A Standing Breathing Demonstration

Join us in this blogpost as Krista Lowe leads us through a powerful breathing demonstration exercise.  Krista graduated from the Clayton Yoga Teacher Training in December 2012 and completed this breathing exercise with flying colors!  (Krista is front and center on the photo attached)

Ms. Lowe demonstrates the anatomical positioning very well in the Tadasana, or Mountain Pose, covering the main points of the entire body.  You may also think about making these adjustments for yourself while you are standing in line at the grocery store or waiting at the bank, or even talking with your family to promote greater calm and a presence in the world.

“Stand with the bases of your big toes touching, heels slightly apart.  Lift and spread your toes and the balls of your feet, then lay them softly down on the floor.  Rock back and forth side to side.  Coming to a standstill, with your weight balanced evenly on the feet.  Firm your thigh muscles and lift the knee caps, without hardening your lower belly.  Life the inner ankles to strengthen the inner arches, then imagine a line of energy all the way up along your inner thighs to your groins, and from there through the core of your torso, neck, and head, and out through the crown of your head.  Turn the upper thighs slightly inward.  Lengthen your tailbone toward the floor and lift the pubis toward the navel.

Press your shoulder blades into your back, then widen them across the release them down your back.  Without pushing your lower front ribs forward, lift the top of your sternum straight toward the ceiling.  Widen your collarbones.

Balance the crown of your head directly over the center of your pelvis, with the underside of your chin parallel to the floor, throat soft, and the tongue wide and flat on the floor of your mouth.  Soften your eyes.

Now let’s focus on our breathing.  Counting to 4 as we inhale through our nose and exhale to 4 back out through out nose.  Inhaling for 1, 2 feeling the belly expand as your diaphragm drops.  Continue inhaling for 3, 4 as your breathe into the ribcage and up through the chest.  Hold the breath in.  Exhale for 1, 2 feeling the navel come back toward the spine.  Continue exhaling for 3, 4 as the ribcage comes back together and the diaphragm comes up.

Inhaling positive thoughts and exhaling all the tension throughout the body.  The most important thing is your breath.  Breathing deeply and slowly allows for greater circulation with less work.  It also lessens stress on the heart and enhances the entire cardiovascular system.  70% of the body’s detoxification is done just through breathing.

Cultivating our Ujayi breath, inhaling through the nose hearing a ‘sss’ sound as the breath vibrates in the back of the throat and sinus area.  The, hearing a ‘haaa’ sound as we constrict the back of our throat exhaling out of our nose.  Continue inhaling in for counts of 4 and exhaling out for count of 4.  Trying to breath in and out of the noet only, since mouth breathing can be very dehydrating.  Because the Ujayi breath makes such a distinct sound, it automatically brings one back to the awareness of breath.  Let’s clear the mind and focus on the present moment.  Enjoy this gift of meditation and relaxation.”

For more information about how Yoga Breathing and Clayton Yoga stretching can expand your sense of being in the world, please visit our yoga studio for class sometime.  In June you will get a free yoga class when you purchase any of our class cards (except for the single yoga class purchase). You are free to keep it and enjoy an extra class at the Studio with our compliments… Or gift the free class to a friend, family member or colleague. Please note, all free classes expire July 31th, 2014.  To purchase your class card, just click here:  http://www.secure-booker.com/bellayoga/ShopOnline/Series.aspx.