10 Yoga Breathing Techniques for Difficult Poses

How many times have you been attempting something particularly challenging and you simply forgot to breathe? Forgetting to breathe makes the attempt even more challenging, which maybe makes you forget your breath even more, in a cycle that continues until you give up for lack of oxygen! Yoga teaches us to be more aware of the way our breath interacts with our physical activity and our thoughts. The following tips are meant to help you allow your breath to balance your body and mind.

1. It is important to begin each yoga session with a warm-up meditation that incorporates pranayama. Draw attention to your breath the way it flows naturally, and as thoughts arise to distract you, let them go. From here, you will gradually incorporate movement into asanas.

2. You will use the breath to maintain alignment by getting in touch with your core. Belly breathing or cat-cow may help you to visualize in your mind's eye your breath as it travels up and down your spine, inhaling as you expand and exhaling as you contract.

3. Link your breath with attention by imagining it nourishing and relaxing different parts of the body in sequence.

4. Allow the challenge of asanas to increase gradually so the breath is not left behind. Do not skip preparatory poses that will help prevent unnecessary stress. For example, you can use supta prasarita padangusthasana to prepare for pascimatanasana and pascimatanasana to prepare for kurmasana.

5. Utilize ujaayi breath. Breathing through the nose, the back of the throat tightens on exhalation creating a sound like the ocean to bring more focus.

6. If I am still having trouble clearing my mind, I will transition into a balance pose, such as dancer's pose or eagle. Listen to your body and let meditation, asana and pranayama inform each other.

7. Never sacrifice your breath. If you cannot breathe, back off from the pose or try a modification or prop. For instance, squat on a block before transitioning into bakasana, or wrap a strap around your ankles for dhanurasana.

8. Develop your bandhas. Mulabandha, the root energy lock, should always be initiated first, engaged on inhalation and sustained as long as your attention allows. The next, uddiyana bandha, upward-lifting lock, is its complement, engaged at the bottom of an exhalation. Continuous contraction of bandhas reflects continuous attention to breath.

9. Breath is forgotten during struggle for control, and so we must surrender to the pose. We must rest at the same time that we maintain the structure.

10. Cultivate an awareness of breath in daily life.

Ask yourself, what is it that makes a pose difficult? Perhaps your mind is obsessing over something you need to do. Perhaps your body is not warm or strong or stretched enough for the pose you are attempting. I hope that the above tips will help you to find the right degree of challenge for you at any given time, so that you may flow comfortably with your breath. Namaste.