five

THE FOURTH LIMB: BREATH CONTROL (PRANAYAMA)

Listen, are you breathing just a little
and calling it a life?

Mary Oliver

Steve, a physician who works as a development officer for a large West Coast medical university, has found practicing breath control (pranayama) at work is a way to slow down a conversation, allowing him to be more grounded and thoughtful. When he is asked a question, he takes a slow, deep inhale and exhale before answering, a practice he adopted after a yoga teacher suggested it in class several years ago. “It helps me slow down that gerbil on the treadmill in my mind. I need that time to really think about what I have to say. It helps me not regret what I say.”

He’s noticed that most people at work answer questions without hesitation. It is not uncommon to hear someone respond before the other person even finishes a sentence. “I’ve even noticed in job interviews how quickly people respond,” Steve says. “I ask questions, and a lot of times I get a canned response. It’s like they came prepared with answers and are looking for a way to insert them into the conversation, instead of taking the time to really think about the question, then give a thoughtful response.”

He’s found the practice of deep breathing during interactions with others to be “positively disarming.” Steve says that the pranayama shifts the energy on both sides of the conversation, allowing for more connection and deeper understanding.

Prana (energy or life force) and ayama (control) comprise yoga’s Fourth Limb. You live because you breathe. Your breath fills you with the life force. Pranayama is about exploiting and harnessing that energetic force through attention to your breath.

A focus on breathing is an integral part of an on-the-mat practice and can definitely make a contribution to your work life as well. Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Breath is the bridge that connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.” It is a preparation and foundational to effective meditation. Although you can learn all kinds of techniques associated with pranayama, the one thing you always have to do is be mindful of your breath.

When Jamie began doing yoga, he connected to the practice of pranayama right away. It is something he really enjoys doing during his on-the-mat practice—he visualizes, as well as feels, his breath as he moves through the postures and during the pranayama techniques Mary often incorporates into her classes. “When I try focusing on breath at work, that’s another story,” he says. “They say you write about or teach the things you need to learn yourself. That has been true for me as we’ve written this book.”

Soon after our interview with Steve, Jamie was preparing for an interview with a New York Times reporter. He decided he was going to incorporate Steve’s technique, inhaling and exhaling deeply before he responded to her questions. I was sitting in the room while he did the interview and noticed after about five minutes that he wasn’t using the technique. Getting his attention, I mimed a big inhale and exhale. He nodded and tried the technique on the next question. But after a few minutes, he was back to answering immediately after the reporter’s queries. After Jamie finished the interview, we talked about what got in the way of his staying connected to the pranayama technique. “I could feel myself wanting to show how competent I am by rushing in with the right answer. There was this little undercurrent of fear about allowing my breath to control the pace of the conversation.” He was worried that if he hesitated, the reporter might think he was stumped or didn’t know the answer. He didn’t want the reporter to think she had picked the wrong guy to interview or that he was wasting her time. (Clearly she didn’t, since several of his remarks were used in her piece.)

“The tape I have grown up with is that intelligence and decisiveness are connected, and pausing before answering might not seem to support either. During the interview, I was seeing the conversation as more important than how I showed up in the conversation,” Jamie says. “And the other thing is that I just haven’t developed a habit yet. It’s something I’m going to continue working on. One of the benefits of yoga is the ongoing opportunity through practice to deal with this and other things in myself.”

REDIRECTING ENERGY

Pranayama practice also is useful for helping you alter emotional and mental states that can get in the way of good work. Mindful breathing allows you to decelerate when you’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed. It can calm an agitated or angry mind. When you’re feeling lethargic and dull, mindful breathing techniques can help you restore energy.

When Zoe sees her first-graders’ energy flagging, she gets them plugged back in to their schoolwork by using pranayama techniques. One of the kids’ favorites is when she asks them to imagine they’re in possession of a sword like Luke Skywalker’s or Darth Vader’s, and invites them to choose a color for their own blade.

“I tell them to close their left nostril, and then imagine that light sword going up their right nostril as they breathe in. Then I have them release their left nostril and plug their right, and imagine a different color coming out on the left as they exhale. I do a few rounds, right to left, left to right. Kids don’t attach any judgment to doing it—they just think it is fun. It really is remarkable, because I can see their energy rev up almost immediately.”

Next time you’re feeling a little sleepy or sluggish, notice how you’re breathing. When you’re tired, breathing becomes shallow, allowing little fresh oxygen into your body. When you are feeling stressed, angry, or agitated, notice how choppy and uneven the breath is.

Lacey, who works as a police officer in Las Vegas, credits pranayama with her ability to stay focused and aware, even in the most extreme circumstances. She considers it a life-saving technique, and she isn’t talking metaphorically. “When I am out on the shooting range, breath control allows me to have more accurate target practice. Your breath is a direct factor of the fluctuations of your mind. How you train is how you perform. This has been huge for me.”

