Edited by: Janani Mahadevan
Inhale. Exhale. There are only two ways to breathe, so is it even possible to be breathing wrong? Let me give you a little bit of a back story. I’ve disliked going for runs as far as I can remember, so I decided to get into it to turn that around. Once, I was panting while running on the beach. When my coach, who was running alongside me, looked me right in the eye and told me that my problem was that I was breathing wrong, I couldn’t muster any words in response, so I simply laughed it off. It seemed like the most ridiculous thing to me. How in the world can you mess up something you’ve been doing since the second you’ve been born? Still, with the initial motivation of wanting to improve my runs and get the most out of my workouts, I decided to look deeper into the idea of breathwork. I’ve always been into mindfulness practices—reading up on them and practicing. The idea that the breath is central to your being was therefore not new to me; I was aware of how your breath is sensitive to your emotions and state of mind. However, how far-encompassing breathing is in determining the flow of various everyday activities was surprising to me.
With finals week coming up, I believe that using the breath to harness a better mindset can only help. In yoga, you often anchor your mind to your breath to keep you in the present moment. Why is it so hard to remain in the present? One explanation is that it’s because our minds have a natural tendency to dwell in the past or dream of the future. Anchoring your mind to the present helps you live that moment to the fullest. If something as simple and universally accessible as the breath can help you achieve that, why is it that not all of us live in the moment? The answer lies in awareness. Of course, all of us are taking in breaths all the time. But how often do we bring our awareness to it? There are a ton of articles out on the internet about the benefits of pranayama, breathwork and counting your breath. On similar lines, I wanted to understand the intuition behind breathing and understanding the breath as central to mindfulness.
Have you ever been in a deadly silent crowded elevator and caught yourself holding your breath till the doors opened? Only when you do put your mind to it do you realize that you hadn’t taken a breath and that awareness compels you to compensate for it. A benefit to conscious inhalations and exhalations is that you automatically and naturally take in deeper breaths. Deep breathing calms your nerves and reduces stress. It is said that tortoises live for about 400 years because they take only 3 to 4 breaths a minute. Your breathing rate is so powerful that it can even affect your lifespan.
On the flipside of my question of how we can breathe wrong, is to think about it this way: the only thing that stays with us from the moment we are born to the moment we die is our breath. So if we learn how to breathe right, it has the power to enhance our life. Everything around us is constantly changing, but the breath stays with us forever. It connects our body and mind. This is clearly evidenced by how every emotion we feel is experienced with a change in breath. When we’re scared, our heart rate goes up and we take shallow breaths. When we’re happy, our breath changes. When we’re sad, our breath changes. If the breath is so central to our state of mind, maybe learning how to better navigate it, will also help us navigate any situation in life.
I may have just started to get into running, but I’ve heard of athletes and sportspersons being trained how to breathe. Monks, musicians, and even bomb defusal specialists train their breath and learn how to breathe. Even if we’re not in these high pressure fields, I think that bringing awareness to our breath, is a step in the right direction. It’s a step closer to meditation and meditative lifestyles. So, this finals week, anytime you feel yourself stressing about something, or feel overwhelmed with an emotion, remember to bring your attention to your breath. Inhale. Exhale.