Vinyasa and Slow Breathing
For some time I have been thinking about the way a vinyasa* facilitates slow breathing, and the benefits therein. In my own bodymind awareness, when I link breath with movement it is like an anchor, securing me to my depths. Not in a lotus roots in the mud kind of way but in the way that sometimes we need to turn the volume up on something in order to hear it. Vinyasa anchors me, and brings me to the softer quiet yielding within that can get buried under my harder outer layers. The movement (along with the ujjayi* style) gives my breath weight, making time slow down around me. And indeed this is one of the things they say about the yogi’s; they live longer. Slow your breath down and you will too.
In the research, there is some argument about the value of resonant breathing, well not the value, but whether there really is a magic number of breaths per minute that is optimal for health. In an upcoming systematic review that I was lucky enough to work on, 4.5 to 7 breaths per minute were found over and again to be where health benefits occurred, mostly around stress reduction and decreased anxiety. This is what I mean by slow breathing. Most of us breath 12 or more times per minute.
However, in a contemplative postural yoga practice for example, doing a sun salutation where the breath is linked to the transitions into and out of and between one posture and the next, resonant breathing can be trained. Eventually, one could find themselves within that magic range of 4.5 to 7 breaths for a whole practice.
This means, if you are working on developing a slow breathing practice, for stress reduction and to help with anxiety, perhaps try exploring vinyasa, and see where it takes you.
*”Vinyasa”generally means the marriage of breath and movement, or pairing a movement, in the sense of timing, with the length of an inhale or an exhale.
*”Ujjayi,” also called empowered thoracic breathing, is a breath forced through the shaped opening of the glottis, making a deep resonate sound. Because the opening is slightly closed, the time is also altered, as well as the sound.