Huge is an understatement. She recalls one incident when she and her partner were forced from their patrol car after a gunman put several bullets into the door. They began to chase him down an alley as he continued to shoot at them. As Lacey ran, she was shouting into her radio, ordering backup help, and trying to direct other officers to their location. All the while the suspect continued to shoot. Then her gun jammed, and she started feeling panicky.

Lacey realized she was losing her breath. “You’re already putting a strain on your cardiovascular system by running, and your sympathetic response has kicked into overdrive. I could observe that my breathing was becoming erratic, and I knew it was affecting my mental state. I had to slow it down if I wanted to do my job and not get killed.”

As she ducked behind a wall to fix her gun, “I could actually see my mind running away from me.” Lacey consciously decelerated her breath. “The training I have had in pranayama is invaluable in those situations, because I can get control of my breath quickly, which evens out my mind,” she says. “Once I had my breath, I was able to quickly fix the gun, continue the chase, and get my shots off with precision.”

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL BENEFITS

Studies show that slowing your breathing and other pranayama techniques can improve mood, mental alertness, and enhance memory—all qualities that will serve you at work. It is a physical practice that affects your cardiovascular system. Deep breathing circulates more oxygen through the body and into the brain. Slow, deep breathing can also help you find slumber more quickly and sleep more deeply. Better rest will leave you more refreshed and alert on the job.

Breathing also can be a means to find “the observer” that helps you recognize an emotional response before it gets in the way of what you want to accomplish. As you become aware of what your triggers are—conversations with your boss, a pushy colleague, having to give a presentation—pranayama gives you space to get grounded. With each breath, you can see yourself getting calmer and more able to focus. It doesn’t take long. A dozen or so deep, mindful breaths won’t cause you to miss any deadlines, yet can alleviate the anxiety and worry invoked by deadline pressure.

Visualization during pranayama is also effective, and something you can do at work without people even realizing it. As you close your eyes, imagine inhaling light into your lungs and gently expanding it out to your torso and limbs. Picture all the stress, negativity, and worry moving into your lungs as a gray mist, which will be expelled from your body on a deep exhale. The mist dissipates harmlessly into the atmosphere. Continue this breathing and visualization for several deep, even breaths, then open your eyes.

There. Doesn’t that feel better?

Five suggestions for practicing pranayama

1. Make a mental note when you find yourself in high-stress situations, or when you’re feeling tired or sluggish. How are you breathing? Jot down some notes about what you notice.

2. Experiment with altering your breathing patterns (suggested pranayama techniques are below) when you’re in conversation, feeling stressed, or tired. What changes? How does it affect your conversations, relationships, or the dynamics at work?

3. For one day, experiment with taking one deep breath before responding to a statement or question. What do you notice? How does it change the quality of your responses? How does it affect the conversation?

4. Next time you’re waiting for someone or standing in a long line, stand squarely on both feet, square your shoulders, and focus on your breathing, or employ a pranayama technique. How does your experience change?

5. Try employing nadi shodhana in the evening and morning (see instructions on next page). What do you notice about your energy levels?

PRANAYAMA TECHNIQUES

Lion’s Breath (Simhasana)

A wonderful way to eject tension, stress, frustration and anger from your body. This can be done standing, sitting, or kneeling.

1. Place your hands on your knees. Inhale through the nose.

2. Open your mouth wide and stick your tongue out as far as it will go, then exhale through the mouth, making a forecful “haaaaaaah” sound from the back of your throat.

3. Tilt your head slightly or bring your gaze toward the third eye as you exhale (optional).

4. Inhale, returning to a neutral face.

5. Repeat.

Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhana)

This simple technique is for balancing the mind and can be done by anyone (it even works on first-graders!). For calming, begin with the left nostril. For energizing, begin with the right. Start in a comfortable sitting position.

1. Using your right hand, fold your pointer and middle fingers into your palm, leaving your thumb, ring finger, and pinky sticking up (Vishnu mudra).

2. Use right thumb to close off right nostril.

3. Inhale slowly through left nostril, pause at the top of the inhale.

4. Close left nostril with ring finger and release thumb off right nostril.

5. Exhale through your right nostril.

6. Inhale through right nostril, pause at the top of the inhale.

7. Use right thumb, close right nostril, exhale through left nostril.

8. Inhale slowly through the left nostril, pause at the top. Close the left nostril with the ring finger, exhale through the right.

9. Block right nostril, exhale through left nostril.

10. Repeat for as many rounds as comfortable. Sit quietly for a few moments after you have dropped the techniques.

Cooling Breath (Sitali)

A perfect technique for hot weather or to use during a heated workout or practice. It cools the body, and is also said to aid with indigestion and hypertension.

1. Curl tongue into a tube (if your tongue does not curl, put the tip of your tongue behind the top of your front teeth).

2. Take a long, slow inhale (alternatively, take three “sips” of air on the inhale).

3. Close the mouth and slowly exhale through the nostrils. Repeat.