Dear Friends,
Namaste!
All Yogis are necessarily good breathers. Their breathing is full, even, deep and natural. It not only supplies plenty of oxygen to each cell within their body and keeps it nourished and refreshed but also keeps their mind perennially serene.
If we nurture any hope of remaining physically and mentally fit, we cannot afford to ignore the important role our breathing plays in keeping us that way. ‘Life’ is inextricably linked to breathing. With every breath we experience life. If our life experience has to be great, our breathing has to be great. It does not matter how many moments we have in our life, what really matters is how much life we have in every moment we get to live. Since breathing is almost synonymous with life, the fuller we breathe, the more life we inject into every moment!
‘We possess the world’s most wonderful bridge
Of subtle and gross bodies it connects the ridge
Collapsing of this bridge called breath
Is also more commonly known as death’
Realizing the importance of breathing, sage Patanjali devoted one of the eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga just for breath control (‘Pranayama’). ‘Prana’ literally means ‘Life-force’. The other meaning of ‘Prana’ is ‘oxygen’. ‘Ayama’ means ‘control’. ‘Pranayama’, the fourth limb of Ashtanga Yoga, teaches us to regulate our breathing and control the life-force within us.
But before we get into the intricacies of how to perform Pranayama – we are not jumping the gun and discussing limb four with no heed to the first three limbs – we must learn to breathe correctly first. And that’s what we intend discussing in this session.
“Wait,” you will cry out, “This sounds strange. We have been breathing all our lives. What’s there to learn? Has a fish ever learnt swimming?”
The argument is not without a point. However, once we complete this discussion, we will realize that there are cases around (may be including ours!) that could do with a tip or two on correct way to breathe. We cannot hope to be totally fit and happy on the fragile foundation of poor breathing!
So here we go.
Our breath consists of four distinct stages:
1. Inhale – called as ‘Pooraka’ in Yogic terminology
2. Exhale – ‘Rechaka’
3. Holding the breath when exhale is complete – ‘Bahya (air-outside) Kumbhaka’
4. Holding the breath when inhale is complete – ‘Antar (air-inside) Kumbhaka’
When we inhale air, it goes in our lungs and they expand as a result. The diaphragm gets pushed down. To make room for this movement, belly needs to expand in forward direction. The reverse happens on an exhale, i.e., the air is expelled, the lungs contract, the diaphragm returns to its normal position and the belly contracts to occupy the vacuum created.
This is also known as ‘Belly Breathing’ and is best observed in infants. Belly breathing is the natural and right way of breathing and people doing this ‘sleep like a baby’ besides being generally fuller of life than others when awake!
On the other hand, when the belly gets sucked in at the time of inhale, it does not allow enough room for full expansion of lungs and as a result the amount of air inhaled is limited. This restricts oxygen supply to our body and its vital organs and systems and when done continuously as a habit for years together, gives rise to a number of dis-eases.
This wrong manner of breathing may develop due to a number of physical, emotional and social reasons and can become so habitual that people seldom tend to notice that something is a miss.
However, the good news is, just like a bad habit, we can consciously develop a good habit as well. Whenever we have a spare second, we can put our hand on our stomach and feel its movement upon every inhale and exhale. If the stomach automatically goes out on an inhale and comes in on an exhale, we are fine. Otherwise we can consciously change the pattern until it becomes a habit.
One more technique to practise is to suck in the belly upon each exhale and then just let go – the belly will automatically expand on the next inhale.
It is important NOT to:
· hold
· unduly extend or over-regulate
· hack our way through or force
our breathing while practising these techniques. Our breathing should be natural – our intervention is required only with the stomach movement (if it is not correct as stated above).
Developing this simple habit, making this simple change (if necessary) in our lifestyle gets us in the right lane and right direction. Otherwise we may run very fast but if we are in the wrong lane or wrong direction, there are no prizes for guessing whether we will ever reach our destination.
Breathe well, stay well…
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