Just breathe
The simplest yet sometimes the most challenging statement… When I was walking around the neighborhood the other day I found a sign someone attached to an old tree that said: “I often forget there’s something I can do when I do not know what to do: BREATHE.” How very true! Breath is the essence of our very existence, our life force and the energy moving through us. It delivers life-giving fuel - oxygen - to every cell. It should be the most natural thing in the world. And yet so often it isn’t. When we’re stressed (and who isn’t these days), our breathing becomes shallow, labored, short. We gasp for oxygen and it feels like there isn’t enough of it in the air. That is why there is so much emphasis on breathing in yoga: if we can’t refocus on the breath in the first place, the rest of the practice will not flow.
This book just made it on my holiday to-read list: Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. Journalist James Nestor delves into stories, beliefs, and science behind breath as an essential aspect of life and different breathing techniques In my exploration of different breathing techniques. Haven’t read it yet but sounds promising. Speaking of breathing techniques, I have recently come across the Tibetan tradition of Lung Ro Salwa, or exhaling of the stale air. It is rooted in yantra yoga, the Tibetan yoga of movement described in a beautifully named 8th century text The Union of the Sun and Moon written by a Buddhist master Vairocana. I find this breathing technique calming and stimulating at the same time, great to practice in the morning or before a creative task. I put together this short video in hopes that you may try it, too!
You may be wondering whether my idea for Yantar Yoga is somehow connected to yantra yoga given how similar the names are and the short answer is no, or at least not consciously. I explain my reasons for naming this site here and they are related to a Slavic word for “amber.” If it has an etymological connection, I’m not aware of it. Yantra in Sanskrit can mean a geometric form like a mandala but literally it means an instrument or machine. I find the latter definition quite fitting when applied in the context of the movement of human body, which after all is an instrument that, propelled by breath, moves from shape to shape (Tibetan term for yantra yoga is trulkhor, which means movement).
There is also a variation of that word that looks exactly like Polish for amber, jantar. I came across it when I was in India some years ago visiting a magical place in Jaipur called Jantar Mantar. This UNESCO site was built in the 18th century and consists of 19 monumental architectural astronomy instruments, or yantras, like the world's largest stone sundial. They were designed to observe astronomical positions with the naked eye and are a sight to behold! As you practice this breathing exercise with me, imagine sitting among these monumental structures and feel the connection to the universe. We also are astronomical instruments in a sense, using our bodies to find our celestial path.