“If you wish to conquer the nervousness of life, dwell within the second, dwell within the breath.” ~Amit Ray
I don’t bear in mind the second I made a decision I wished to dwell once more. I simply bear in mind the breath that made it doable.
Three weeks earlier, I had been mendacity in a hospital mattress, my liver failing on the age of thirty-six after years of ingesting. I knew I wouldn’t survive one other relapse; but the day I used to be launched, I went straight to the liquor retailer. Unsurprisingly, I ended up again in rehab—utterly exhausted, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I wasn’t searching for hope. I used to be simply attempting to outlive the following hour.
When the workers introduced there can be a yoga class, I virtually didn’t go. However one thing in me—a spark of desperation—wished to strive. I walked into the small recreation room, nonetheless detoxing, nonetheless shaking uncontrollably. When the instructor requested us to take a deep breath, I noticed my physique didn’t know the way. My chest barely moved.
That second modified every little thing. What began as a single breath on the rehab flooring grew to become the breath that saved my life.
By the point I entered that closing remedy program, my physique was shutting down, however I couldn’t cease ingesting. I had spent two years out and in of rehab services—together with an intensive ninety-day program and a particular remedy heart for trauma survivors. I’d misplaced my job as a result of I used to be too sick to indicate up. I used to be about to lose my residence.
The deepest heartbreak, nonetheless, got here in a letter from the courtroom: I had misplaced custody of my daughter. I can nonetheless bear in mind holding that envelope, the air leaving my lungs. That was my all-time low. However even all-time low, I’d later be taught, can turn into fertile floor.
These yoga lessons in rehab grew to become the spotlight of my week. They had been the one hours after I didn’t really feel trapped inside my very own pores and skin. For the primary time, I felt my physique and my breath working collectively as an alternative of in opposition to me.
In yoga, academics usually say “root to rise.” It’s an instruction which means to floor down by way of your base—your toes, your palms, your breath—earlier than increasing upward. I used to suppose it was nearly stability, however I started to see it as a metaphor for restoration.
I couldn’t rise till I realized the right way to root.
For years I had tried to suppose my method into staying sober. I made guarantees, created plans, counted days. However pondering didn’t heal what was damaged. I wanted to rebuild from the bottom up—from my nervous system outward. Yoga grew to become the primary secure place the place my physique might lastly exhale.
For months, security got here in glimpses. I seen it within the quiet moments—my palms not shaking after I poured espresso, my shoulders softening when somebody mentioned my title, the primary evening I slept by way of with out waking from panic. It wasn’t perfection; it was presence.
I later realized there was a reputation for what was occurring: somatic therapeutic.
“Somatic” merely means of the physique—the understanding that our tales, reminiscences, and feelings don’t simply dwell in our minds; they dwell in our tissues. Each flinch, each tight muscle, each held breath is the physique’s method of remembering what it needed to survive.
In yin yoga, whereas my fascia slowly opened in a protracted pose, I’d typically have reminiscences I didn’t even know existed rise to the floor. There have been instances I discovered myself crying in the course of class, the type of tears that got here from deep inside. However that house on the mat grew to become sacred—a possibility to lastly really feel what I had spent years avoiding. On the opposite facet of these tears, I all the time felt lighter. When this occurred, I not carried that ache with me in my physique.
Every gradual stretch and conscious breath grew to become a dialog between my physique and my nervous system. After I stayed current by way of discomfort as an alternative of escaping it, I found that therapeutic wasn’t about fixing what was damaged; it was about serving to my physique really feel secure sufficient to launch what it had been holding.
Science now confirms what somatic practitioners and yogis have lengthy recognized: the breath is the bridge between the physique and the mind, the aware and the unconscious. Once we breathe deeply and transfer deliberately, we activate the vagus nerve, the physique’s built-in pathway for calm. That is how we shift from survival to security.
When cravings or nervousness attacked, breathwork grew to become my lifeline—the bridge between my physique’s panic and my coronary heart’s calm. These three easy practices helped me rewire my stress response and return to inside security with out reaching for a drink:
1. Anulom Vilom (Alternate Nostril Respiratory)
This observe balances the 2 hemispheres of the mind and restores calm to the nervous system.
Give it a strive:
- Sit comfortably together with your backbone tall and shoulders relaxed.
- Shut your proper nostril together with your thumb and inhale by way of your left for 4 counts.
- Shut each nostrils and maintain for 4 counts.
