The Power of Yoga and Breathwork

Our minds and bodies have a unique interconnectedness. I use my love of yoga and breathwork to inform my practice and to allow me to work authentically with clients.

A number of studies have shown that yoga may help reduce stress and anxiety and in my experience, I’ve found this to be true. I want to stress that yoga is not just about the external form i.e., what the body looks like from the outside, as in the poses, movements and posture but more about the internal experience of the practitioner…what it feels like.

 Yoga can enhance your mood and overall sense of well-being. It may also be helpful in managing symptoms of depression and anxiety. It’s a practice that can help you to escape your anxious thoughts for a while because it encourages you to stay present and connect in with your body rather than your mind, tuning in with and using your breath to calm you.

While fear can keep us safe at times, having too much of it becomes unhealthy for our body, mind, heart, and spirit. Anxiety, or the constant and debilitating fear of the future, sends the nervous system into overdrive, activates the fight-or-flight response, and fills the body with the stress hormone cortisol. Anxiety also affects our ability to control our thoughts, which is exactly where the breath can help.

Deep and rhythmic breathing activates the vagus nerve, it turns on our parasympathetic nervous system and helps ease anxiety or stress. As our physiology returns to its natural state, our mind calms. This is the simplified explanation of a complex physiological process!

There are many types of breathwork techniques that can have a calming effect on the body. There is not one way to breathe and I encourage clients to experiment with options.

I recommend taking a look at Yoga with Adriene. Her videos are highly accessible and she talks a lot about “finding what feels good” She provides free yoga and mindfulness practices to inspire people of all ages, shapes and sizes.

I would recommend the following videos for connecting breath and body work if you are new to yoga

Yoga for Connection

Pranayama Potion

This series is more advanced in terms of the yoga itself but there is a lot of useful breath practices

Breath A 30 Day Yoga Journey