Breathe

Transcript

Now a lot of people know about the power of the breath. It is very interesting, a unique mechanism in our bodies because as far as I know it is the only mechanism that is consciously available to all of us and at once can also be an unconscious mechanism within the body.

So this makes a very important link between the unconscious mind and the conscious mind. I was just reviewing the yoga sutras.

Yoga sutra 34 it says that same piece of mind can be achieved by exhalation and retention of prahna, that is the vital energy contained in breath.

By modulating our breath and being aware of our breath, by controlling our breath we can achieve peace of mine as confirmed by the sage Patañjali and its confirmed in our own experience if you examine it for yourself you will quickly find out.

For example with a lot of my clients I will ask them at the beginning of the session to practice with me the Nadi shodhana which is the nostril breathing technique. There are many variations of it, one taught to me by Luis Fernando Mises is where you place your index finger and middle finger on your forehead to manipulate your nose, your nose feels a little different when you do this.

But you manipulate the nostrils using the thumb and with the ring finger. One common breathing pattern is you breathe in for example, 4 seconds, retain for 16 seconds and exhale 8 seconds. In the left nostril, hold the right nostril, then in the right nostril, hold it and out the left nostril.

Another way is to place the index finger again on the forehead, with your left hand on the left hand side of your third eye to close your left nostril. Breathing in and out for 20 cycles.

Then you repeat the same with the right hand and the right nostril.

Supposedly, I am not a neuroscience so I can’t confirm this directly through study but apparently what happens is a lot of the time the two sides of our brain get out of balance. By using the nostrils and adapting our breathing we can bring the hempispheres of our brain into harmony once again.

Sometimes when I am feeling a little lazy or I just want to calm my mind perhaps instead of sitting in mediation I will just lie in my bed. I have this app called My Kundalini Chakra. It has the option to put in the amount of time for inhalation, retention and exhalation and this extension of the breath. When you start practicing this for awhile you will get breaths down to two a minute or one a minute.

You start to notice practicing this for 10 minutes or 20 minutes you might find yes just as Patañjali told us we will feel a peace of mind.

Perhaps that peace of mind will allow a subtle joy to arise so you can be noticing something in your belly, something pleasant rising within you.

We can make and bring our bodies, minds into balance by using our breath. It is a marvelous tool we have. As we continue we learn more and more about it finding how deep it really goes.

Years ago I found when I was practicing pranayama persistently I would find that sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night because I was retaining my breath while sleeping. Because I was going into the habit, it gets so deeply engrained and breathing is important in many aspects of our lives.

If you are a public speaker, singer or rapper you know how important it is to maintain control of your breath and strengthen the lungs, going to the gym and holding the breath as we squat down or do any kind of exercise, bringing the power of the breath into our exercise and allowing the oxygen to fully support our muscles.

That’s where we get the full extent of our strength. Breathe, breathe, into relaxation and into strength we breathe.