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Because breathing patterns have such a profound effect on our general health and mental states, breath awareness is at the heart of almost all yoga practices. Breathing interacts with and affects the cardiovascular, neurological, gastrointestinal and muscular systems. It also has general effects on sleep patterns, memory, energy levels and concentration.
Watch a baby at rest and you’ll see a good example of healthy breathing. The pattern is relaxed, slow, and wavelike, with every bone, muscle and organ moving with each breath. Unhealthy breathing, by contrast, is rigid or inappropriate to the situation and often exhibits excess muscle tension.
While abnormal breathing patterns vary, they are often high in the chest, overly fast and shallow. Often, there is no pause at the end of the exhalation, or there may be breath holding or gulping. Such habits reinforce feelings of tension, agitation and anxiousness. By contrast, a healthy breathing pattern elicits a relaxation response, shifting the nervous system from fight-or-flight mode to a state of relaxed alertness.
In Yoga Calm, one of our favorite ways of teaching and encouraging children to breathe healthfully is by using a geodesic dome made of jointed segments. By lightly pushing or pulling it on opposite sides, you can make it expand and contract, accordion-style. The movement serves as a visual model for the type of breathing we want the kids to imitate by helping them see and synchronize their breath with movement.
The teacher or other supervising adult may lead the group or – something we like to do – encourage one of the kids to lead, establishing the breathing rhythm. As the leader slowly expands the sphere, all inhale deeply and slowly through the nose, from the belly. The leader then pauses, emulating the short, natural pause that happens at the “top” and “bottom” of each healthy breath. As the leader contracts the sphere, all exhale through the nose just as slowly.
This efficient diaphragmatic breath is like watching the waves at the beach, with each breath swelling up from abdomen to chest and back down again.
The expansion-contraction cycle may be repeated as many times as necessary, but we find 5 to 10 cycles to be effective for helping the group calm and focus through this simple breath work.
Rhythm and slowness are two keys to using a breathing sphere effectively. By consciously slowing our breath, especially the exhalation, we can facilitate the relaxation response even more and develop some control over how our nervous system responds to our environment.
In the classroom and school environments in which Yoga Calm is most commonly used, such breath work lends itself readily to focus and mindfulness, preparing students to learn. Speeding thoughts slow. The body as a whole relaxes. Body and mind become centered, grounded. Thus, many teachers, counselors and administrators start their classes off by leading students in breathing with a sphere. Some schools have even used these breathing practices at assemblies or over the school intercom to calm and focus their students.
With the powerful visual representation of a healthy breath, no other words or descriptions are necessary. This tool can be effectively used by teachers who have no yoga experience and is particularly useful for second language learners, visual learners and children who struggle with anxiety and self regulation.
Synchronized breathing in a group exercise is also useful for developing a sense of community and safety as the group’s energy coalesces by breathing together. Simply, we are affected by each other’s breathing patterns. Conversely, it’s hard to relax and concentrate when we are around stressful breathing patterns. And when teachers learn, practice, and model healthy breathing, their classes become calmer and more productive, with corresponding benefits to everyone’s health and well-being.
An earlier version of this article originally appeared at Yoga In My School.
Kathy Flaminio is one of our trainers and a social worker at a Minneapolis K-8 elementary school. Along with Julie Hurtubise, she has helped bring Yoga Calm to the Minneapolis Public Schools district-wide. (To learn more about their pilot program, click here. To see news coverage about it, click here.)
Recently, Kathy told us about how they’ve been taking time at her school each morning to bring the school community together through a simple Yoga Calm breathing activity that she first taught in classrooms and to school staff. Daily, over the intercom, she – or sometimes a student – says something like this:
Good Morning, Jefferson Staff and Students. We want to welcome everyone back to school this morning.
Every day at 9:40, we will bring our entire school community together by joining our breath with the breathing ball [Hoberman sphere, which is now “standard equipment” in many classrooms].
If you are in the hallway or in a meeting, please take a moment to pause so we can all breathe together. If you are in a classroom, please get your sphere out.
Begin to come into stillness, letting go of the morning and all that has taken place before coming to Jefferson. If you in a chair or on the floor, sit up nice and tall. If you are standing, press your feet into the earth and lengthen through the spine.
Let’s begin with shoulder circles…taking our shoulders up to the ears …back and down. Do this two more times. Breathe in and lift the shoulders up to the ears…and breathe out as you bring your shoulders down. One more time. Now begin to watch the breathing ball, or close your eyes and begin. Breathing in…let the belly puff up, and breathing out…let the belly move back toward the spine. Again, breathing in…and out. Six more times. Inhaling and exhaling…. Five more….
Take a moment to notice how your body and mind feel after taking eight deep breaths. Know that at anytime today when you feel frustrated, angry or nervous, you can come back to your breath and find center.
Have a great day! We are so glad you are here.
