You don’t have to breathe in a special way just because you’re doing yoga. Just trust that your body already knows how to breathe.

I’ve been mentioning this at the beginning of my yoga classes.

You don’t have to breath in a special way just because you’re doing yoga. Trust that your body already knows how to breathe. Bigger, deeper, more frequent breaths is not better.

The first time I stopped to consider how I breathe and cue breathing in yoga occurred in Summer 2019 when I was in Canada for a training with Kathryn Bruni Young. We did vinyasa type movement and explored inhaling and exhaling differently than what is normally cued. I wanted to learn more about this so last month I took a training with Jane Clapp and Jennifer Snowdon that went further into the physiology of breathing.

If you haven’t exhaled why taking your arms overhead or inhaled while lowering through chaturanga - give it a try! Or just breathe with no agenda and see what your body decides it wants to do.

I’ve had people ask after class how and when they should be breathing, they express not knowing when to inhale and where to exhale. Yoga teachers, we did that. We created that rule, and the confusion around something that is regulated autonomously. Get out the way! Prescriptive breathing, like alignment based on aesthetics is one more thing to fix that doesn’t need to be fixed.

As a result of all this I’ve uncoupled movement cues from

breathing cues. Its taken a lot of focus to do that, because it’s so ingrained, but It’s amazing. People still breathe.

Do not confuse all this with letting people do whatever they want like it’s an improvisational dance class. There’s a distinct difference. Of course connecting to breath while moving on the yoga mat can happen, but we can also over breathe and that’s hyperventilation... when we breathe more than our metabolism needs. That’s the opposite of what we want in yoga.