Pranayama is the combination of the Sanskrit words prana (lifeforce) and ayama (control). It is oftentimes loosely translated to be a set "breathing techniques". In the practice of yoga, pranayama plays an important part.
Let's take a closer look at the breath. Most of the information that follows comes from my notes and observations from H. David Coulter's Anatomy of Hatha Yoga:
Breathing in and out has much more
to do with sustaining life than simply getting air into and out of the
lungs. Every cell in our body needs
oxygen. Our cells depend on our breathing
to move oxygen from the lungs to the blood to the cells and to also move carbon
dioxide from the cells to the blood to the lungs and out into the air.
The lungs are composed mostly of
air: %50 after we exhale and %80 after
we inhale. You can tell this by slapping
the chest versus the abdomen. The chest
sounds hollow and the abdomen sounds liquid.
You can observe the rising and
falling of the breath if you lie on your belly.
Breathing through the nose, notice how the upper body rises with the
inhalation and falls with the exhalation.
Because you are keeping the back muscles tight as you do this, the
movement is coming mostly from the muscles for respiration. If you breathe smoothly and evenly, you feel
a gentle rocking movement. This is an
example of “thoraco-diaphragmatic breathing”.
This is a great exercise for strengthening the diaphragm.
We take breathing for granted. It is usually outside of our awareness, but
it is possible to breathe with awareness, “volition and will”. We can choose to focus on our breathing and
we can choose the way in which we breathe.
Most of the time we “run on automatic….
Yogis emphasize choice.”
Abnormal
breathing can stimulate the autonomic nervous system and create panic
attacks. This can even cause
hyperventilation, which lowers the blood’s lever of carbon dioxide. Quiet, regular breathing can have the
opposite reaction: it slows the heart
beat, reduces blood pressure and can bring a sense of calm. This ability to choose how we breathe “gives
us access to autonomic function that no other system of the body can
boast.”
Calming breath. A great calming breathing technique is the
2:1 breath where the exhalation is twice as long as the inhalation. Lying supine with a gentle weight (the hand, or
even better, a sandbag) on the abdomen and breathing deeply can also be
helpful. “Because the contents of the
abdominal cavity have a liquid character, gravity pushes them to a higher than
usual position in the torso when you are lying down.”
Relaxed abdomen breathing. In a seated position, breathe normally with a
focus on the transitions between inhaling and exhaling and vice versa. Notice if there is an uneven quality to the
breath. Imagine the breath is making a
circular pattern: going up is inhaling
and coming down is exhaling. The point
is to try to eliminate the jerks in the breath and make the transitions more
seamless.
Posture awareness. Sitting in a chair, try slumping forward
slightly and notice the difference:
“inhalation is more labored, exhalation starts with a gasp, and it is
impossible to use the abdominal muscles smoothly to aid exhalation.” Then breathe in a more upright position and
notice the improvement.
Most people have bad breathing
habits, but the good news is that this can be changed. “The respiratory motions are entirely
controlled by somatic motor neurons – you have the potential of thinking the
actions through and controlling them willfully,” says David Coulter.
I love to teach beginner yoga. I believe that students come into class with
many preconceived notions and fears. I start the class with the students lying on their backs. I encourage them to become aware of the
breath without trying to change it in any way.
Then, I have them follow me through the deep abdominal breathing technique
where they have one hand on their belly and one on the outside of the rib cage.
We also do basic yoga poses and
move through a sun salutation sequence slowly.
However, I believe that, more than the yoga poses, it is far more
important for my students to leave my class learning how to utilize their
breath to bring about a calm, meditative state.
This technique they can draw upon whenever they need it.
For more information on yoga classes, click here.
