Breathing, Not Pooping...

So, I'm reading this anatomy book...mainly because I love the line drawings of people doing yoga...that's become one of my newest obsessions, doodling yogis (that and pouring over fashion magazines and cutting out pictures of models...because I heart models...)--but I have also been captivated by the actual content of the book (reading for content, a new discovery brought to you by YogaLia).

And yesterday, to my great delight, the anatomy book taught me how to breathe.

I always thought I was pretty practiced at the whole breathing thing, seeing as how I've been doing it for 29 years...but turns out, I had been doing it totally ass-backwards. Pun intended.

I had not set out to learn to breathe when I started reading the section on breath...I just thought I might pick up a few juicy tidbits about the whole in-out process and maybe refine my mental image of the breathing aparatus (and there is much room for refinement, as up until very recently my "mental image" of the inside of my torso basically consisted of a couple unidentified pouches and a lot of empty space...), but then, oh then...

In this book it explains how the breath moves in two directions, in and out (duh!)...or, more accurately, down (through the nose and into the lungs) and up (back out through the nose)...so far so good. The up/down description was new, but other than that, I'm good, totally on board. And then it starts to talk about how the "up" part of that equation is actually sort of difficult to master and done wrong by a lot of beginning yoga students, because for most people, when they think about expelling something, they think of a downward movement. Like, um...pooping.

Sorry. That's really the best analogy...

And at first I'm like, oh that's interesting...and then I start to think about it...and think about it...and suddenly I realize that I have been breathing totally wrong! Not just in yoga, people, I mean just in general throughout my ENTIRE LIFE.

When I exhale (up until yesterday) I have always imagined, for some reason, the air traveling down and out. I'm not sure where exactly I think the breathe is exiting...there aren't really many options down there. I think maybe I just imagined that it, like, osmosed through my stomach and out into the ether, but people, air doesn't go out your butt!! (Well...) Air goes out your mouth! Air goes out the same place it came in! Inhale, air comes in your nose and DOWN, exhale, air goes UP and out through your nose!

I just...I'm...flabbergasted by this discovery.

And not just because my idea about breathing is now more accurate, but because my breath has actually dramatically improved since making this find. No joke. As soon as I began to concentrate on my exhale with the knowledge that the breathe is leaving on an upward current...I'm not sure how to describe what happened except to say that everything just got...easier.

And I could feel the breath...leaving me. I could feel an actual letting go--letting the breath sail up and out instead of compressing it down into my belly and holding it there.

I could elaborate on the metaphoric resonance of all that, but I think it's probably pretty clear...if you've been reading any of my myriad posts on my attempts to "let things go" or be easier or chill the f-- out, you've probably already picked up the symbolic weight of this particular little gem.

BREATHING, my friends, not pooping...