In telling us about the success they’ve had with this activity, Kathy commented on how those unfamiliar with Yoga Calm initially may see such activity as a distraction, taking away valuable classroom time. “But of course,” she said, “the breathing helps students and faculty alike quickly get calm and focused, and so better prepared to do good work. It prevents even greater distraction. And this is exactly why it’s time well spent.”
Laura Barbour is a counselor at a suburban Oregon elementary school who uses Yoga Calm in her work with children and is now one of our newest Certified Instructors.
Recently, she shared an experience with us which we think shows both a great adaptation of Yoga Calm practice and how it can help develop intention and community. When we asked Laura if we could share her story here on the blog, she said yes without hesitation.
For the first assembly of the new school year, the staff and administration wanted to set a positive tone for the coming year. They wanted to welcome the new students and create a sense of community. Most of all, they wanted to nurture a sense of “collective responsibility” about the school, Laura told us. “We wanted to focus on what we value as a school and give others – especially the students – a say in it.”
At the last assembly of the previous year, Laura’s yoga groups had demonstrated Hoberman sphere breathing and the Mat 20 sequence, and ended by leading the whole school in Volcano Breath. It was so well-received (“Cool!” said a lot of the kids) that for the new assembly, Laura offered to start it off by leading the group of 600 in Hoberman breathing to help the students calm and focus. Then, after students had shared their thoughts about their ideal school – the main business of the assembly – she would lead them all in Volcano Breath.
Now, when Volcano Breath is done in a Yoga Calm session, we usually ask students to send out their “heart thoughts” with each exhalation. Laura decided to ask them to do something a little bit different: create intention.
“Imagine how you see the school,” Laura prompted the group upon the first breath.
On the second breath, she suggested, “Now imagine the school as you would like it to be.”
And on the third, “Imagine what you can do to make the school that way.”
“When the students and staff envisioned their ideal school, it was an act of making the school their own and creating ideas for making our collective vision a shared reality,” explained Laura. “And being with 600 people, all of us breathing together as one, was very powerful.”
And to that, we say, “Well done, Laura!”
Download the Volcano Breath activity sheet at Scribd.
Upon completing our Integrated Approach to Wellness 1 workshop, Debi Doyle, a school counselor in Mukilteo, Washington, wrote to us about how she’s been applying Yoga Calm in her work with kids:
Lately, I have been focusing on breath work with my students, trying to decide how to fuse this with the social skills lessons we already do. Recently, I discovered one way.
On Mondays, I see six classes, and on this particular day, a second grade class was the first to come. As they did, I remained seated, quietly moving a Hoberman sphere in rhythm with my breath. It was my first time using this tool, and I was very curious to see how effective it could be with the variety of classes that I see.
Without a word, the students entered in their normal fashion and sat in a circle on the floor. In less than a minute, the room was filled with 25 peacefully breathing second graders.
I asked if the students knew what their bodies were doing as they watched the “breathing ball.” One of the boys answered, “I’m breathing along with it.”
At this, I gave him a turn to sit in my spot and use the sphere. As he did, I got a small drum out and drummed in rhythm to his movement.
After a while, I asked another student if she would like a turn and asked the first student if he would like to take a turn on the drum. I briefly explained the drum’s purpose to him, and with that, the pair of students began, with the class silently following for a bit of time.
I then asked the class if they had any compliments for the pair. Without question, they received some of the most heartfelt and sincere compliments I have heard a group of students give.
All this activity was a perfect transition to talk about our breath at play, rest and while learning. Using the Hoberman sphere, I showed them their recess breath, running to line up, a few big sighs and then how each of them could calm their minds and bodies just by using their breath.
In another class, I gave the sphere to some kids on the Autistic spectrum. One who rarely has a successful time in my room was able to enter my class and join us quietly that day. Without a word, he watched what was going on and followed what he saw. I gave him a turn with the sphere, which he did really well. When it was his turn to drum, he worked very hard to figure out how to find a quiet rhythm. At first, he banged loudly. Then he adjusted to a quieter strike but took the stick back with great force. I noticed many of his classmates cringing at this, then relaxing when they saw how gently he struck the drum. We saw that he was just using an arcing motion to beat the drum – the best way he found to make the sound soft.
As I watched, I noticed how I had to bite my tongue a couple times to allow him to find his way. I became aware of how often we jump in to correct those who learn in an unconventional manner. Instead of him getting the message, “You can’t; let me show you,” he was able to experience, “You will figure it out; you are capable.”
I love learning from kids.
During the following Compliments activity, many of this boy’s peers were able to express to him how they liked how he had adjusted his drumming. They told him how they saw how hard he was concentrating. No wonder he came in the next week all excited for more! This kid had rarely gotten any communication from his peers, let alone positive words. Now he was being noticed for his teamwork and perseverance.
I am really beginning to see how beneficial it is to use what I have learned in Yoga Calm and integrate it into the Second Step lessons in the classroom. At this point, I am not sure the kids would let me go back to the way we did things without Yoga Calm.
Used by permission
