There
are some really silly yoga myths floating around, and a big one goes
like this:
"Breathing exercises (pranayama) are for advanced yoga students only
and
should never be practiced without a teacher's supervision or it can be
very dangerous."
Geez, the first time I heard that, I got really freaked out. So I asked
more
questions:
"What EXACTLY happens?" And, that's when it got REALLY silly.
One teacher told me about a "friend of a friend" who was doing
pranayama against his teacher's advice and ended up in a psychiatric
ward.
Another long-time student told me of a "student he knew" who actually
gave himself brain damage from breathing practices.
And me? Well, yeah, I believed it.
Why would people make this stuff up? To this day, I still don't know
why
there's all this hoopla and scare tactics around breathing, but there
is.
And unless you're doing five-minute breath retention practices near
toxic waste
dumps, I don't think you should pay any attention.
Here's why:
I know hundreds of teachers and thousands of students, and it didn't
take me
long to figure out that those freaky stories were totally bogus.
Scuba divers get into trouble with breathing, not yoga students. Drug
addicts
free-basing cocaine get brain damage, NOT someone doing
"unsupervised" breathing at home.
I mean really, what's next? Do we need someone to teach us how to chew
our food
too?
Yoga is powerful, and breathing can be even more so, but come on! Brain
damage?
Let's not get carried away. If someone is stupid enough to do breathing
exercises that are so extreme that they're dangerous, you gotta think
that maybe
the brain damage was already there;)
Enough yoga lore. I want to talk about the vagus nerve.
The vagus nerve stretches from your brain stem all the way down to your
abdomen
and is involved in heart rate, gastrointestinal peristalsis (poo), and
sweating.
Here's the interesting part:
Deep breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, which "turns on" the
parasympathetic nervous systems to slow your heart rate, relieve
stress, and
heal your body.
This is why your significant other tells you to "breathe deeply" when
you're freaking out (me? never!). And this is why someone
hyperventilating is
given a brown bag – to force those deep, slow breaths. The vagus nerve
gets
stimulated, the body gets into "rest and digest" mode, and life is
chilled out again.
There are hundreds of pranayama exercises available, and they're fun
and
challenging to learn, but most people really struggle with the patterns
and
counts.
So if you've got a breathing practice, great. If you don't, you can
still get
the same benefits just by doing simple deep breathing at home – totally
unsupervised.
Go nuts. Breathe! I'll send some exercises for you to try in a couple
days.
Until then...
Stay
bendy,
Lucas
YOGABODY
NATURALS
P.S.
With all breathing practices, trust your body, take it easy, and use
common
sense (don't hyperventilate yourself in a closet full of paint thinner,
for
example). All for now.
