How Stress Affects Your Breathing

When we are in unsettled times, yoga can be a great tool for helping to keep us centered, balanced and grounded.  Yoga Breathing or Pranayama is especially beneficial for helping you stay "in the present moment"  and to help you deal with those daily stressors.  

There have been a multitude of stressors in our lives this past year.  Of course, the first one that comes to mind is COVID-19.  That tiny unseen virus has affected everyone on this planet in some way.  And then, rioting, politics and natural disasters of every kind and all over the country.  No wonder we are experiencing stress.  And that stress is affecting our breathing.  

When we are in a stressful situation, we breathe shallow, just into the upper chest.  This stimulates the "fear" response of the nervous system--the Sympathetic Nervous System.  Consequently, if we take slow, deep breathes, breathing into the bottom of the lungs, it stimulates the relaxation response of the nervous system--the Parasympathetic Nervous System.  

Our breath affects our horses also.  If you have had a stressful day (read--not breathing well)--they can feel it!   

And we have all experienced what happens if something startles or scares them.  Head up--they stop breathing--maybe a big snort out of that breath they are holding--tense muscles.  If we tense up also and hold our breath, then they are convinced the lion is ready to get them (even though it may just be a squirrel or the barn cat)!

So, breathing deep into your belly softens your seat, which they can feel, and lets them hear your breath.  

Try this:
Bring awareness to your two seat bones (the base of your pelvis that contacts the saddle) and the muscles between the seat bones and the pubic bone.   The muscles between these three points is the pelvic floor.    Now cough or clear your throat and feel how those muscles press down.  Have you ever noticed that before?  Now start breathing--full inhales and exhales--and notice how the inhales moves the pelvic floor softly down and the exhale draws if back up.  If you hold your breath, that movement stops.  Your horse can feel that! 

As you breathe deep in the belly and your seat softens, your horse can feel and hear your breath, and they will start to breathe.

Have you ever felt yourself gasping for breath during a hunter round or a dressage test or after a gallop with the hounds?  Did you forget to breathe the whole time?  Your horse could tell!!!  And you both will be tense, and out of breath!  

The breath is the most important part of a yoga practice.  Breathing in and out of the nose; steady, even, deep into the bottom of the lungs, but not forced.   This yoga breathing practice--Pranayama--can help us to become more aware of our breath no matter what we are doing.  It helps us be mindful or what we are doing on our yoga mat, in the saddle, and in our daily lives.

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