Why breathe?

In hot yoga, I sometimes find that I want to take a big gulp of air in or exhale with a blow out of my mouth. In other sports, I am told this is the right way to breathe. Why in hot yoga is it always breathing in and out through the nose?

Comments

[Rhonda Uretzky, RYT]

ANSWER: Breathing in and out through the nose - slow extended inhalations and exhalations - helps calm the nervous system. I call this the "full body healing" breath; in Chi Gong practice, it is said that breathing through the "back of the throat,"making the Darth-Vader sound, releases neuro-sensors from the brain to all the organs of your body, instructing them to open, dilate, and relax. When you open your mouth to breathe, the brain gets a different message through the nervous system: panic. Try this experiment: breathe quickly in and out through your mouth as fast as you can. That shaky feeling that comes over you...that's what you want to avoid in hot yoga...and in life. As Yoko Ono said to John Lennon: Breathe. It's a very nourishing practice.