The Long Exhale
There’s a moment when the body finally begins to let go. It might happen on a treatment table, in a warm bath, or on the couch at the end of a long day. The shoulders drop. The jaw softens. Then a breath leaves the body, longer than the one before it. Whatever comes next begins in that moment.
Most of our days are spent gathering breath. We take in, hold and continue. Letting go can be the part we forget to practise.
What the body already knows
Your heart rate rises a little as you breathe in and slows a little as you breathe out. Theslowing is the work of the vagus nerve, the long nerve running from the brainstem through the chest and gut that carries the body's rest-and-digest signals. A longer exhale gives that signal more time.
Yoga has studied the breath for thousands of years. Two texts, written centuries apart, give the same advice: let the breath lengthen, do not rush the pause, and do not force either.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (2.50), the foundational text of classical yoga, describes the breath in three phases: out, in and the pause. With attention, each becomes “long and subtle.” A respected commentary adds that length and subtlety arrive through practice, not force.
The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra (verses 24 and 25), a Kashmir Shaivism text of 112 meditation practices, teaches resting your attention where the breath turns, in the pause after the exhale and after the inhale. In Christopher Wallis's translation, the deepest stillness is revealed by not turning back too soon from those spaces.
In craniosacral therapy we listen to a gentle rhythm, felt in the fluid and tissue around the brain and spine, that we call the fluid tide. It keeps its own timing, separate from the breath, and in a long session it slows into a stillpoint, the natural pause practitioners learn to invite.
The exhale and the stillpoint belong together. In my practice I see it again and again: people who can exhale fully on the table reach that pause more easily, and the first complete exhale often arrives before anything else in the room has changed. It is the body's signal that it has decided it is safe.
The breath is one of the simplest ways to influence the nervous system. By gently extending the exhale, we create an opportunity for the body to shift from a state of alertness towards rest and recovery.
A Ritual For The Moment
An evening to breathe. Take a few minutes or a few hours. *
1. Settle somewhere warm. A bath, a heat pack or a soft blanket. Warmth makes ite asier to find safety.
2. Choose a cue. Spray your chosen Shemana Mist once around the space and once over the body: Heart Mist to soften, Crystal Clearing Mist to uplift, Dream Mist to expand. Use it slowly and let it fall gently upon your skin.
3. Lie down and place your hands. One on the lower belly, one on the chest. If someone is with you, they can simply hold your hand, or cup beneath your head and, as you let its weight go, feel into the softening of your cranial bones.
4. Set an intention. Before the first inhale, choose one word or phrase for what you are ready to release and what you would like to welcome. The exhale carries the first. The inhale ignites the second.
5. Breathe in for four, pause and out for six. Through the nose, and let a sigh carry the exhale. If six strains, try three and four and build from there. The exhale only needs to be longer than the inhale.
6. Rest in the gap. At the end of each exhale, stay in the pause for as long as it is easy, attention resting, nothing to do. Let the inhale arrive on its own. Let the rest be unhurried and the pause spacious and full. Enjoy this sense of suspension.
7. Finish by resting. Stay for three more breaths. Rise slowly and let the first movement be small.
* If you have a heart or lung condition, or breath work makes you dizzy, go gently and check with your doctor first.
For the practitioner
If conscious, deep breathing isn’t something you regularly practise, I highly recommend making it part of your approach. The extra energy you receive, and your ability to shift stagnation, will be multiplied. Next time you settle in for a session or class, take a few deep breaths to set your connection to self and space. Notice your whole self arrive.
Throughout the session, return to this awareness of how the breath can carry you. On theinhale, draw energy into your body from the earth or from the sun, and let deep inhalescarry your work with ease. On the exhale, release any holding, in your own body or in theirs, and support the shifting.
Visualise it leaving the room. Let it travel beyond the space, up into a vacuum, or float out through the door. Where the old has left, let the next inhale fill the space with fresh, expansive energy.
Use it between clients, at the threshold, before you touch. Let one long exhale carry the last session out of the room, so the next person meets you and not the one before.
The ancient texts ask us to honour the pause. Lean into it. Let a deep exhale support your being, and make space within for the next inhale to ignite a new intention.
Shemana was built on this: substantial pauses that bring mindfulness into the spin of daily life. A mist before a session. Natural remedies within your natural perfume. Crystal oils, worked in slowly, for self care or as professional support tools. Each is a reminder to embrace the moments where nothing is asked of you, and an invitation to turn an ordinary minute into the exact moment you needed it to be.
The quality of care begins before the first touch. A practitioner who takes time to regulate their own breath and settle their attention creates a more grounded, present environment for the person receiving treatment.
Sources Referred to:
Patanjali, Yoga Sutras 2.50, with commentary by Paul Harvey and S. Ramaswami. Centre for Yoga Studies translation.
Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, verses 24 and 25, translated by Christopher Wallis (Hareesh.org).
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