Need to catch up? Introduction, Yamas, Niyamas, Asana
Bahyabhyantaravisayaksepi caturthah
Then the breath transcends the level of the consciousness
Yoga Sutra 2:51
Pranayama. Breathing. Well we all do that right? We wouldn’t be sitting up reading this post if we weren’t breathing.
Well yes, true. But that’s not pranayama.
Pranayama is probably my favourite limb of yoga. It’s the one where everything thus far comes together. Last week I said that asana without the union of breath and body wasn’t yoga, it was just gymnastics. This week I say that breathing without depth and mindfulness isn’t living, it’s just existing. And without pranayama there is no asana. The two are completely entwined and therefore when I teach Yoga for Beginners classes I always talk a little about the breath first.
And that beginner’s pranayama is just about learning to breath properly. Because you see most of us don’t. Most of us breath short shallow breaths, barely using our lung capacity. Some of us breath only into our chest and hardly engage the diaphragm at all and some of us are worse even than that. Some of us are (were?) reverse breathers.
I’ve done yoga since I was a kid. You know that. But it wasn’t until I started to take it seriously in my 20s that it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn’t breathing properly. Up until that point I’d been doing those gymnastics, the world’s most uncoordinated and clumsy gymnastics granted, but gymnastics none the less as I wasn’t engaging my breath. It wasn’t really a surprise as I was still addicted to the dreaded cancer sticks at the time but it was quite a realisation!
So I spoke to my teacher about it and she suggested a couple of one-to-one sessions to work on it.
It turned out I was a reverse breather. If you are breathing properly, the diaphragm expands in an inhale and the belly rises gently. As the diaphragm contracts again on the exhale the belly falls. My belly was filling and rising on an exhale. How did that happen?
So I had to learn to breathe all over again. I was given a practice by my teacher to use every day and slowly but surely I learned how to breathe. It was hard work. So many emotions came up. I kept a journal of the process and looking back on it now I’m amazed I carried on with the practice, it made me feel so horrible some days! But I was determined to breathe properly. I was determined to take my yoga to a new level.
Pranayama is more than just breathing. It is about drawing the prana or life force (similar to chi in Chinese medicine) into the body. It is the key to life. As Desikachar says in The Heart of Yoga (p.54) “…prana can be described as something that flows continuously from somewhere inside us, filling us and keeping us alive: it is vitality.” And I wanted to find that vital life.
When I was assisting on a yoga retreat in Turkey a couple of years ago we did a breath practice where we placed our hands on each others ribcages to feel them breath. One wonderful lady said to me “Rachel your breath is so long and slow”. I can’t tell you how happy that made me!
As long as the breath is in the body there is life. Death is the departure of breath. Therefore one should restrain the breath”
–HathaYogaPradipika 2:3
So breathe long and slow whenever you can, whenever you remember. Keep calm, smile a lot and breathe!
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A Beginner’s Pranayama Sequence
There are many strong and complicated pranayama practices but sometimes keeping it simple can be really effective, especially after a long and stressful day. So why not try this simple sequence.
Begin by lying on the floor with the knees bent, feet flat on the floor and just allow the body to release and relax for a few moments.
Place one hand on the belly and the other on the chest and take 10-15 long slow breaths (making sure you are not forcing the breath), ask yourself three questions:-
1. Does the belly move more than the chest or is it the other way around?
2. Is the inhale longer than the exhale, the other way round or are they even?
3. What is the temperature of the inhale and the temperature of the exhale?
Then bring the arms down by the side of the body. As you inhale bring the arms up and over by the sides of the ears, as you exhale bring them back down to the sides. Try and keep the shoulders relaxed and try to bring the movement of the arms and the movement of the breath into perfect harmony. Repeat 5-10 times.
Come back to the first position with one hand on the belly, one on the chest. Check in with the breath again and ask yourself the same three questions. Maybe things have improved?
When you are ready slowly roll onto your right hand side and come up to sitting.
Enjoy the rest of your day! 
