Emotional Yoga by Bija Bennett

Author:Bija Bennett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone

Conscious Breathing (Pranayama)

Yoga Sutra, ch. 2, v. 49;

Conscious breathing is the awareness, regulation, and modification of the various components of breathing.

Your life is lived one breath at a time. Each breath is a point of consciousness, and each breath is a way of moving consciousness. When you breathe and listen, you can change how you think, feel, and express yourself.

Breathing calms your body. It also quiets your mind. It points out your agitated states and smoothes them out. It gathers your mind’s distracting chatter and teaches you how to focus in more deeply. Breathing feels good. It is emotional sanity.

Scientific research into the respiratory process confirms that the quality of your breathing has dramatic physical effects as well as psychological ones. Through slow, rhythmic respiration using the movement of your diaphragm, you can increase your relaxation response; decrease your metabolic rate and blood-sugar levels; lower your heart rate; reduce muscle tension, fatigue, and pain; and increase strength, mental and physical alertness, confidence, and emotional stability.

The ancient yoga masters developed the practice of conscious breathing to balance the emotions, clarify the mental processes, and integrate them into one functioning whole. While it is well known that breathing has a significant impact on the brain, through the yogic techniques of pranayama you can learn how to regulate your physical and emotional states.

According to yogic texts, breathing is the vehicle carrying the life force, or prana, throughout your body. But prana is more than breathing. Prana is life. It is vibratory power. Prana connects your body to your mind and to your consciousness and spirit. Through prana, you not only feel alive, but you are able to extend your life force to others, and guide your energy, thoughts, and desires.

As you regulate the flow of prana in your body, you affect the quality of your mind. When breathing slows down, the thinking process slows, and you attain steadiness. When the mind becomes still, breathing is calm. When breathing almost stops, your mind comes to a standstill and you enter a state of “restful alertness.” This is the beginning of meditation.

Some people like to think they can get high from breathing in strange and unusual ways. What actually happens is even better, a deep revitalization on many levels—physical, emotional, and mental. Conscious breathing is considered the most powerful tool for emotional healing. It gets the molecules of emotion diffusing rapidly throughout your body’s systems.

Breathing balances the mind and brings concentration, mental vitality, and the ability to discern more clearly how your emotions often distort your perception. Breathing thus reveals the essence of an emotion.

Breathing is also a mirror of the body and mind’s reactions. It acts as a kind of safety valve: If you are overstressed, your breathing is irregular and short; if you are happy, your breathing is steady and long. Therefore, by observing your breathing, you can be alert to what is happening within your body and mind. Once you learn about the infinite variations and modulations of your breath and how they affect you, you can balance how you feel at any time and in any situation.

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