Before I got into yoga, I never knew about the importance of breathing.
As I progress in my learning, I came to realize that being conscious of your breath is not a simple thing to do and it helps you to be focused. Usually when I am very tired after doing a pose or a sequence of poses, I found that it was due to the shortness of breath or rather losing control of breathing… especially when you get too obsessed with getting the pose right or perfect.
When the breath is smooth and controlled, I feel energised and the flow is smooth and in control. I think that explains why I am terrible in hot classes. I get distracted by the perspiration running down my face and keep wiping them off and with that I think I did not concentrate on the breath ( as what Singaporean would say “anyhow” breathe ) and lost control.
Or when I get distracted with other things like the mind keep thinking and analysing why the teacher is doing this and that… I bad… I tried a few other teachers’ classes and I did not enjoy them too much… was it really a bad class or just me? I must try again but this time with an even more open mind and to try to appreciate the class instead of thinking too much… and just concentrate on my breath…
This just came to mind again… something bugged me a whole lot… I went to this teacher’s hot class (not my usual class) and he told us to breathe in when we twist and to exhale to extend the spine ( we were doing the Half Spinal Twist - Ardha Matsyendrasana )… And all along I thought we were supposed to exhale when we twist and to extend the spine when we inhale…. The more I thought about it, the more certain I was… Or was it a hot thing? As in a Bikram hot yoga breathing technique??
I am still puzzled….
September 8th, 2008 at 9:21 am
You are right about the breathing in twists - inhale to extend the spine, and exhale to twist.