If there is one crucial lesson that the practice of yoga or tai chi teaches us, it is how to breathe. Without breath, there is nothing. But for many of us, trying to breathe correctly in yoga class can be more frustrating and baffling exercise than standing in Warrior I posture for five minutes. We take anywhere from 12,000 to 25,000 breaths per day. The variance in number largely depends upon the depth of your breath.

So why we do wrestle so much with learning how to correctly breathe when we are doing it so many times a day? You would think we would be breathing experts by now. But if you have ever sat in lotus posture and had your teacher walk you through a few simple breathing exercises, you understand how illusive our breath still remains to us despite the frequency with which we do it.

Breathing is our most fundamental action as a living being. We haven’t stopped breathing since we came into this world and we won’t stop until we leave it. For most of us, we spend our days without any awareness that we are breathing. Moreover, we have very little sensitivity about the quality of our breath. The depth of our breath, whether it is shallow or deep, is largely dictated by what we are doing and how we are following. The next time you see a police car’s lights behind in your rear view mirror, notice your breath. Or take heed of what happens to the pace of your breathing just as you are about to fall asleep.

Deep breathing, when it is practiced correctly has the ability to improve our health and well being. The kind of deep breathing that we do in yoga class, called Ujjayi breath in the Ashtanga yoga method, should be both relaxing and invigorating. Here are a few things to keep in mind next time you are struggling with “getting” your breath in yoga or when you’ve experienced in a spontaneous stressful situation.

To learn even more about how to properly breathe during yoga practice, here is a yoga breathing video clip that can guide you along a simple breathing exercise.

1. Relax! The key to yogic breathing is relaxation. Before you begin, swallow once and do a quick scan of your facial muscles. Unclench your jaws, soften the muscles around your mouth, unfurrow your eyebrows, relax your forehead muscles, drop your shoulders away from your ears and keep a steady gaze with your eyes. As you balance your breath, your breath will then become your compass that allows you to stay grounded and focused as you do your asana practice.

2. Don’t strain. If you find that you are straining with your breath, it is time to back off. Yogic breathing should be focused, but it should not force you to lose your breath. Once you have a continuous and deep breath going, your intention is to maintain the quality of your breath as you move in and out of postures. When you start to lose the fluid rhythm of your breath that is your signal to ease up on your practice.

3. Let go. Deep yogic breathing involves increasing oxygen to your muscles and building internal heat. Both of these factors will enable you to travel into deeper places in your yoga practice. As your breath becomes rhythmic, it will invoke a meditative quality to your practice which is the where your entire yoga practice will come from and will ultimately end in.

And remember: The most important lesson to employ both in and out of the yoga studio is to keep breathing.

We all have (or should have) our own sacred moments or times of the day. Mine is my morning yoga practice which even though I do every day, is often less than peaceful. Just yesterday, my daughter who is not quite three, woke up earlier than usual just as our new puppy, Kala, was vying for some needed attention and love. One groggy toddler and a high-energy puppy equals a very high maintenance duo that this yogini was going to have a hard time controlling.

As I was trying to get through one sequence in my practice, I realized how utterly chaotic my yoga practice had become: My daughter was running around chasing our puppy while he was running up to my mat, trying to kiss me, tug at my yoga shorts and plopping down right underneath me in a downward dog.

I had to surrender and be honest to myself, that today, my yoga practice was not going to be as complete in postures as it normally is. My attention and role as a mother, and now as a dog-owner, would have to take precedence over my stubborn determination to finish those last 20 minutes or so of postures.

So I rolled up my mat a bit begrudgingly and then got on with my motherly duties of doling out attention, affection and then some breakfast to my “two” children.

Yoga is a different form of exercise than other forms of fitness since there is such a strong mental component that forces you to look at your mind as if it were a mirror. Many experts call the ancient practices of yoga, tai chi and qigong as moving meditations. As you move and breathe, you tune inward to the thoughts and sensations that circle round and round in our minds with the ultimate hope of observing them and allowing them to pass without having them ruffle the stillness that we seek to cultivate.

I tried this attempt with Kala and my daughter. And it worked. It enabled me to roll up my mat and stop practicing rather than trying to push through those final postures, and get my practice done in a way that is familiar and comfortable to me and it prevented my daughter and puppy from further scampering around all in the effort to get me to pay attention to them.

It seems that it’s an oxymoron to utter the words chaos and yoga in the same situation, but anyone who has practiced yoga is probably a bit familiar with the external or internal chaos that goes on as we are deep within our yoga practice.