Reclaiming Breath & Presence: A Buddhist Reflection on World Yoga Day
As a Buddhist and a doula, World Yoga Day is more than a celebration of movement or flexibility, it's a sacred invitation to return to what we’ve always known. For centuries, our ancestors understood the deep wisdom of the body, the breath, and the mind. Yoga, mindfulness, and breathwork were not foreign imports or wellness trends, they were part of our spiritual fabric, woven into our rituals, our healing practices, and yes, even our births.
A Cultural Homecoming
Growing up Buddhist, mindfulness wasn't a technique; it was a way of life. The Pali word sati, which means mindfulness, is foundational in Theravāda Buddhism. It teaches us to return, again and again, to the present moment. Whether lighting the oil lamp before a Buddha statue or sitting in quiet meditation with the scent of temple flowers lingering in the air, the breath was always there. Always guiding. Always anchoring.
When I support birthing people as a doula, I see how much our culture already holds what so many modern teachings now try to revive. But I also see how colonization, modern medicine, and Western models of care have distanced many of us from trusting our own bodies and traditions.
🌬️ Reclaiming the Breath in Birth
Breath is more than a tool; it is sacred. In Buddhist practice, the breath (ānāpānasati) is the doorway to awakening. In birth, it becomes the thread that carries a birthing person through the waves of intensity and transformation.
Western birth prep often steals from yogic or mindfulness traditions, but let’s remember, these are ours. Vedamahattayas (Ayurvedic healers), have long supported pregnant people with breath, gentle touch, chants, herbal wisdom, and presence. These were never separate from spirituality, they were grounded in it.
When we reclaim these practices in birth, we aren't just adopting something ancient, we are coming home to ourselves. We are honouring the quiet power of our grandmothers, the soft strength of our mothers, and the deep inner knowing of our own wombs.
🌺 Yoga Beyond the Mat
Yoga in its truest form is not about perfect postures or expensive leggings. It is about union of body, breath, and spirit. In birth, that union becomes vivid. Every surg calls us inward. Every exhale becomes a mantra. Every pause between waves becomes a meditation.
As a Buddhist doula, I encourage birthing people to remember: your breath is your birthright. Mindfulness is not exotic—it is yours. These are not tools you have to earn; they are gifts you carry already.
🌏 A World Yoga Day Intention
So on this World Yoga Day, let us bow not to commercialization or performative wellness, but to the quiet wisdom that lives in us and before us.
Let us:
Reclaim mindfulness as a living thread from our Buddhist roots.
Use breathwork not as a hack, but as an intrinsic power.
Centre birth as a sacred, embodied rite, not just a medical event.
This is a powerful time to return to what’s ours. And as we do, may every birth be a blessing, every breath a teaching, and every surge a reminder that ancient wisdom still lives strongly, quietly, in all of us.
“Appamādo amatapadaṁ” – Mindfulness is the path to the deathless.
With breath and blessing,
Amisha the Birthworker
