Organize your breath and invite possibility

This past week I came across a different way of thinking about breathing and how we can use it to maintain or improve our well-being. Yes, it was during a yoga class and no, this is not a breathing exercise per se. As we worked our way through different yoga poses that day, the instructor kept reminding our small group to “organize our breath” before fully committing to each pose. 

Breathing is such an important component of yoga but I hadn’t heard it used this way. Aside from keeping us alive, it can center us, provide balance, imbalance, energy, and calm. After class, I thought about what it means to “organize my breath” not just in yoga but around different day-to-day activities and situations.

As I write this, we just started the spring semester, which also marks year three of teaching during a pandemic. The last two years have been challenging for most of us – working from home, teaching increasingly online and generally spending more time alone. It was a quiet but hectic time as we entered the never-ending Zoom loop. Many things happened at once, creating a sort of mental fog that took its toll. At times we remembered to “take a deep breath” to get ready for the next meeting or class but most of the time it was continuous web conferencing without much of a reset.

But “taking a deep breath” is not enough and it certainly is not the same as “organizing your breath.” Taking a deep breath is a way to reset, to become aware of ourselves in the moment, and to create temporary space. “Organizing your breath” goes deeper than that. It’s a way to prepare for the next action with intent, creating not only awareness but meaning. Taking a deep breath is only the first step to organizing your breath. 

Now three years into pandemic, we are not only transitioning into a “new normal,” we are creating it with every breath. For academics, the “new normal” includes both online and offline worlds, often intertwined and without boundaries. It offers a different rhythm, which requires different breathing. During the early days of the pandemic I tried to spend at least an hour outside, come rain or shine, and it was probably then that I became aware of my breath outside of strenuous physical exercise. It felt so refreshing to fill my lungs with fresh air over the lunch hour or after a long day working at my desk. I started to pay more attention to my breath and recognized how shallow it became sitting in front of my computer screen, jumping from one Zoom room to another.

What does all of this mean in the context of year 3 of the pandemic? I think we can use our breath to help shape the new normal by being more intentional and less tactical. Instead of simply using a deep breath to “reset” and tackle the next challenge, we can use “organized breathing” to prepare and commit not only to our next action but also strategic, long-term goals. Much like yoga practice, organized breathing allows us to focus on both the inhale (taking a deep breath; four counts in) and the exhale, which usually lasts longer and allows us to get deeper into a pose (eight counts out). 

Using organized breathing in our daily actions can help us commit more deeply to the moment but it also helps with long-term planning and goal-setting. Think of your next inhale as breathing in possibility and the long exhale as extinguishing doubt. It’s going to be a helpful reminder of how to help shape the new normal and approach unanticipated challenges when they arise, whether we’re teaching or working on a research project. Organized breathing creates boundaries between activities and helps us focus on our goals with intention.

Have you observed your breath recently and what have you noticed?