Yogi Wisdom: Do you really know how to breathe?
The one thing that we all desperately need to survive is oxygen. We can go days without water, weeks without food, but without oxygen, we won’t last more than a few minutes. So how do we get this element that we can’t live without? Well breathing of course!
Everyone breathes. I’m doing it right now, you’re doing it right now. But, the real question is, how often do we actually consciously breathe? How often do we count our inhales and our exhales? For most the answer is, not many. But, this function is so important and so beneficial not only for our nervous system but the actual physiological function of our body. You might actually have been hearing about breathing techniques and meditation for a while now as it has been getting quite trendy. But, before it was trendy, it was first practiced by devoted yogis for thousands of years.
The yogis have found that only with breathing can anything be achieved. It is in fact so important that it is even one of the eight limbs of yoga.
It is said that breath work, or prana, is “the cosmic force without which nothing moves or functions” as told by the great yogi and sage Patanjali.
If we can control our breathing, then we can control our emotions and our mind. By breathing with intention, we can uncover what is bothering us, the evil and anything that we need to let go of, and essentially breathe it out.
There are ways to breathe that help to achieve certain goals. It has the ability to detox the body and mind as well as to energize and heat the body. In order to detox the body, enliven the organs and detox the abdomen, it is important to focus on lengthening your exhalations. If you wish to bring clean energy and heat into the body, it is necessary to lengthen the inhales. Putting the two together, you should begin with clearing out the old bad energy and detoxing the body, and then bringing in the new clean energy.
If you practice asanas, or yoga poses as most of us know it, you can put breath work and the poses together to better benefit from your practice. Certain poses naturally want for longer exhales, or longer inhales. A simple trick to remember when breathing during asanas is to inhale when the body is stretched and long, and exhale when it is contracted and the abdomen is shortened. Example: breath in for cow, breathe out for cat. Together, they can help detox the body, increase blood circulation, improve mood, brain health, and better the lung capacity.
If you simply want to sit on a cushion and practice breathing, you will still get the same benefits. It is important to know how to properly inhale and exhale for the most benefit.
Desikachar from The Practice of Yoga explains that in order to do this, “first fill the chest and then fill the abdomen, and as we exhale we release the abdomen first and then finally empty the upper lobes of the lungs in the chest region.”
This is hard and takes time to master. Do not sit and force yourself to do to 20 minutes of breathing in this way. Start with a few breaths in and out to begin with and work up to it. If you feel dizzy stop, it’s okay to catch your breath and take a rest.
Yogis have known the benefits of pranayama breathing for thousands of years. The benefits of which we in the scientific western world are just now discovering, include reduced anxiety, better blood pressure, increased energy levels, increased immunity, as well as the benefits listed above.
There are many more ways and techniques of breathing which when mastered, can lead to meditation and inward reflection. I wish you all peaceful breathing!