online yoga forum

Hello namaste - I often forget to breathe especially during harder poses or if I'm working hard, and sometimes I get it the wrong way round when I go in and out of poses. Is there some special way that I can remember how to breathe? For example when my teacher says you can do the pose now on your own I always get it mixed up!

Hello Leaf. It is very important to keep breathing!!! A helpful tool is to listen to the sound of your breath. The breathing technique called "ujjayi breath" is great for this purpose. It is done by slightly constricting the throat so that the breath makes a "baby snoring" sound. You might ask your teacher to show you exactly how to do it. You could then use this type of breathing throughout the entire practice and you would know that if you don't hear the sound of the breath anymore, you have stopped breathing.
And if u mix a pose up, it does not matter!! It will come with time, don't worry. Just be patient with yourself and do your best without pushing or straining and the body will embody the poses, you will see. Enjoy your practice and thank yourself for doing yoga, it's a great thing!!!!

Nice Viparita - I agree. Leaf if you can do ujjai breathing during the practise then do it. But don't worry too much initally about when or how you breathe, as long as you remember to do so!!! Just try not to hold the breath!

With practise you'll feel the breath moving in and out your body, you'll become so concious of it - after a while you'll see it feels much easier exhaling as you go into poses and inhaling as you come out of them so you won't get it mixed up when you have to do poses on your own!

__________________
Be the change you want to see in the world

I often get my students who have trouble with this to practice a short vinyasa sequence at home with the breath. I write down the sequence they need to do and I put where the need to inhale and exhale. This can really help specially when you can do it at your own pace and you don't have to keep up with the rest of the class. Ask you teacher if they can do something similar for you. Hope this helps.