Why does your yoga teacher tell you to breathe through your nose and down to your ribs??
Why do we breathe through our nose in yoga?
Well the nose serves a few important functions as your breath is drawn into your lungs. First, there are hairs in your nose that filter out large particles you may breath in - your mouth doesn’t have hairs so you can inhale those large particles and if they are not swallowed into the stomach, they can land in your airway and cause a coughing fit! Also the way your nasal cavity is formed actually spins the air around as it enters, and has an effect where particles are flung to the walls of your nasal cavity and therefore not into your lungs!
It’s a super effective filtering system!!
Your nose also has loads of small blood vessels in it, and a moist lining, so when you breath in the air warms and humidifies quickly. Mouth breathing draws in cold air, which is not ideal for your lung tissue and gas exchange (oxygen coming in and carbon dioxide leaving). At the actual level of gas exchange in your lungs - the cells and blood vessels function best under warm humid conditions - this is why it can feel so relieving when you have a sore throat or chest infection, to breath in some steam.
If you are used to mouth breathing, make this a practice of awareness throughout your day to breath through your nose. Breathe in slowly and pay attention to the breath drawing further into your body (down to your belly button). Also be aware of tension in your jaw, or clenching in your teeth, as when you’re not really used to breathing this way your body can tense easily when not paying attention.