Breathwork for Airplane Anxiety
Welcome back to the Lauren Yoga vlog. I'm traveling tomorrow and I'm already thinking about the anxiety that I feel when the airplane has any kind of any kind of altitude shift or any kind of noise. I love traveling and love flying, especially alone when I can be on the plane and read and catch up on emails. I mean, I've heard of people who booked flights just to get on and work. If I had that kind of income, I think I would be one of those people. However, I have some anxiety around the idea of being 30,000 feet in the air, and the uncertainty that comes with that.
There's something I've been doing for years that I want to share with you. It's one of the ways we can bring the practice of yoga alive in our daily householder lives, which to me why we practice, right? If these practices are not interrupting everyday moments and helping us through everyday moments, I'm not quite sure what they're for.
The practice is called Bhramari and it's a style of breathwork, or pranayama, that brings a buzzing sound into the body. Traditionally there's a hand mudra that's probably not acceptable to do on the airplane, although go forward if you want. It looks like this. You've got index fingers on eyebrows, middle finger on inner brow, ring finger right at the base of the nose like at the sinus, and then pinky finger at the mouth. I wouldn't do this on the airplane, no judgment if you want to. I would instead take my middle fingers and close my ears softly. You can also do this with no hands toward face. In the time of the pandemic that's probably a better idea on the plane anyway. I do like to put in earplugs or my air pods and do this so I have a little bit of closure in my ears. Because the plane is so loud with the air in the engines and everything going on, nobody hears you doing this. It is the best little hack ever for airplane and flying anxiety.
The sound that you make is a little humming sound, like you're trying to say the word hmmmm, but with your mouth closed. That's what Bhramari is. It means bees breath. It creates a buzzing sound, and because it's a long exhale that we create the sound on, the parasympathetic nervous system comes online and turns our stress hormones off, or at least dampens them. The sound of the buzz humming through the body is deeply soothing, and really helps knock out, even if it's for a couple minutes, any anxious or elevated feelings. So I'm going to do it a couple times for you, It might sound a little ridiculous at first but no one knows you're doing it, which is the best part and it really does help soothe anxiety. So you'll inhale through your nose eyes can be open or closed, and exhale as you buzz. You can even change the pitch. It gives your mind something to think about other than elevation changes 30,000 feet in the air. You even go really low I'm doing it pretty loud. I can do it that loud on the plane and no one hears. So I would love to know how this goes for you. I plan on using it myself tomorrow while I'm traveling. Thank you so much for watching or listening.