Calm Before the Storm

Have you ever had one of those experiences where things were growing in chaotic intensity and someone standing next to you asks you to do something that you've never done before?

This has happened to me, like the time I was looking after my infant niece whilst my sister (an optometrist) was giving an eye exam to our mother. It was the weekend and we were alone in her office and I was outside of the exam room with my niece whose diaper became soiled. Pinching my nose, I yell through the closed exam door, "Karen...Laura needs to have her diaper changed!". And my sister yells back, "Well...go ahead and change it!". Not having birthed any children of my own, I was in a place of not knowing and had to stumble my way through the task (holding my breath) and praying not to make it a bigger mess than was already in front of me. This was not something I was proficient at doing yet we all got through it (even though my niece was sporting a diaper that was slightly off-center).

This brings me to my thought for the week, that of practice, particularly as it pertains to the breath. Sometimes when I ask a yoga student what they got out of the last session they reply, "Well, I haven't done anything this past week but be more aware of how I'm breathing". To this I reply with great excitement, "Excellent!". Yoga is about the breath. It is the specific practices around breath awareness that differentiate yoga from other endeavors. If we can breathe, we can be fully in our yoga practice. The power of how our breath can alter how we feel, often within seconds, is an undervalued asset until you start to experience its effects.

If the only thing you take away from reading this blog is how to calm down through breathing, then excellent! We undertake breathing practices when we are in a calm place so that we can readily call upon them when we perceive something as a threat or stressful. If we haven't practiced tapping into our breath, there is little chance we will be able to do so in an emergency.

I love sharing the story of when my husband Ed, who had been practicing yoga for a few years, had a heart attack and subsequent open heart surgery. When he was in the hospital and experiencing pain, I could lean down to his ear and say, "slow down your exhale" and voila...he knew exactly how to do that despite being connected to tubes, machines and in an unfamiliar experience.

You can begin now. Sit in a relaxed position. Take a deep inhale over four counts, pause and exhale for six counts. Pause. Repeat. When we make our exhale longer than our inhale, the effects are almost immediate and shift us from overdrive into a lower gear.

And if the need arises where you have to change a dirty diaper remember this tip it will come in handy!