- Launch your thumb and exhale by way of your proper for eight counts.
- Inhale once more by way of the suitable for 4, maintain for 4, exhale by way of the left for eight.
- Proceed for 5 rounds, respiratory softly and evenly.
Every inhale is a quiet declaration: I’m nonetheless right here. Every exhale, a mild letting go of what not serves us.
2. Sama Vritti (Field Respiratory)
Generally known as “equal breath,” this method creates stability and stability. I used it usually in early restoration when nervousness was excessive or I felt triggered.
Give it a strive:
- Inhale by way of the nostril for 4 counts.
- Maintain the breath for 4 counts.
- Exhale by way of the nostril for 4 counts.
- Pause and maintain empty for 4 counts.
- Proceed this rhythm for a couple of minutes, lengthening to 6 or eight counts if it feels pure.
Field Respiratory steadies the center charge, quiets racing ideas, and offers the physique a rhythm it could actually belief. When the thoughts spirals, this breath turns into an anchor.
3. Dirgha Pranayama (Three-Half Breath)
This mild, grounding breath invitations the physique to broaden and launch totally. It’s particularly supportive when reconnecting with the physique after trauma or intense emotion.
Give it a strive:
- Sit or lie down comfortably with one hand in your stomach and one in your chest.
- Inhale slowly by way of your nostril, first filling your stomach, then your ribs, then your higher chest—drawing the breath upward in three elements.
- Exhale in reverse—chest, ribs, stomach—permitting the breath to move out utterly.
- Depend your inhale. Whenever you exhale, attempt to lengthen your breath to double the depend of your inhale (for instance, for those who inhaled for a depend of three, exhale slowly for a depend of six).
- Proceed for 5 or extra rounds.
With every cycle, think about your breath touring down into your roots, grounding you in security and presence. This reminds the physique that peace isn’t one thing we discover—it’s one thing we breathe into being.
Practising these three breathwork types gave me a bigger capability to take care of triggers. Every time I felt the urge to drink, I’d pause and observe breathwork as an alternative. A number of rounds of Sama Vritti had the ability to vary my state of being simply as shortly as a shot of my favourite alcohol.
At first, day by day sober felt like climbing a mountain barefoot. However then one month handed, and I used to be nonetheless respiratory by way of the cravings. Then two months. Then three. Slowly, the numbers started so as to add up till sobriety stopped feeling like one thing I needed to combat for—it merely grew to become who I used to be.
My yoga instructor used to say, “How we present up on the mat is how we present up in life.” I didn’t perceive it at first, however I do now. I began exhibiting as much as yoga day by day—even after I didn’t wish to. I confirmed as much as breathe after I wished to run. Over time, that observe of staying grew to become my new method of being.
Yoga taught me the right way to sit with ache somewhat than run from it. The extra I practiced staying with discomfort, the extra my mind realized that ache didn’t imply hazard—it simply meant sensation.
Over time, I used to be actually rewiring my neural pathways, educating my physique that calm was doable. Finally, that pause between set off and response grew to become second nature.
When my physique and thoughts not lived in fixed battle, life started to move once more. My daughter was allowed to maneuver again residence. I returned to my profession full-time. For the primary time in years, I wasn’t surviving—I used to be dwelling. In the long run, it wasn’t a miracle or a second—it was my breath that saved my life.
As time went on, restoration stopped being about staying sober and have become about staying current. My physique started to belief me once more, not as a result of I promised to vary, however as a result of I stored exhibiting up—on the mat, within the breath, within the quiet moments of life.
Therapeutic strikes slowly like this. It doesn’t occur on the thoughts’s timeline; it unfolds with the physique’s. In the future, you’ll discover your palms not shake, your shoulders soften, and your breath strikes freely once more. That’s once you’ll understand your physique has remembered its security.
Restoration isn’t about fixing what’s damaged—it’s about not abandoning your self when issues damage. Every inhale brings a brand new starting, and within the mild rise and fall of your chest, there’s a quiet house the place you meet your self once more. The previous dissolves with each exhale, and your future waits patiently on the fringe of your subsequent breath.
About Jessica Harris
Jessica Harris is a registered yoga instructor and somatic practitioner specializing in trauma-informed yoga, breathwork, and nervous system therapeutic. She is the founding father of RISE to Recuperate, a way mixing yoga and somatic instruments to assist dependancy restoration and psychological well being. Jessica shares free practices and reflections on her new YouTube channel: youtube.com/@RiseToRecover