As I lay next to my 21-month-old son as he slips into daytime slumber, I am struck by the sight of his rotund belly peacefully rising and falling rhythmically with ease. With each inhale his belly inflates and rises and on each exhale, as he lets go of the entire breath, his belly falls back gently towards earth, only to refill again in one short moment. This is at the same time, ordinary and yet extraordinary.

Think about your own breath for a moment. On a regular basis, do you send the breath all the way into your body feeling it pass from the chest to the ribs to the belly and then traveling that same path out the way it entered? Most of us breathe from the chest up, or at best, into the ribs. We have lost touch with filling the belly with breath because generally we are conditioned to “suck it in”, or we are too “harried” to take a full, deep breath.

At some point in my mid-youth, unbeknownst to me—maybe when life offered up its varied disappointments or the influences and pressures around me became too much—I began to breathe in a pattern where inhaling, I drew my belly in and exhaling, I pushed my belly out. I also rarely took a breath that reached deeper than by chest.  Needless to say, I tended toward anxiety and worry. Physiologically, how we breathe impacts how every system and organ in our body functions. This includes the brain, which affects our focus, clarity, overall thought patterns and subsequently, our actions.

When I began yoga and learned how to deepen my breath using Dirga Pranayama (or 3-part yogic breath). it felt incredibly foreign and forced (it was the complete opposite of what I had been doing!). But with patience and compassion and lots of practice, it allowed me to first uncover years of holding and stagnant emotions, and then to

step more fully into my power and voice (it’s still an evolution of discovery). Shallow breathing leads to a shallow depth of experience and keeps us rooted in fear. Deepening our breath is the only way to literally say YES to life (the breath is life, after all!), to unlock the radiance that lies within each of us, and to bring our best selves forward.

Deepening our breath individually and collectively across the globe is the only way to truly heal and find peace for every living thing.

All babies and children experience life and emotion through their entire bodies and beings. When babies cry, they do so with their whole bodies, wailing with arms and legs. We all know that when toddlers reach maximum frustration, they tantrum with every fiber of their being. And when kids experience joy you can see it from the

tips of their fingers to their toes—one of my three year old son’s classmates literally quakes with delight when happy. As artists and creative beings, isn’t this what we all want? To let inspiration flow freely through us, to step completely into our own light and to shine forth the best we have to offer unobstructed and unencumbered?

Deepening the breath is the best way to do this.

When fear keeps me from moving forward or trying something new, I take time to call attention to my current surroundings, labeling what I see, to get me out of my thinking mind, and to practice deep breathing. Often after a couple of rounds of breathing deeply into my core, and softening my shoulders away from my ears I am re-centered and I can shift my perspective and open my heart. The fear might not really go away, but I can still exist with it being present. I am stronger than the fear and I will move forward anyway.

Next month, I will take a very big step and begin training to be a doula, or labor assistant. While this is a natural extension for me as a prenatal yoga teacher and one that I am VERY excited about, I am also incredibly scared and humbled to serve as a support for a birthing mama. I mean, this is the essence of LIFE we are talking about—being

there to hold tender sacred space and bear witness for the most radical shift in a woman’s experience. It’s a big job. And I have to learn a lot. And I have to intuit someone else’s needs. And I have to market my services. And I have to figure out how this is going to work with my family life. And. And. And. Ahh, Deep Breath.

Somehow remembering to breathe makes it all okay. There will always be new challenges and fears, but the only way to overcome them and transform is to keep breathing. Deeply.

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Here’s how you can deepen your breath and make your way back to your center:

Come to a comfortable seated position, either on the floor or in a chair. Lengthen the spine by rooting your tailbone toward the earth and reaching the crown of your head gently toward the sky. Draw shoulder blades toward one another opening your heart and chest to encourage a deeper breath.

First, tune into your natural breath, and observe what you find. What are you experiencing in this moment? What is the quality of your breath—shallow? congested? vibrant? What is your habitual breath pattern? Practice compassionate awareness without judgment.

Next, begin to deepen the breath by filling the belly, the ribs, then the chest, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the nose. * With each inhale, the abdomen fills, the rib cage expands from side to side and the heart center lifts and opens. Each exhale sends the breath back down through the body– chest-ribs-belly–contracting as it goes and encouraging the navel to move gently toward the spine. Expel all the air completely as you exhale. Envision the breath like an ocean wave, flowing easily and naturally, without tremendous effort on your part (in other words, eliminate straining or pulling to try to overly deepen the breath). If you are new to this practice, a deep and easy breath may be hard to come by, so be patient and know that over time, it gets easier and

the breath gets fuller.

Stick with it, and I promise you will see incredible results. Even 5 minutes a day of breathing like this will open hearts and minds to new possibilities and leave you with a renewed sense of calm.

*Traditional 3 part yogic breath is taught inhaling and exhaling through the nose, but feel free to experiment with inhaling and exhaling through the mouth and see what feels best for you!

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“Savor Life. Every joyous, messy, exciting, stressful, mundane, crazy-making moment of it. Savor those you love, your body, your everyday choices. Most of all, savor yourself, because you and this present moment are all you have.” ~ Savor It Mantra by yogi, mother, fellow creative and doula-in-training, Michelle Cohen.  learn more at Savor It Studios