I Can't Do Yoga: You Already Know How

I’m starting with the big reveal: You already know how to do Yoga. You’re probably wondering how, when, why, and more. I will spend the rest of the book trying to explain, describe, and give examples of how you’re doing Yoga, and you don’t even know it. On this book’s back cover, I asked, “Can you breathe in and out?” Then you can do Yoga. One Yogi suggested I don’t write that because people will think Yoga is as simple as breathing. I’m saying that breathing is a huge part of yoga, and if you are breathing, which I’m pretty sure you are, you Can do Yoga.
The word Yoga means to join or unite. Ask yourself this: What are you joining or uniting when you breathe? You add oxygen to your blood when you breathe air into your lungs. If you breathe in through your nose, you create nitric oxide in the nasal passages, which increases the amount of oxygen that joins with the blood. Let’s explore this idea with a brief activity, but first, note how you are feeling. While sitting or standing, breathe through your nose, filling your lungs, and exhale the breath through your nose again. Breathe slowly like that for a few breaths. Then add humming as you exhale through your nose. Humming increases the nitric oxide in the nasal passages. Now, you’ve united your mind, vocal cords, nasal passages, lungs, muscles, and circulatory systems. If you participated in the breathing activity, ask yourself again how you feel. We’ve added our emotions to this activity; surprise, we’re doing Yoga. Visit our Facebook page and share your thoughts on this first activity!
But what does this have to do with solving problems in your life, increasing your health, and healing your body? How can simple breathing connect you to the Divine Spirit within you, or, as I’ll discuss in later chapters, how does breathing build spiritual wealth? I want to share a story of a profound experience with breath. During my 27th year as a middle school health and physical educator, I taught rollerblading to 36 6th graders. To give you a visual, imagine a gymnasium full of rowdy 11-year-olds, some sitting in the bleachers refusing to participate, others still putting the safety gear on, a few skating successfully, and the rest of the group trying. A student asked if I would re-tie his rollerblade. As I agreed, he slipped, and his skate slammed into my shin. At the same time, a student said a shelf broke in the skate closet. I turned to see the skates piled on the floor. With ten students asking for various degrees of help, I stepped into the closet and said, just give me a minute! That moment felt like an eternity. I was super stressed out and not happy with my career. I was two years away from finishing my PhD; could I do it without a salary? The answer was no, but I looked at my school keys and saw myself dropping them off in the office on my way out the door, saying you deal with those kids! My next thought was about how I had been teaching and practicing Yoga. Wait, let me try this and see if it helps. Step one is to bring awareness to my body and breath. And then the aha moment arrived. I was holding my breath!
I need to give you more perspective on the situation. That year, the schedule was such that we had the most challenging students on the same day. I even wrote a song titled “The Slow Decline of the PE Teacher on a B Day.” I was also scheduled to have six classes in a row with my lunch and planning at the end of the day. The story above happened during the 6th period on a B Day. It was mid-year, and I was so burned out with teaching. I remember saying aloud that I was holding my breath until lunch on those days.
Back to the story. I noticed at that moment that I was barely breathing. I took a slow breath through my nose, then two more. By the third breath, I thought what I almost did would have been a big mistake. I was empowered and said to myself, I CAN do this! I turned and, like having a superpower, got everyone the help they needed, fixed the shelf, and put the skates back up. I finished that class feeling more joy than I had in months. Nothing had changed except that I was breathing and aware of it. I realized how the breath could connect me with the divine power within and get me through impossible situations. Not to mention the physiological effects of oxygen in the body. I was sure at that point I needed to share Yoga with everyone because it was so simple and necessary. I was getting closer to understanding the magic of Yoga.