Before I practiced pranayama yoga, I would often feel stressed or anxious.  Sometimes (but only sometimes) it would occur to me to stop and take a few deep breaths.  A sense of centered calmness would start to embrace me almost immediately.  I think now that I was so detached from my breath that even the mere act of thinking about it was healing to me.

The paradox about the yoga breath is that it is both calming and energizing.  You are energized, not with a frantic energy, but with a slow and steady energy. 

There are many ways to approach the yoga breath.  Many teachers will tell you not to do anything at first other than observe your breath.  I happen to enjoy the following exercise and I’d like to share it with you.  Read through the steps several times so that you don’t have to interrupt your breathing to go back and refer to them.

Try this:

1. Whether you sit on the floor or in a chair, be sure your spine is straight.  If you are in a chair, keep your torso free from the back or sides.  Place your feet flat on the floor with your knees directly over your feet.  Place your hands on the tops of your legs.  If you are on the floor, sit with your legs crossed.
2. Close your eyes and, beyond that, rest your eyeballs.  Sometimes your eyes want to continue to look for something even if your lids are closed.
3. Remind yourself that your lungs are inside your ribs.
4. Feel the air entering your lungs and your ribs expand.  Allow your lungs to empty and feel your ribs come back in. 
   
5. While you are doing this, don’t push the breath.  Let the breath flow as it will.
6. Let yourself breathe, and observe your breath, for 2 or 3 minutes.  As you get more used to it, practice it for up to 10 minutes. 
   

When I was a lawyer, I used to have a computerized calendar that would sound a little chime at the time that an appointment was to start.  I took to scheduling a five-minute breathing session daily and putting it on my calendar.  When the chime sounded, I would stop what I was doing and practice this breathing exercise.  Then I would give thanks, for particular things that I was thankful for, or just because. 

As I got more used to my scheduled yoga breath breaks, I often would do them over the course of the day when I needed to relax or gain clarity or perspective.

I hope you try this exercise and I hope you enjoy it.

Are you looking for an online yoga course?  I use the Yoga Tutor and I highly recommend it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I don’t play music when I practice yoga, but if you do, you may want to take a look at these blog posts:

• Vivekanand Needam: Yoga Music – The Real Celebration of Body And Mind! – Yoga meditation music or yoga relaxation music gives a soothing feeling if used as background music for yoga. It helps the mind to concentrate better and avoids distraction of mind. Yoga meditation music gives mental, spiritual benefits …

• Embrace The Moment – World Yoga Relaxation Music – Slideshow – AstronomyRecords asked: astronomyrecords.com The music in this video is all 6 songs from the album “Embrace The Moment – Music to enhance your yoga practice” mixed together. The songs in order are: 1. Preparing The Way 2. …

Have you ever heard of pranayama yoga, or the yoga breath, and wondered what it was?

Pranayama yoga, or the yoga breath, is the type of yoga that is dedicated to breath control.  The word “pranayama” is a compound word consisting of two Sanskrit words, “prana” and “yama.”  “Yama” means “control.”  So, “prana” must mean “breath,” right?  Well, no.  Not exactly.

Translating the word “prana” from the Sanskrit into Standard American English as spoken in the twenty-first century is not an easy job.  Although that word is sometimes translated as “universal energy,” I like to think of it as the “life force.”  It is that which a living body has and a corpse does not.  It is the shared interaction between the individual and the cosmos; shared, because an individual breathes the force in and exhales it back out. 

Be careful not to reduce “prana” to “air.”  It isn’t.  And it isn’t simply any of the other interchanges that an individual has with the cosmos, either.  It isn’t water, food or sunshine.

But prana is carried in air, food, water and sunshine.  I like to think about what I learned in Sunday school.  How did Adam change from a pile of dust to a man?  God breathed life into his lungs.  And the word “spirit,” meaning the “animating or vital principle in man or animals” is related to the Latin word for “breath.”

Prana is not merely air.  Rather, it is air entering our lungs and permitting us to live and breathe.

Pranayama yoga, or the yoga breath, is the yoga practice that works on breath control through exercises and attention.  The purpose of this practice is to cleanse and purify the body and to strengthen and purify the mind.  But it won’t just happen by inhaling and exhaling.  The single most important thing to bring to pranayama yoga is your full attention and mental focus.  Pramayama, or yoga breath, supports your practice of yoga asanas to make a richer, more vital yoga practice.  And pranayama and the asanas together prepare you for meditation.

Oddly, as naturally as breathing comes to the youngest of us, most of us do it wrong.  We don’t inhale deeply enough.  We let breath race in and out of our bodies without giving it time to let the oxygen nourish our blood.  We breathe without honoring the prana, the life force.  The result is fatigue, mental sluggishness, sleep disorders and even heart disease.

So you are well advised to honor the prana and to breathe with deliberation and care.  Learn pranayama yoga, or yoga breath, and practice it daily to enhance your practice of yoga asanas and to fortify your mental and physical health.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Read on to learn a little about chakras:

• Top 7 Chakras – Listverse – In many religions and practices, there is a belief that there are many energy centers in the body that are tuned to an aspect of life. The energy centers, charkas, are represented with colors and are believed that the person has the …