The Centering Breath
How to Fish the Evening Rise
‘It’s all in the breath,” my father would say, as he felt the fly line arc, pause, and then spin out into the watery shadows. “Slow, steady, ease it out with the line…right…there.”
Upstream, silent, propped against a tree, I would watch his line flow out into the pools and eddies of the mountain stream. We rarely caught a fish, but it didn’t matter. I just loved how he spun the line with elegant ease. I loved how he breathed with each cast. Even now I appreciate the slow deep breathing and inner focus that enabled him to fully release and center into each cast. As his body settled into the flow of the line, I can imagine all the tension draining from him after a week in his busy medical practice.
“You have to breathe with the river,” he’d say. So we would sit, eyes closed, “not slouching”, as he’d say, and let the breath flow smoothly in and out to the sound of the current. Soon my thoughts would settle, my muscles relax, and my body start to ‘fish’.
I never forgot those streamside lessons, or the smooth slow rhythms of conscious breathing. Now, as then, such natural breathing can turn any task or encounter into a more relaxed, self-enhancing one. It can help reverse the debilitating effects of chronic stress: muscular tension, fatigue, anxiety, high blood pressure, and insomnia. For when the breathing lengthens and slows, tight muscles relax, releasing long held tension from the face, neck and shoulders. The heart rate slows, and blood pressure normalizes. Nerves are soothed. The mind becomes quiet. Circulation increases, and more oxygen flows throughout the body, reducing fatigue.
As one’s focus shifts from outer distraction to the simple rhythm of the breath, the body senses peace. The brain receives soothing signals of safety and well-being. In such a calm, relaxed state, the body begins to renew itself. The mind, freed of extraneous signals, settles down to the task at hand, and decisions emerge from a clear, quiet focus.
Unfortunately, few of us breathe with the depth and conscious slowness that it takes to truly relax. Instead, we move about in the tense, enervating world of shallow breathing, often interspersed with breath-holding and hyperventilation. Such a pattern can turn even exercise into a stressful experience. It also agitates the mind. Muscles tense, digestion slows, circulation decreases and the body is robbed of the oxygen and energy it needs to meet the demands of a fast-paced life. If left unchecked, such breathing keeps the body in a state of perpetual stress until – for some- the body forgets how to relax.
How do we break the pattern? For my father it was easy. He sat and breathed with the river, allowing the breath to naturally deepen and flow as his body relaxed and his mind slowed down. We can learn to approach life as my father approached the evening rise: with fluid, conscious breathing and the inner focus of a watchful mind. The following Relaxation or ‘Centering Breath’, reminiscent of my father’s river breathing, comes from physical therapist and yoga teacher, Judith Lasater, in her book Relax and Renew. Other teachers and stress management experts have their versions, but the basics remain the same: pause and settle down (either sitting or lying down). If sitting, ground both your feet and your buttocks towards the earth, lift and lengthen the spine, relax the face, and close or soften the eyes. Then begin to breathe:
1. Take a long, slow gentle inhalation through your nose.
2. Follow the inhalation with a long, slow gentle exhalation through your nose.
3. Take several normal cycles of breath through your nose until you fell refreshed.
4. Repeat step 1, 2, and 3 for up to ten minutes.
Allow your mind and thoughts to naturally turn inwards and follow the breath during every cycle. Never strain or force the breath. Aim for a quiet steady rhythm, a smooth flow, and a soft easy transition between the inhalation and exhalation. If you feel anxious, out of breath, or dizzy during practice, return to normal breathing and later allow more time between each round of long inhalation and exhalation.
If is that simple, and that spontaneous. See where you can introduce the Centering Breath into your day. Let it help you break the pattern of stress-response that constructs and tightens the body. For even in the face of stress, a return to slow smooth breathing can alter your body’s experience of the situation. It can create a clear calm eye in the midst of any emotional storm – an inner peaceful evening rise you can return to over and over again.
