Practicing pranayama can result in better health and increased energy.
In Ayurvedic medicine and yogic practices, prana is the essential life force within every being. Prana animates and sustains life, similar to the Chinese concept of chi. Greater health and vitality can be gained by those who practice controlling the flow of prana within one's body. Initial work with prana, called pranayama, focuses on controlling and focusing on the breath. A basic pranayama breathing practice called sukha pranayama generates prana and serves as a safe introduction to a yogic breathing regime.
Instructions
Sukha Pranayama
1. Sit in a natural meditative pose. Notice your posture and try to sit erect. When you feel balanced and comfortable, begin to observe your regular breathing. Don't attempt to alter your breathing pattern, just feel the air flowing in and out of your lungs.
While inhaling, let the abdominal wall move out, and while exhaling, let it move in. Keep your mind clear, only "observing" your breathing. While inhaling, feel the power and energy flow, and while exhaling, imagine breathing out tension, stress and disease.
2. Begin to notice the movement of your abdomen during your breathing. Most people carry tension in their abdominal muscles, pulling their stomach in and holding it rigid. Relax the muscles in your core, and let the abdominal wall move out when inhaling and in on exhalation. Continue to breath regularly.
3. Continue allowing your breath to flow regularly. When you feel comfortable, begin envisioning oxygen entering your blood through your lungs, strengthening your body and cleansing your organs. Feel the power flowing into your body through your regular breaths. Keep your abdomen loose.
4. Continue envisioning the flow of prana into your body though your regular inhalations. On exhalation, begin to envision the expelling of toxins and stress stored in your body back out into the atmosphere. Picture all the areas in your lungs and abdomen that carry toxins from breaths that you have held too long. Imagine the next breath sweeping these places clean and replacing these staid areas with vital, living prana.
5. Continue this practice, focusing on your normal, regular breath without deepening or altering your inhalations. This basic practice is an introduction to pranayama and often relieves stress and hypertension and strengthens the nervous and respiratory systems.
Tags: your body, your breathing, your lungs, your regular, abdominal wall, abdominal wall move, comfortable begin