Breathing Through Bending Poses – A Very Useful Tip

This is gem I picked up from one of my yoga teachers over the years. I've not heard it talked of anywhere else. Even this one teacher mentioned it just once, in passing. I think it is a brilliant idea and it  deservers to be better known and put to use.

I find it useful for developing all bending poses, backwards or forwards, seated or standing. And it is wonderfully simple:

1. Elongate the spine on the in-breath
2. Deepen the bend on the out-breadth

These are a few advantages of this technique:

• It helps me keep my body relaxed and fluid while working though poses.
• It keeps the breathing deep and easy – holding the pose no longer risks to strain the breathing. Instead, the breading becomes a tool for developing the pose.
• It focuses the mind on one point – the breathing, and really helps me fend off  stray thought about work deadlines and everything else I really don't need to think about during my yoga practice.
• I don't need to worry about how far I'm able to bend when I get into a pose. Instead, the initiation of a posture is more about achieving the correct alignment of the body and remembering all those do's and don't. Deepening the pose is something to work on while executing it.

All in all, a very useful simple technique. Have I convinced you yet?