Pranayama

During life’s difficult moments, we look for help and comfort and it can be difficult to find. When we’re children, we might run for adults to protect us or intervene, but as adults, it feels like we are on our own. Help is either not available, or we fear that asking for it will discredit us somehow. Conflicts with others, stressful moments in a professional setting, physical illness or discomfort or emotional despair present us with challenges that are not easy to solve. The breath can be a refuge to us, a source of calm and renewed strength, in such trying moments.

The discipline of Yoga is characterized as a wheel comprised of eight spokes, different facets of the experience. One of these spokes on the wheel is Pranayama, breath work. Prana- means ‘breath’ or ‘life energy’, and Yama means, roughly, ‘a devotion’. Through breath control, the Yogi seeks to relax the mind, tone the respiratory system, and nourish the muscles and organs of the body with an ideal amount of oxygen. This results in a more alert mind and energetic body. Much of the mental fogginess, that taxes us into anxiety and aggression when confronted with the stressors of life, that we experience can be attributed to faulty breathing. Shallow chest breathing, a habit of hurried adult life, leads to an inadequate supply of oxygen to the brain, which does inhibit its ability to think quickly, remain calm, solve problems, or think creatively. A Pranayama practice can revitalize the body, warming the muscles, toning the lungs, clearing toxins from the channels of the respiratory system, and calming the mind by providing support to the central nervous system.

Pranayama is one of my favourite facets of Yoga. I love teaching it to others, in a quick and casual way, because it is easy and effective in situations when someone is anxious or overwhelmed. It’s also lesser known to the general public, I have found, than the feats of balance and contortions of asana, the Yogic postures. I like surprising people who think they could never do Yoga because they are not athletic, sporty, flexible, or ‘in shape’-doing Yoga is, to their surprise, as easy as breathing. I turn to Pranayama for mental clarity, but also to clear my sinus passages of congestion during one of my frequent bouts with acute sinusitis. It is mentally and physically beneficial.

There are different techniques of Yogic breath control. Pranayama is one way to warm the body to get the muscles loose and flexible in preparation for asana practice. An asana sequence, such as a sun salutation, whose purpose is to warm the body, may begin with Ujjayi Pranayama, performed either seated or standing. Ujjayi Pranayama translates as the Victorious Breath, but it is commonly known as the Ocean Breath. This is due to the ocean-like sound that the breath makes when performing it. It is a warming and calming breathing technique that can be done in a variety of settings: during a lunch break at work, during a car ride, if you are a passenger, in the morning, before bed, during any idle moment, or in the midst of a difficult moment. Some spontaneously hyperventilate, taking rapidly paced, brief, and shallow breaths when they are emotionally overwhelmed, which only leads to an increased heart rate and dizziness, which in turn causes lack of focus. Or, instead they hold the breath altogether during the duration of the difficult scene, hence the expression ‘bated breath’. Like a sprinter who pushes their body past a healthy pace of inhalation and expiration during a race, then recoups by gulping air at the finish line, this sends the body into oxygen debt-the breathlessness of voluntarily inhibiting one’s breathing.

Ujjayi Pranayama is the healthy counteraction to these actions. Rather than shallow breaths, one breathes fully and deeply, into the abdomen rather than the chest.

1. Find a comfortable position. You can take Sukhasana, Seated Pose with your legs crossed in front of you, bottom on the floor, posture relaxed but straight to facilitate easy breathing, neck relaxed and eyes looking ahead, hands resting on your knees, palms open or in a mudra of your choice. However, you could also stand in Tadasana, Mountain Pose, or sit in a chair that supports your back for ideal posture.
2. Once you are comfortable, close your eyes, and set an intention. Why are you practicing? As a practitioner of Reiki, I often take the beginning of my Pranayama to say the Reiki credo, and this becomes the intention and mantra of my practice for that time. You might have a motivation or mantra you would like to say to yourself, mentally, at this time.
3. Begin taking deep, easy, breaths, letting the air flow deep into your abdomen like the waters of a waterfall falling to the pool beneath. You will feel as if the air is flowing like a river, taking a natural course to the center of your body. Abdominal breathing nourishes your body more fully with oxygen than breathing shallowly into the chest.
4. Continue to breathe deeply, and listen to the rhythm and flow of your breath. Ujjayi is referred to as the Ocean Breath for the sound of this rhythm and flow, which resembles the building and crashing of waves. Tune into this sound, and also expand your perception to the warmth that is building in your body.
5. Perform the Ocean Breath for up to five minutes. When you are ready to come out, you may practice a sequence of asanas, meditate, begin your day, or go to bed, revitalized by the resource of your breath.

Breathing exercises are a bridge that can transport you gently to the beginning of your day, your Yoga asana practice, meditation, or deep relaxation.