Breath improves your Mental health & Wellbeing
Learning to breathe properly can change your life. In yoga, we call it "Pranayama" or control of your breath. We use various techniques. "Prana" means life force and "Yama" control. Science is now supporting what yogis have known for thousands of years about the power of your breath.
The findings of a study published in scientific reports suggest that practicing breathing exercises helps decrease stress and improve mental health. Pranayama is the link between breath & mind.
Breath is life, Prana, Chi, whatever you wish to call it. It is the first thing we do when we are born and the last we do as we die. Breath affects the quality of our life and is key to our wellbeing. Yet how often do we pay attention to it ? Does it matter how we breath ? And why ?
Breathwork practices date back to ancient times, in yoga. We breathe automatically but learning to control your breath has its benefits on spiritual, mental, and physical health and wellbeing have been conveyed through centuries. Prana controls energy, wellbeing and fitness.
Yoga, Breath, Covid, Stress and Mental Health
Currently, breathwork is also advocated by medical practitioners and researchers and is steadily gaining popularity. The beneficial therapeutic effects of breathwork practice have become more widely known since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and as the associated respiratory ill-effects emerged.
I have witnessed first hand the positive effects of the breath as I have helped numerous clients post Covid to get their breath and energy back. The results were astonishing.
Despite its well-known benefits, breathwork has been inadequately investigated by the scientific community. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies stress as a major factor contributing to leading to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression and physical ailments like hypertension.
I always teach breathwork at the beginning of class. So many of us have forgotten how to breathe properly. It allows us to pause. It develops awareness and helps us to switch off from automatic pilot to reconnect to ourselves.
It is like setting an intention for our practice. No one wants to start agitated, distracted or preoccupied, so the breath helps us to release and let go. The body mirrors the mind. For me, this is the ignition to our wellbeing and students report how much better and calmer they feel afterwards.
Breath is magic. It is most important when we do yoga, I always remind my students to synchronise their breath to movement. It changes everything. A sense of calm, harmony and ease starts to develop within. So beautiful !
When we move mindfully with the breath, we create ease and space. Our movement becomes slower and more meaningful, almost like a slow-moving meditation. It establishes a real connection within and helps to bring focus. It brings us into this one and only moment. This is the definition of yoga.
How we start the class carries through our practice. The challenge is to keep the breath connection with our asanas – yoga poses, a little like a moving meditation. It required focus and mindfulness. The breath helps us to relax, release tension, create energy & space to find ease and freedom of movement. It makes us feel alive, so let the breath lead you and move you from within. 😊
The breath changes with our emotions. Emotions find their way in the body. Our body, like a computer, keep score of it all. Yet, through breathwork, we can release emotions and tension from our bodies. We start to become more relaxed.
Yoga & Science agree on the breath's benefits
As we learn to control your breath, we can learn to regulate and calm our nervous system through our breath. In yoga 🧘♀️, we can learn the way we feel.
You will find below an extract from "News Medical Life Sciences", Article of January 2023:
"Scientists have described multiple mechanisms instrumental in the beneficial effects of practicing slow-paced breathing. These include central nervous system (CNS) pacification, polyvagal theory, interoception and enteroception, increased heart rate variability through autonomic nervous system (ANS) modulation, and heightened parasympathetic action.
Stress, depression, and anxiety impair ANS activity and lower HRV. Breath modification alters the neurological signals sent by the respiratory system, influencing parts of the brain that regulate thoughts, emotions, and behaviour.
Additionally, slow-paced breathing synchronizes brain waves, improving communication between different parts of the brain. Meanwhile, fast-paced breathing voluntarily induces transient stress, which aids in improving stress resilience.
Current evidence proposes that one session of slow-paced deep breathing benefits the vagal tone (measured through HRV) and attenuates anxiety in adults. Hence, breathwork can be compared to mindfulness and meditation practices. Meditation and breathing 5-6 breaths/minute improves HRV.
The study showed significant improvements in self-reported anxiety, depression, and stress in individuals practicing breathwork compared to non-breathwork control populations."
How exciting that science is finally catching up and supporting an ancient yoga practice.
As Patanjali, an Indian sage, said in his world known book, Yoga Sutra 1.34, Book 1:
“Calm is retained by the controlled exhalation or retention of the breath”
Breath is the vehicle of the mind, when the breath is slow and deep, the mind happens in its calm state. Controlled, prolonged exhalation has been shown to activate our parasympathetic nervous system, the branch of our nervous system responsible for our “rest-and-digest” relaxation response. This is something we practice regularly in class without fail as it is so beneficial.
In any situation, let us remember to always come back to the breath as our anchor. We can learn to control our breath for different desired effects, energy, balance, relaxation. The goal of yoga is to bring balance, clarity and peace to the mind (Sattva).
There are different breath techniques for various purposes. For energy, for concentration, for destressing, or calming our nervous system, for mental health, for detox, for cooling the body in hot weather, to clear the mind, to increase our lung capacity etc. It’s a powerful yoga tool. Not to be taken lightly and best to learn with a qualified yoga teacher.
I run weekly classes in Wadhurst, Frant, Fordcombe and online. A blend of breathwork, yoga, Somatics, Pilates to feel good. I also offer workshops and 1:1. All welcome ! Just get in touch...
Group classes, Private tuitions and workshops available. For more info, benefits and testimonials on Yoga and Somatics, pls visit www.yogawithbelle.co.uk
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