The silent breath can tell a lot about a person. And not just what they had for dinner :)
The breath reflects the inner secret emotions, thoughts, health and even physical feelings of an individual. When anxiety hits or anger and fear come about, the breath reflects by becoming shallow, rapid and irregular. Finding the slow rhythmic breath when relaxed or deep in thought. The state of your mind and emotions can be fully heard and seen within the breath, thus it follows that by controlling the breath a yogi is able to control their state of mind and emotions.
The majority of people have forgotten how to actually breathe. Breath that facilitates health, clarity, energy and peaceful emotions. Many breathe shallowly, using only the top portion of their lungs. These same people breathe through their mouths and never use the diaphragm to engage the full capacity of the lungs resulting in lack of vitality and an insufficient immune system.
Yoga asks the individual to breathe in the opposite manner. To inhale through the nose with lips sealed. Inflating the belly and using the lungs to full capacity. while moving the diaphragm down internally to massage the lower organs. The exhalation comes with the low abdominal wall pulling and contracting in as the diaphragm moves up and massages the heart as it does.
The fourth limb of the yoga guidance is focused on the breath, pranayama. Pranayama focuses on breath control. Formed from the Sanskrit words “prana,” meaning life force or vital energy, and “yama,” meaning control or mastery. Hence, pranayama is translated as "breath control".
Pranayama involves a number of breathing techniques designed to regulate and create the flow of prana within the body. These can help improve physical health, mental clarity, and emotional balance. Practicing can lessen stress, improve sleep, and increase overall well-being.
Inhalation, retention and exhalation are the three parts of the breath acknowledged in pranayama. Like the egg before the chicken or the chicken before the egg concept, people think of the inhalation as the most important part. However, it is the exhalation that starts the cycle. By exhaling more stale breath, the capacity for space to inhale more fresh air is created. Therefore, taking in more prana, more energy, more life.
Yogic breath in action puts more of an emphasis on the outbreath and the retention of the inbreath. Some exercises dictate the outbreath to be twice as long as the inbreath and the retention even longer than the inhalation!
Close your eyes and notice your own breath. The natural pace of the breath ... is it rapid or slow? Shallow or deep? What is the emotional energy of your breath ... does it feel restrictive or a sense of release when taken fully in and out? How does your breath reflect your current state of mind and heart?
Ask questions of your breath as you mindfully focus on the inhale and exhale, noticing what the breath reflects about you.
Now with the eyes closed see how you can alter the breath to reflect a sense of calm and clarity, by taking in deep belly breaths ... filling the belly, ribs and chest fully on the inhalation, retaining the breath for some time and then releasing a long exhale two counts longer than the inhale. Continue for ten rounds. Anytime your mind begins to wander, you come back to the sensations of the breath within your body. Once you feel complete, open your eyes. How do you feel?
Written by Brooke H.
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