Calm your nervous system with yoga breathing (pranayama)
Two ways I modified my yoga breathing practice in pregnancy to manage stress and anxiety.
Changes to my hormones and the growth of my baby have affected my ability to breathe, so I’ve made changes to my pranayama (breathing) practice. This brings me to my fifth principle: I’m experiencing shortness of breath due to changes to my hormones and the growth of my baby. I will adopt alternative yoga breathing techniques to calm my nervous system.
One of the biggest takeaways from reading, continuing education and yoga therapy school is our ability to affect our autonomic nervous system through the power of breath. I’m someone with a history of anxiety, and still feel prone to it now, even it being “under control.” Here are some of the tools I use to manage anxiety:
I stop extending my spine in heart opening postures and start practicing restorative postures with my body and head facing down.
I tune my awareness to my breath and count the length of my inhale to my exhale. I incorporate a 1:2 breathing pattern where my exhale is twice as long as my inhale.
Sometimes I need to jump up and down and wiggle my body to get the nerves out first. (It sounds weird, right? But there is science behind it. Check out Peter Levine’s books)
If you ever feel a wave of panic or stress--try this. It works for me and a lot of people.
Put simply: the autonomic nervous system’s “fight and flight” response sends signals to the body to take quick, short breaths and puff our chest out. Extending the exhale and flexing the spine helps tone the vagus nerve (the nerve responsible for our autonomics) and stimulate a “rest and digest” response.
I found several times during pregnancy that extending my exhale made me feel even more shortness of breath and triggered a stress response within me. Even Pranayama like Viloma (practice of retaining breath in intervals during inhale and exhale) was uncomfortable.
Keeping the length of the inhale even to exhale is key to reducing my discomfort. Here are two techniques that I used to manage for shortness of breath:
Sama Vritti Pranayama. I start by counting the length of my inhales to the length of my exhales. Next, I practice ensuring that the length of my inhale is equal to my exhale. I skip the part that involves an equal retention of breath between inhale and exhale. This is also a great way to start a meditation.
Nadi Shodhana Pranayama. I start by practicing Sama Vritti. If that feels comfortable, I use my fingers to plug up one nostril and breathe through the opposite, alternating each nostril with each breath keeping the inhale to the exhale even in length.
Pro tip: If you’re in bed or in a public place, just send your intention to one nostril then the other. Concentrate and see if you can alternate nostrils without your fingers.
Do you practice yoga breathing techniques? What works for you? I’m in this with you!
