breathing there is a saying in yoga that without the breath
there is no yoga certainly that reminds us that it's through breath training
that we enter into a deeper aspect of our own lives and being and there are
many benefits in doing that working with the breath is a healing process working
with the breath makes us more sensitive to our internal maybe states of being
and working with the breath reminds us that there is something living
miraculously in our own beings that can be touched and voluntarily managed
through breath awareness so we are in the process of learning something about
how i yoga student Orient's themselves to breathing in basic yoga breath work
it's important to divide breath work into two parts one part we might call
breath training the second part we might call pranayama these two aspects of
breath work complement one another but breath training serves as the foundation
and pranayama is the elaboration so an important step for every yoga student is
to get started by working with the mechanics of their own breath how does a
person breathe well of course this can be a kind of nervous making process if I
think that I'm going to go in and examine my breath and perhaps even make
adjustments to it I might be become more and more nervous about the whole idea
and just leave it up to nature and not interfere but nature made the breath is
a kind of doorway and that doorway is something that we can enter we can enter
into our own selves through that breath awareness how the first step is simply
to become aware of breathing the breath flows out and
it's not necessary to be aware of your breathing in a critical way but it is
helpful to be aware of the breath in a way that allows you to access it as a
means for working with yourself and that means becoming aware of breathing the
two great streams of breath compliment one another the exhalation cleanses the
inhalation nourishes and so these two breaths one after the other again and
again are constantly doing their work cleansing and then nourishing carrying
away wastes and replenishing with fresh energy I've sometimes thought about this
wondering if these two small breaths can really ever get the job done
one exhalation and one inhalation takes just a number of seconds and yet we
imagine that by breathing and becoming aware of the breath we do something
remarkably helpful to ourselves there are a number of ways of thinking about
it but one simple way is thinking about the amount of time it takes to breathe
if you examine your breath you'll find that you are breathing about 10 to 15
breaths in a minute those 10 or 15 breaths in a minute add up by the end of
the day you breathed 21,000 times 21,000 breaths each cleansing and
nourishing each emptying and filling the first stage in working with the breath
and is simply to feel these two great processes within you and as you feel
these two great breaths they perform their function without you
being required to do anything beyond that bringing awareness to breathing
however does change it a bit it changes it because whenever we're aware of
something we naturally begin to ask questions about it what is good
breathing am i breathing well if I am breathing well or not so well what can I
do change it and if I improve the quality
of my breathing what benefits does it have one of the first stages to discover
breathing is to recognize that improving the quality of breathing improves the
quality of life and so after we have begun to sense the breath and become
aware of it the next step is to learn just a little bit more about how to
breathe there is a muscle that muscle called the diaphragm lies beneath the
lungs it's responsible for everyday breathing and when the diaphragm the
muscle beneath the lung contracts it draws the thoracic cavity in the base of
the lungs down when the muscle relaxes in turn it's drawn back up by the
elasticity of the lungs and so the diaphragm contracts the lungs fill the
diaphragm relaxes the lungs empty I can begin to feel that movement and
particularly in breath training I'd like to do that in a reclining position lying
on the floor either on your back or on your stomach so that you can feel these
deep movements of the diaphragm within your own body after a certain period of
training you'll become used to the idea that when the diaphragm contracts and
the lungs fill the abdomen expands as well depending on your posture and this
is where breathing breath training becomes a little bit more sophisticated
depending on your posture you may also feel the expansion of your ribcage along
the sides and even in the back so in the process of training your body to breathe
you are simply learning to recognize the signs of good breathing and a good yoga
teacher will help you recognize those signs without making for nervousness or
discomfort but rather simply the feeling of the flow of the breath again and
again in an unbroken relaxed stream one more step of course breath training
takes time and over that time you'll have the opportunity to view your breath
again and again but one further step is helpful and that further step is the
idea that at the end of the inhalation the exhalation begins at the end of the
exhalation the inhalation begins there's a relaxed smooth connection from breath
to breath you'll begin to sense that you are really not a breather what you began
thinking about was true all along your body breathes and as that breath flows
on and in its smoothly is woven from breath to breath in the process you'll
discover that your mind relaxes so breath training is a process that leads
from simple awareness of the breath to a relaxed sense of mechanics of breathing
to a most remarkable thing your mind relaxing and being the observer of your
own relaxed nervous system at that point you're then ready for pranayama most of
us have some idea of what that pranayama consists of breathing practices like
nadi shodhana m-- Wu ji breathing Sita Li si Tecate Brahm ray these are all
styles of breathing perhaps the two most commonly practiced are bistecca the
bellows breath and nadi shodhana m-- alternate nostril breathing each of
those has their own place to play in meditation practice in relaxation
practices in the cleansing practices that rejuvenate us and give us the sense
that our lungs are clean and healthy and most important practices that lead us to
a relaxed inner concentration so breath training pranayama these complement one
another one leads to the next so finally we go beyond the breath and
discover that our journey was always about finding our self
you