Breathing in yoga often gets neglected by most as poses dominate the practice. Here’s the importance of breathing in yoga and techniques you should try.
Many people often get entangled with their busy lives, leaving them too stiff, tired, and stressed, resulting in a lower quality of life. If you’re one of these people and are looking for a natural chronic fatigue treatment for better health and well-being, yoga is a great alternative.
To most individuals, yoga may seem like an activity that only involves unnatural poses (asana). However, in reality, the poses are just a tiny aspect of spiritual practice. Breathing is a critical component of yoga, and combining asana with breath awareness (pranayama) is the key to getting all the benefits of yoga.;
Here’s how pranayama and asana work hand in hand to promote better health, well-being, and inner peace.
Although deep breathing promotes a sense of calm and can improve your overall health, doing it alone won’t have any positive effect on your body. That’s why asana or poses is essential in yoga, as it allows you to become more flexible, regulating the flow of energy throughout your body. Although you can do as many yoga poses you’d like, if you don’t practice proper breathing, the practice won’t benefit your body.
Asana regulates the energy flow, while breathing causes the movement of energy, helping your body to relax, open yourself to feel more, and be in tune with what’s happening to your body. Besides promoting relaxation, pranayama also enables you to experience your true essence. It achieves this by stimulating a transformation in your body and mind, purifying your overall well-being, allowing your spirit to shine forth.
Although pranayama gets often overlooked in yoga, you’ll realize how much it can actually help you now that you know its importance. To help you achieve true nirvana with yoga, here are three transformative breathing techniques you should try.
Ujjayi Pranayama
This breathing technique is also known as victorious breath or ocean breath, and this traditional pranayama practice produces soft and soothing sounds similar to ocean waves. The sounds it emits promotes better relaxation response of slow breathing due to the vibrations in the larynx stimulating sensory receptors and signaling the vagus nerve to produce a calming effect.
During doing any yoga pose, focus on your breathing and inhale through your nose, then exhale slowly through your mouth while making a ‘HA’ sound. Do this a couple of times until you feel more rejuvenated.
Nadi Shodhana Pranayama
This practice is also known as alternate-nostril breathing, which, as the name implies, requires you to breathe between your left and right nostrils. According to yogic belief, doing this unblocks and purifies your energy channels, balancing your mind and body. You can practice this breathing technique after an asana session via meditation.
Kumbhaka Pranayama
This technique is also known as breath retention, where you’re required to inhale fully and hold in your breath for 10 seconds, promoting better energy flow throughout your body. It can do this because when you inhale more and hold your breath, it can increase pressure inside your lungs, giving them more time to expand and increase their capacity. It promotes better blood flow, making you feel more energized. You can do this after an asana session in preparation for mediation.
Although doing yoga poses can provide great physical benefits, remember that yoga is more than a workout. So if you’re looking to achieve all the benefits of the practice, and rejuvenate your mind and body, practice proper breathing, promoting better health and overall well-being.