“Life is in the breath. He who half breathes, half lives.” ~Ancient Proverb By Susan McNamara
Susan McNamara
“ T o breathe is to feel. Unconsciously, we choose how much we ’ re going to feel by how much we breathe. ”
I
heard my yoga teacher‘s voice in the background. Feel what, I wondered. The burning in my
arms and shoulders? The tension in my hips? The judgment that circulates through my mind about myself and everyone else around me? The sense in this moment that something exists far greater than me and everything else? After years of yoga practice with this teacher, I learned that he meant everything I was thinking and more. As a yoga teacher, I teach that every thought and emotion has a corresponding rhythm in our breathing patterns. This mirrors Traditional Chinese Medicine approaches where the lungs, also known as the ―tender organ,‖ are seen as overseeing the relationship between the internal and the external world. The lungs reflect the deepest attitudes I hold about myself, my life and my eventual death. And breathing serves as a gauge for how
things are in my life in any given moment. Every breath I take is an opportunity to inform all aspects of my life from my relationship to myself to my interactions with others to my connections to the world at large. Breathing is also the ultimate tool for good health and vitality—it oxygenates the blood, decreases pain and nervous system arousal, improves sleep, and more. Humans take on average 28,000 breaths per day. Imagine that number multiplied over a lifetime. Quite literally, we all have millions of opportunities for growth, transformation, and healing within the context of a single breath. All of this from a basic life function that reflects our greatest survival need as well as a pathway for the full expression of our deepest potentials and thriving. However, most of my students breathe in limited and restricted ways. Instant messaging, fast food, fast love and the feeling that everything was due yesterday not only encourages but downright demands people pace their lives beyond the human ability to fully experience and integrate whatever they are doing, thinking, feeling. Many people ignore and/or deny what they are experiencing because it‘s inconvenient— it‘s messy, complicated and timeconsuming to feel one‘s life. Immediate demands, pressing engagements and expectations take precedence over
simply being human, even down to the life sustaining act of taking a breath. Who has time to feel something that takes more time than
downloading a song off of iTunes or sending a text? Peoples‘ experience of life mimics today‘s world of technology—fast, perfect and twodimensional. However, unconsciously restricting and distorting the breath, while creating the illusion that everything is together, ultimately deprives the system not only of oxygen but of the aliveness necessary to live a fully joyous, fully expressed life. Our breathing patterns indicate how things are in our bodies in any given moment.
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Volume 1 Number 3 | Winter 2011| 24