Nerding out on breath retention.

Push Pull, 8” x 10” 2021

Among my favorite things about this Yours in Practice community is that I get to have detailed discussions with you about your own journey through contemplative and creative practice.

I really enjoyed fielding this question about kumbhaka from YiP member Tanja. Kumbhaka is the Sanskrit word for a particular kind of breath retention that is part of the practice of pranayama. Tanja emailed me this:

I wondered about something in the Kumbhaka practice - I'm noticing the impulse after an inhale retention to then sip a tiny inhale more before the exhale relaxation, and equally the impulse to exhale slightly further after the out retention before beginning the inhale. Curious to know your philosophy on exploring the higher highs/lower lows that become available as opposed to simply observing the new space and containing the practice/prana more. The option to go/not go into the space in my Yin practice has been a particularly freeing notion, with different advantages to each.

I want to celebrate how Tanja is responding to their intuition here. When I teach kumbhaka I almost always teach it as a process of pausing the breath either at the top of the inhale or the bottom of the exhale, but Tanja’s body is suggesting that there is another route.

This is what I wrote back:

It is incredible to me that, having done kumbhaka practices for a long time now, it has never occurred to me to sip more inhale or exhale after the corresponding retention. I just tried it, and it feels nice; I'm intrigued to explore it more. It reminds me of the way one of my teachers, James Tennant, instructs internal breath retention. He usually cues something like "inhale two-thirds of the breath in" and then we hold. I asked him about that once, and he spoke to how the last third of the inhale is often very effortful, and that charging of the system may make us more agitated and less able to focus on the beautiful silence that becomes available with skilled kumbhaka. So, I'm in full support of what sounds like a really gentle and effective approach to expanding your breath and integrating kumbhaka. Thank you for sharing that.

This principle of agency or choice that you've picked up from yin–that you can go into or not go into a space–it feels really grounded in terms of trauma sensitivity (that we are not looking to retraumatize or introduce new trauma into the body through our practice). It also feels in alignment with what I understand to be a core principle in the philosophy of tantra: that we trust desire. On its own, in a vacuum, "trust desire" is a very complicated idea of course. But in terms of relating to the nervous system and the mind in our contemplative practice, I feel it is so necessary.

So, I just thought some others among you might find this little exchange interesting or helpful. Also, I think I have comments enabled on these blog posts now, so feel free to share your thoughts, too.