In the first article of this series, we learnt about the importance of maintaining awareness to improve our breathing pattern and thereby improving health of body and mind (physical and mental health). It’s a well-known fact that our body, mind and breath are interconnected and always work hand in hand. If one of them gets impacted adversely, it impacts the other two as well. Our life and its quality revolves around them. In today’s article, let’s bring Body — Annamaya kosha, Mind — Manomaya kosha and Breath — Pranamaya kosha on the table for discussion.
Before we go further, please take a moment try the below exercises by yourselves:
(1). Inhale completely. Keep holding your breath and observe if you can have any thought process while you hold your breath.
(2). Another observation I want you to do is — keep staring at a single point and don’t blink your eyes for 30 seconds or more.. See if you can think of anything while you keep staring. Maintain the gaze for at-least 30 secs, even if your eyes close, open your eyes again and continue the gaze.
Observe that It Is very hard for youto think of anything during these exercises. What made your mind to go blank or no thought state or still, when you hold the breath or gaze at a fixed point. These are the points to ponder our thoughts on. When we inhale and hold breath inside with complete focus on maintaining breath inside our body, mind/manomaya kosha experiences stillness. We have many more pointers to these exercises; I will keep those for the next article in the series.
We also have observed in last article that we breathe differently on different conditions, situations or feelings.. The question is — what makes our mind to operate differently in different scenarios. Three major factors causing mind to go haywire in such scenarios resulting in uneven breathing thereby affecting the body are:
(a). Six impurities affecting the body: kama(sensual desire), krodha(anger), lobha (covetousness), moha(infatuation), mada(arrogance/prodie) and matsarya(envy).
(b). Distractions of mind: Visuals keep floating though your mind and mind cannot be brought to steady state as it is oscillating between polarities of visions.
( c). Ignorance: Mind is ignorant about itself and unable to appreciate the right knowledge. For eg:
Note that these factors affect our mind all the time with our or without consciousness.
Breathing can be brought to practice when we can keep our mind calm from the above factors to the extent possible. In such a scenario, breath flows though both the nostrils at the same time, utilizing complete lung capacity.
Now it’s time we observe one more factor — whether we breathe with both nostrils all the time. If you observe carefully, we breathe through only one nostril most of the time and nostrils take turns between them. This is called as nasal cycle. Whether we breathe through right or left nostril impacts the way our body and mind operate. Lifestyle can improve to a greater extent when we learn to breathe through both nostrils at the same time. It improves quality of our mental and physical health.
One way to improve our quality of breathing is to learn to breathe in the right way. It’s hands-on time again! Keep your left hand on abdomen and right hand on chest. Start breathing normally as you breathe every day. Just make a note of how your hands are moving up and out and which hand is moving first and which hand follows it.
Now try this! When you inhale make sure that your abdomen goes up and outward first filling air in lower lungs, and then chest goes up and outward. When you exhale make sure that chest goes down and inward followed by abdomen going down and inwards. On the other hand, when you inhale, ensure that left hand goes outward then right hand goes outward. When you exhale, right hand goes in followed by the left hand. This breathing technique referred to as Yogic breathing. By practicing Yogic breathing technique for at-least 15 minutes a day will help to improve our breathing pattern and enhance calmness in the mind. The very little things or adjustments we make helps us in the long run. Now, go try yourself!
Other thing to be discussed in this write-up is practice of Pranayama. Pranayama, in simple terms for modern practical times, helps to balance the energy flow in right and left hemispheres clear the blocks in the energy channels of the body — which results in improving overall health. It is the extension and retention of breath in various forms to channelize the breath in a right way. There are many types of pranayama — some are used to increase heat in the body while some cool down the body. Some others restore over-all balance and act as good tranquillizer of the mind. Pranayama should always be practiced under an experienced teacher. When it is practiced in a right way, it will do wonders to the body and the mind. In this world where there is a mad rush and corporate rat race where everyone is stressed out trying to prove some thing or the other to themselves or to others, one needs a little peace of mind as well as good health. Pranayama helps addresses these and is the need of the hour. Only important thing to note here is that one needs to take contraindications of pranayama into account before beginning the practice.
Let’s talk about some high-level benefits of different pranayamas:
· Kapalbhati cleanses lungs. It balances and strengthens nervous system and tones digestive system. It removes sleepiness and keeps our mind active.
· Nadishodhana pranayama balances both brain hemispheres and calms the mind. It alleviates respiratory problems such as Asthma, Bronchitis etc.
· Sheetali and sheetkaari pranayama cools down the body, relaxes muscles and it’s a tranquillizer of mind. It aids sleeping.
· Bhastrika pranayama removes toxins in the body. It balances and strengthens the nervous system.
· Bhramari pranayama is a tranquilizing pranayama, reduces anger and calms the mind.
We know that not everyone can sit and practice Pranayama for various reasons. However, one can practice yogic breathing for 5 to15 mins in day on their own by following guidelines indicated above.
There are simple methods to practice breathing and calming our mind. First one is to have the awareness of breathing. Being aware that you are breathing now, at present and breathing consciously would itself helps to a greater extent.
Another important method to practice breathing & calming your mind is to equalize inhale and exhale duration. While you breathe — extend your inhalation for 4 counts(you can count mentally from 1–4) and do the same while you exhale. In this way you will forcefully make your system to breathe in and breathe out in equal counts. The duration of inhale and exhale can be increased slowly and equally.
Yet another method to work on breathing is practicing mindfulness. That can be practiced by observing everything around you, being present in the moment and being mindful of breathing pattern all the time. Again, this Is a practice which doesn’t need any investment, but demands effort to practice the same. Experiencing the moment while maintaining awareness on breathing, can calm down your mind and balances both mind and body.
Adopt one of the above method ways to improv your breathing thereby improving your lifestyle. Be present HERE and NOW!
