A SIGH IS MORE THAN JUST A SIGH! Why we sigh, in class and in daily life
You know that moment when you get to class, leave the world behind, and just land on your mat and have a BIG SIGH. Aaahh!!
This last few weeks I’ve been offering opportunities (even more than I usually do) to just sigh out our breath at various times throughout our yoga class. It’s not particularly that it’s been in my plan for the class, but as we‘ve been practicing I’ve just felt like I’ve needed a good sigh, and it’s just felt like the right thing to offer in the moment. From the reaction around me in class I know lots of us are enjoying having a big sigh, and feeling the benefits of it too.
I’ve also been exploring sighing with the children I work with in schools. They absolutely love it. We shrug our shoulders right up to our ears, scrunch our faces and hold our breath briefly, then just sigh it out and release our shoulders back down. Aaaah!! The children I’m working with at the moment who are 5 and 6 year old love it so much they keep saying, ‘AGAIN, AGAIN,’ when we do it.
Check out your pets. They are masters of sighing. My dog has a special sigh he uses when he’s done his utmost to pester for a bit of food from my plate. He starts with a little whinge, then employs a piercing stare when nothing is forthcoming. Once he realises that ‘NO really does mean NO’ he does a BIG SIGH. Accepting that he’s getting nowhere, he gives up, sighs it away, quickly resets himself further with a good shake, and then moves positively onto the next thing on his doggy agenda.
There’s no doubt that having a good sigh helps us to let go and reset too, and when you start to notice yourself sighing, you realise that we naturally do it numerous times throughout the day.
With sighing there’s often a relationship to how we are feeling and what is happening around us. Sighing helps us with expressing feelings, letting go of frustration, accepting what is and resetting when we need to. We often sigh when experiencing negative emotions and sighing can be more associated with negative feelings. But also, we sigh with positive emotions. The beauty of a sunset. When we get home from a busy day, or from something that’s been physically or mentally challenging, we may take our shoes off and sit on the sofa with a cup of tea (or coffee) and possibly a biscuit. This is usually followed by a big sigh of relief. I always find I sigh after a big belly laugh, it helps to calm me down and get my normal breath pattern back on track.
All this is may seem pretty obvious, but if you delve deeper into the pure science of it, there is also a really essential breath related reason for sighing too. Throughout the day our breathing may at times become irregular or shallow. Think about yourself at your computer, engrossed in some complex activity, how easy is it to breathe more shallowly or even hold your breath a little? Watch and notice if you do it. I know I certainly do. Our bodies use a sigh to reset our breathing pattern, maintain lung function and restore more regular and effective breathing.
Researchers at the UCLA, including Silvia Pagliardini, have been studying the science of the sigh and their work (see link to article below*) is helping to give exciting new insights into this common human function.
According to the research, sighing is vital to lung function, and thus to life. On average, people sigh every five minutes, which translates into a whopping 12 sighs per hour.
The purpose of sighing is to inflate the alveoli, the half-billion, tiny, delicate, balloon-like sacs in the lungs where oxygen enters and carbon dioxide leaves the bloodstream. Sometimes individual sacs collapse, preventing air intake.
"When alveoli collapse, they compromise the ability of the lung to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide," explained Feldman. "The only way to pop them open again is to sigh, which brings in twice the volume of a normal breath.
So sighing is essential for the functioning of our lungs, helps us to express ourselves, to cope with the day to day challenges of life and helps us to reset and move on as we go through our day.
Aaaahhh! It all sounds good to me. So let’s enjoy BIG SIGHS whenever and wherever we need them.