Rowing a boat in the sea: a breathwork exercise
by Tara Lemerise, certified yoga instructor
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Illustration by Jennymarie Jemison for Medicinal Media
Even when you are in a kayak or a rowboat, you aren’t able to control the ocean. Just reading that sounds ridiculous, right? You know that you are simply navigating the moving waves beneath you, propelling your vessel along the surface of the water.
In yoga, this metaphoric ocean is called prāņā, or life force. It cannot be manipulated, controlled, or regulated directly. We can only work with prāņā via a third party, so to speak, just like the way you can navigate the currents with the oars of your boat, but you can't control the whole ocean itself.
The energy we feel (or don't feel!) in a day's time is influenced by what, how, and when we eat, our sleep quality and quantity, where we live, the kind of work we do, our relationships, the way we move our body, and especially by our breath.
For many years, scientists have been investigating the benefits of the breathing techniques of yoga called Prāņyāma. In a study published in January 2023, researchers conducted the first comprehensive systematic review of breathwork experiments. They set out to determine the value of breathwork and the extent to which practitioners reported lower levels of stress compared to people who did not do breathwork. They analyzed 12 studies with a total of 785 participants and found that slow deliberate breathing resulted in significantly lower levels of self-reported/subjective stress and may be a useful tool.
In a separate study published in September 2023, researchers found that slower respiration rates were associated with higher levels of self-reported well-being. A study published in February 2023 determined even more specifically that breathwork resulted in significant improvements in the anxiety symptoms of patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders.
Whether you are working through familiar symptoms of a clinical anxiety disorder diagnosis or simply feeling the acute stresses of regular life, this breathing meditation is intended to give you a simple way to feel more at ease in just three minutes. If you’d like to follow along with a guided audio version, you can use the audio file above. The meditation begins around the three-minute mark.
To begin, set a timer for one minute and lie down on your back on the floor.
Bend your knees so your feet are flat on the floor.
Step your feet wider than your outer hips.
Turn your toes in and tent your knees in, letting them rest one against the other like a lean-to shelter.
If it is uncomfortable for your knees, it’s totally OK to maintain the space between your knees and keep your feet pointing straight ahead.
If being on your back is uncomfortable, especially if you are lying on a hard floor, try placing a folded blanket under the back of your pelvis. You might also want a small pillow or a folded blanket under your head. However, feeling comfortable is more important than this specific position on your back with your knees bent. You could choose to lie down on the bed or the couch instead. You can even do this from a seated position if you aren’t comfortable on your back in any position.
Now take a few easy breaths, in and out of your nose.
Feel your whole body breathing. Notice the movement of your torso. Feel how your ribs are moving and notice the rise and fall of your belly. There’s nothing to do here except notice fully and completely observe this process of breathing. Your mind will wander. Don’t worry. Every time your mind wanders away and you lose track of your breath, gently guide your mind back to the experience of breathing.
When the timer goes off, reset it for one minute.
Imagine the ocean and a sandy beach. See it clearly in your mind’s eye. Is it sunny or cloudy? Is it warm or cool? What color is the water?
Next imagine you are in the ocean. Are you on a raft or kayak? You choose. See yourself aboard a vessel in the ocean. Picture yourself clearly, floating on the waves, and gazing toward the shoreline.
As you exhale, feel the ocean under you rushing forward, carrying you toward the sand.
As you inhale, feel the ocean calling all of the waves back to their source and you with it, the tide ebbing away from the shore.
Exhale, you and the ocean flow toward the sandy beach.
Inhale, you and the ocean recede away from the shore, back toward the depths.
Continue imagining that you are floating passively on the waves like this in sync with your breath until the timer goes off. Set the time again for one minute.
Now picture that you have some oars or paddles for your watercraft. You are still riding the waves of the sea, exhaling toward the beach and inhaling away from the shore, but now you begin to use the paddles to navigate the water beneath you.
Imagine using the paddles to slow the rush of the water on your exhale. Dip your oars in the ocean and resist so that it takes longer for you to get to the shore.
When you inhale, lift your oars out of the water, and allow the wave of inhalation to carry you back out to the sea.
When you are ready to exhale the breath, picture using the paddles to slow the release of your breath, taking longer to get back to the beach.
Inhale and lift the oars, floating passively away from the shore. Exhale, gently resist the ocean, allowing some of the wave to pass by beneath you. Continue like this — inhaling passively and exhaling slowly — until the timer goes off. After the alarm sounds, roll over to your side and breathe normally for a moment. When you are ready, sit up and pause to notice any difference in the way you feel before you go about your day.
Laina Deene