Breath as a Bridge to Joy

“The yoga tradition tells us the mind and breath are twin laws of life, they travel together.  When the mind is calm and clear, the breath flows smoothly.  Conversely, when the breath flows smoothly, the mind calms and clears.

The condition of one determines the condition of the other….We experience the boundless joy deposited within the mind itself, which manifests when the mind is able to plumb its own depths.”

~Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, The Secret of the Yoga Sutras

When I started my yoga practice, I was regularly not breathing.

Crazy, right?  But my body’s reaction to stress was to tense EVERYTHING up, including my abdomen, and just hold my breath.

In that state, my feelings of stress would increase to feelings of panic, and everything would feel like a life or death situation.  Psychologists call this “fight or flight” syndrome, and it’s a classic reaction to stress.

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