PRANAYAMA

PRANAYAMA

Prana = Breath

yama = control

ayama = freedom / liberation

• Prana is the air, but it is not oxygen nor any of its constituents. Prana is food, water, sunlight; yet it is not vitamins, heat, or light rays. The food, air, and water is just the media through which it is carried. Prana can reach places those things can’t. We call this ‘Life energy’.

• The highest manifestation of all prana’s actions in the human body is thought. The lowest, or grossest action is the breath ( pulmonary ventilation)

• Patanjali defines yoga as the suspension of the modification of the thinking principle, which is not practicable without controlling the prana or breath, which is intimately connected with the mind. It is said in the Siva Gita that “the vehicle of mind” is prana. Therefore, mind functions where prana moves. Breathing and consciousness are two sides of the same coin; one always effects the other. 

• The classical texts say the the length of life directly corresponds with the number of breaths we take. The faster we use them, the shorter our earthly lives  are. In the same way that responsible person would be careful with his money, so too should we be careful with our breath.

• breathing is the essence of yoga; the most important part of the yoga practice. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika dedicates 25 verses  (out of 114) to the breath.

• The mind is, by nature, unsteady, in part because it is at every moment being affected by external  factors which the mind perceives through the sensory organs (skin, eyes, ears, nose, tongue)

• It is said that improper breathing can cause disease in the body; conversely, proper breathing  alone can banish illnesses.

THE BREATH

Breathing is defined as the biological function of taking in air, absorbing oxygen and then exhaling air, releasing carbon dioxide.

• Right lung is bigger with 3 lobes

• Left lung is smaller with 2 lobes ( to make room for heart

• Men have an average capacity of 6L

• Women have an average capacity 4.2L

• 5-15% increase possible through exercise

Air is composed of aprox:

    • 78% nitrogen
    • 21% oxygen
    • .93% argon
    • .04 carbon dioxide

We exhale aprox:

    • 75% nitrogen
    • 13-16% O2
    • 4-5.5% carbon dioxide
    • 5-6.5% water vapour
    • 1% argon
    • Trace hydrogen, carbon monoxide and other gases

OXYGEN’S ROLE

• Every cell in you body requires it

• Oxidation is a process that chemically changes food and liquid into energy

•  It contracts your muscles, repairs your cells,  feeds your brain, cleanses the body

 

CARBON DIOXIDE’S ROLE

• Vasodilation

• Dilation of breathing passageways

• Increases O2 absorption

• Elimination of waste 

We conclude based on this information is that CO2 is good and achieving balance is the goal. This exchange is essential for health. Yoga breathing  is mostly about manipulating CO2 levels in the lungs.

Ancient breathing practices predate the common era and were written about in many sacred texts including the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, The Yoga sutras and the Hatha yoga Pradipika. This information is presented in the context of higher states of consciousness, self-realization, mysticism and transcendence. In modern times these breathing practices were icluded as a small but important part of many yoga schools that have served as the basis for most contemporary yoga classes found around the world.

It is said, that the number of breaths we take in is directly related to the length of time we have on the earth plane. Slower breathing = longer life.

Breaths per minute:

• babies :  35-40

•  2-12 years :  20-40

• 12-15:  18

• 15+:  12-20

•  Men tend to take less breaths in a day- average 21500, whereas women average 29000

Natural reasons we may experience breathlessness or an increase in respiration are: exercise, shock/awe, physical attraction, fear / stress.

There is ample evidence that our contemporary breathing techniques offer:

    • Stress relief
    • Relaxation/ better sleep
    • Aid in mindfulness and meditation
    • Asthma treatment, immune regulation
    • Aid in helping us hold our breath longer / free diving

Structure of the Breath

There are 4 parts to the breath:

puraka |  antah kumbhaka |  rechaka  | beyah kumbhaka

inhalation | PAUSE |  exhalation | PAUSE

Two parts of breath are fairly obvious – inhaling (taking air in) and exhaling (pushing air out). The two others are always there but we are not used to acknowledging them – these are the holds or stops that come in between the inhale and exhale. In Sanskrit they are called Kumbhaka. The hold after the inhale is called Antah Kumbhaka (or A.K. for short) and the hold after the exhale is called Bahya Kumbhaka (or B.K. for short).

Explore Your Breath

Let’s start with a short practice to determine your breath capacity. This will give the ideas a personal context – something that is unique for you. The practice is to sit comfortably and count the number of Ujjayi breaths you take over a period of 5 minutes. To do this practice you will need a timer to time 5 minutes with some kind of audio signal when the time is up. Now we will do a little basic math:

• The duration of the practice as 5 minutes = 300 seconds.

• Divide the 300 seconds by the number of breaths you counted.

• For example – if you counted 28 breaths – then 300 divided by 28 = 10.7. This is the average length of your breath – almost 11 seconds.

• Then divide that number by 2.5.

• For example: 10.7 divided by 2.5 = 4.3

• Round that number down to the closest even number.

• For example: 4.3 seconds is rounded down to 4 seconds.

• This will be your base breathing duration (which we will soon explain further and put to good use).

There are two numbers to take away from this practice:

• The length of your breath – in this case 11 seconds.

• Your base breathing duration – in this case 4 seconds.

We will use this structure to communicate breathing practices. For example: inhale 4 seconds, hold 2 seconds, exhale 7 seconds, hold 2 seconds. In short: 4 – 2 – 6 – 2

 

The limitation of this notation is that it indicates a specific length of breath. What if we wanted to communicate the same idea – but in a way that you can apply the practice to your breathing capacity. Fortunately there is a way to do this. We communicate the breathing practice in multipliers instead of numbers. Like this:

The base duration in this example is 4 seconds. The inhale is “1” meaning [ 1 x 4 seconds = 4 seconds]. The A.K. hold is 0.5 meaning [ 0.5 x 4 seconds = 2 seconds] and so on. So the same breathing formula, in this example “1 – 0.5 – 1.5 – 0.5” will result in different durations – depending on your base breathing duration. You can try to apply this formula to your breathing duration.