Benefits of yoga breathing exercises

Yoga, an ancient Indian healing technique, is made up of many poses and postures. However, often ignored, yogic breathing techniques are sometimes more beneficial for the body and mind than any of the postures.

According to the principles of Yoga, the air around us contains a life-force, also known as ‘Prana’. We may be able to live without food and water, but this life force is essential to our existence and without it, we cannot hope to remain alive. Though there is a lot of this life force in all forms of nourishment, it is most readily assimilated when inhaled. Mixed with the blood, this life force reaches all the various parts of the body and the vital organs, pumping life throughout.

Pranayama is a technique, with which the human body can gain control over this inhaling of the life force, harnessing it and then expelling the waste. With our changing lifestyles and the increasing incidence of various lifestyle diseases, it is imperative that the life force within us be utilized to the maximum.

Due to the prolonged periods of time that we spend sitting behind our desks, we have developed a faulty way of breathing. To take in large quantities of air, we should breathe from the entire chest and the abdominal area. Unfortunately, most of us use only the upper respiratory tract for breathing.

There are many yoga breathing exercises that you can try. These exercises help you to re-programme your natural breathing techniques and clear the airways, allowing the lungs to work at full capacity and increasing the amount of oxygen in the blood.

Yoga breathing techniques offer numerous benefits in addition to de-stressing the body. Here’s what yoga breathing exercises can do for you:

• Release tension, either acute or chronic, that may have accumulated due to strenuous work or routine. This not only helps you to get rid of pain and aches in your body, but also gives a gentle internal massage to the internal organs like the heart and the lungs.
• If you suffer from any illness of the respiratory system, yogic breathing techniques can help overcome shortness of breath and asthma.
• Strengthen the cardio vascular system and stimulate the nervous system.
• Reduce anxiety and mental stress, helping an individual achieve calm and inner peace.
• Cause detoxification of the body, helping to expel toxins from the body, and increasing the quantity of red blood cells.
• Improve stamina and vitality.

Swara Yoga - A Yogic Breathing Exercise

Yoga is the art of manipulating and sculpting your body to perform better by clarifying your mind and spirit. One of the famous yogic ways that puts you in harmony with the whole solar system is Swara yoga.

Swara Yoga - Yoga Breathing Exercise

Swara yoga teaches you to believe that the human body is a unit of the solar system. So, it needs to keep performing according to other members of the solar system including the planets, moon, and sun. Swara yoga is based on the art of breathing and swara yoga teachers have developed different yogic breathing techniques to synchronize your body with its surrounding.

Another important principle used in this form of yoga is that the right and left nostrils are connected to specific activities. So, you breathe mainly through one nostril while performing special activities. For example, if you are playing music then you breathe through your left nostril while you breathe from the right one when you are writing.

Swar yoga can offer a wide variety of benefits. The main objective of these yogic breathing exercises is to maintain peacefulness of the spirit. The first yogic breathing technique is used for calming your mind and body; it is called equal breathing. Sit down and start inhaling while counting to four as a start, and try exhaling in the same time frame. Try changing the count for a longer period but maintain the same time for inhaling and exhaling.

Yoga Breathing Techniques

If you practice power yoga or any type of vigorous yoga then you may want to try the cooling breath technique. It is an easy technique that cools the body down after hard exercises. Sit down in a comfortable seated position with your back upright. Warm up by breathing three times before you start the exercise. Curl your tongue and start inhaling from your mouth then exhale through nostrils.

The ocean breath or the power breath is used when you need extra power while you are practicing hard yoga positions. The idea oscillates about forcing air in and out by constricting the air passage outlet. Try first to practice the ocean breath independently. When you master this technique, perform it in association with other yoga poses. Try to master the exhalation first, as it is the easier part. Exhale while you are constricting the back of your throat. When you master this, you can move to the inhaling part. Maintain the same position of your throat and inhale through your mouth. After a while you will feel the power of the ocean breath and you will learn how to use it perfectly.