

Thanks for the input.

[QUOTE=siva;82125]
How does one extend the breath? By emphasizing stronger, and longer, exhalation. You want to reach a threshold where you are working harder on exhalation than inhalation: contracting the abdomenal wall to squeeze the air out and releasing with inhalation: passive inhalaion.
[/QUOTE]

That’s one of the things that I’ve read conflicting advice about.

Some books say you should exhale “fully” (beyond what you would by just relaxing the diaphragm passively) by contracting the ab muscles and pulling in your belly. Then when you inhale from that position, a part of the inhalation becomes “passive” because you’re relaxing your ab muscles form the contracted position you put them in during the final bit of the exhale.

In other places they say that you should start your breath with all the muscles completely relaxed.

It seems to me you can’t do both - you either exhale until all your abdominal and chest muscles are at rest, then inhale from there. Or you exhale actively by contracting your abs, and then do the inhale starting from the “contracted abs” position.

[QUOTE=siva;82125]
What does “Breathe deeply” mean? Does that mean taking big breaths (refer to above).
[/QUOTE]

By that I mean increasing the total lung capacity you are using (also the effeciency - how hard your body needs to work for each unit of air you take in). I have read the optimum way to extend your lung capacity and effeciency is to practice the three part breath.

Taking bigger breaths but taking less of them each minute. The theory being that slower breathing rate stimulates the parasympathetic system and makes you more relaxed and focused.

I don’t really have a definite outcome in mind at the moment. I want to be more mindful of my breathing patterns, explore different ways of breathing and how it affects your mental and physical state.

It’s good to know what not to do though, so I don’t create bad habits from the start that will need to be corrected later on.

#5

[QUOTE=kyogagirl64;82126]Very helpful info. Thanks to both of you. I always had trouble with holding my breath especially when upset. Now I’m aware of it and working on it. I often catch myself not breathing. As a result of this I have even had voice problems.[/QUOTE]

That’s another thing I’m not sure about.

Is the pause healthy?

Some sources say that there is a natural pause after exhalation, and having a long pause is a sign of health.

#6

[QUOTE=-sparky-;82129]Some sources say that there is a natural pause after exhalation, and having a long pause is a sign of health.[/QUOTE]

If the exhalation is complete, yes.

siva

#7

Coherence-the New Science of Breath

When your breath is at the “resonant frequency” of about 6 breaths a minute the different biological rhythms (variation in heart rate, blood pressure, etc) start to resonate, all lined up one after another, amplifying one another to create a smooth pattern.

A sound balance between these biorhythms is the most accurate indicator of good health, predicting survival forty years down the line.

Coherent breathing has many physical benefits, such as:
—better immunity
—reduction of inflammation
—better regulation of blood sugar

The benefits above are precisely what prevents getting cancer.

It was observed that, when saying a Christian prayer like Ave Maria or when reciting
a mantra like Om Mani Padme Hum, the breath automatically adjusts to cca 6 breaths per minute.

Note: Every human being has a different resonance frequency, but generally this is
4-7 breaths a minute.

Meditation synchronizes the breath and various biological rhythms.

There are also several biofeedback methods to get the coherent breathing.

http://www.breathing.com/articles/slowing-breathing-rate.htm

http://www.coherence.com/science_full_html_production.htm

#8

In the file (hopefully attached !) you see something about the psychology of Love.

Love is among the highest states of consciousness, attained by those
practicing meditation.

Scroll down to the Resonance Frequency.

#9

Sparky, thanks for a good thread prompting good sharing.

One important thing you said is about trying to do conscious breathing while doing all the day’s chores. That is really good and yoga can be (and should be) so blended with life. But, the kind of breathing described (3-parts yogic breaths or its 4-parts variation) requires full attention and it is designed for a limited practice to exercise the breathing apparatus. It is better done that way’ at home, once or twice a day.

For an extended conscious breathing one needs a different method. Breathing that extends in duration, varying circumstances, fluctuating needs of the body, ability to give attention, ups & downs in stress needs to be such that can be done with only ‘slight effort’. (Patanjali yoga sutra #II.47) This can be achieved by drawing the upper abdomen in with a little pull while exhaling, which will also make the exhalation shorter than what one would do while pranayama exercises. (The action is similar but no way close to the force of kapalbhati) Number of breaths less than 12 a minute is a good rate depending on one’s practice.

Another thing that can help is aligning this breathing with the heartbeats, which for a yoga practitioner should be 60 or less per minute. This will automatically adjust the breathing to the variations of the day.

Your tips for the practice are good and valuable, with two exceptions in my view: (1) one should breathe full, but not deep that needs any excess efforts; (2) rechak and kumbhak (keeping air out and in) should not be done for such extended duration. Thanks.

#10

after breathing what you are doing you do try this if you like.

you can try observe the breathe there are 9 different ways what we can observe in breathe awareness, 1 one them will which keep falling into again & again that where you meet the breath.

example
1 do you ride on breathe mean when it come inside & going outside you are with the breathe
2 do you meet at certain point if yes what is that
3 is your breath a 2 parallel lines or its is a circle
4 is there a centre where it touch you & then turn upwards if yes is what is that ?
5 is there a fraction of second when breath is not moving & up or from up to down ?
6 can you findout when it takes turns to move or down.

few more things can be observed. this techniques come from Tantra & swar yoga. Buddhist anapanasatiyog is based on this as well,

once you find your technique you can do this walking eating in daily life means let your attention be on that point try this some times you might get profound experience :slight_smile:

thanks shiva