Pranayama (Kundalini Yoga Breathing Techniques) PRANAY01.TXT *********************************************************************** Breath of Fire (Agni-Prasana): A cleansing & energising breath, powered by abdominal contractions Sit comfortably with a straight spine. Rest your hands on your knees, palms up, with your fingers in gyan mudra (touching the tips of the index fingers to the tips of the thumbs). Breathe fairly rapidly (about 2 or 3 breaths per second) through your nose, while you pump your navel point and abdomen-- pulling them sharply inward on the exhale, and pushing them out during the inhale. Your chest should be relaxed. When you're finished, inhale deeply and hold the breath while you pull the energy up into your higher centers. Then exhale and relax. This is a balanced breath with no emphasis on either the inhale or the exhale. Try thinking of it as one continuous breath being pulled in and out. You won't hyperventilate if you don't breathe through your mouth. Start practicing breath of fire for no more than three minutes at a time and work up to 31 minutes or more. (from Tantric numerology by Dr. Guruchander Singh Khalsa, D.C. p. 121) Long Deep Breathing A great way to relax, and also very good for any lung-related problems. Here is a complete description of how to learn and practice this most important breath: The breath starts by filling the abdomen, then expanding the chest, and finally lifting the upper ribs and clavicle. The exhale reverses this process, as the upper torso deflates, then the middle, and finally the abdomen pulls in as the navel point pulls back toward the spine. It may be helpful to practice the three parts of the breath separately, combining them when all the parts are learned. To practice the abdominal breath, lie on the back and place a book on the navel point and your hand in the center of the chest. As you inhale, raise the book toward the ceiling, and lower it steadily as you exhale. Use your hand to remind yourself to keep the chest still and relaxed. To practice the chest breath, sit straight, and keep the diaphragm still - do not let the abdomen extend, and inhale slowly using only the chest muscles. Focus on the sensation of expansion, and exhale completely without using the abdomen. To practice the clavicular breath, sit straight, contract the navel and keep the abdomen tight, and lift the chest without inhaling. Now inhale slowly by expanding the shoulders and the collarbone. Keep the chest lifted and the abdomen tight as you exhale. Each aspect of the breath is distinct. By combining all three you have a long deep breath: Sitting straight so the spine is balanced and the ribs and muscles may move freely, begin the inhale with an abdominal breath. Then add the chest breath and finish with the clavicular breath, doing all three in a smooth, connected, fashion. To exhale, first relax the clavicle, then slowly empty the chest, and finally pull the abdomen inward to force out any remaining air. Breathing Techniques Susan P. Boles Most of us don't know how to breathe properly. We take shallow breaths as if we are afraid of what breath does. But breath is manna to our bodies...so we should drink heavily and deeply to energize and feed our bodies. I was taught by breathing in to the count of four...slow counts. Feel the breath expand your ribcage.....you are aiming to fill your whole chest cavity with air. At the end of the fourth, when you think you can't take any more air in, take a sip more. Hold for a count of four. Exhale over a count of four....and when you think you have all the air out, huff more out. You will be amazed how much you can get out after this count of four. You may experience burning in your lungs doing this. But soon, your breathing comes deep and sure....and the count of four expands to a count of five...six. I was told to concentrate on the emptiness between breathing in and breathing out....that period of stillness. Once my lungs were used to doing this, I started breathing in from different parts of my body. No one taught me this...it just started to happen when I meditated. I would open up my crown chakra and breathe the energy down, on an inbreath....feeling it flow around my heart....keeping it there....then on the outbreath, push the breath down the rest of my body to exit out my feet. Then I would reverse it, breathing in my feet, feel it flowing to my heart, then on the exhale, pushing it up and out my head. Dizzying at first....but the energy that fills me when I do that is incredible. I found out later that I was unconsciously doing something that is taught to get the energy flowing in the two currents that wind around our spines. We would practice this for about five minutes.....at the beginning of each session. It prepared us for the work in the session by calming us and getting our minds into the proper space for work. The fire breath is very different. Here, you concentrate on the outbreath, as it is thrown out with such force, the inbreath comes after it automatically. We were taught to put our hand on our bellies and use those muscles to force air out of our lungs in a whoosh. Our hands were to remind us to use those muscles to force it out. Your whole abdomen is used to empty the lungs very quickly. You should hear your breath coming out vocally....almost like a cough but not so loud...kinda like a HUH sound. Here, you are not using so much breath...it is like little sips in and whooshes out. Like my advanced terminology?? :;grins:: As the fire in fire breath is related to the power center or third chakra, this is where the breath is being localized. You are using your diaphragm and stomach muscles to force the breath out. Dizzying again.....and you feel the heat in your belly rising up into you.....making your head reel with it. It took me awhile to get used to doing this....and my stomach muscles hated me for a while... but it was worth everything to feel what I did when the rising started. At first, we couldn't do it very much.....it was far too difficult to keep up....but as the weeks went by, we had longer lessons using it. The alternate nostril breathing was taught to us after the above two. After doing the first breathing exercise a few times, raise one of your hands to your face, palm facing it. Put your thumb by one nostril and your forefinger by the other. Gently put your thumb over the nostril, blocking the passage of air through it. Breathe in the other nostril slowly, using the first technique. Hold the inbreath for a second...concentrating on the stillness....then exhale. Remove your thumb, and put your forefinger on it's nostril and breathe in...concentrating on the middle...exhale. Continue to alternate with one complete inhale/exhale per thumb/finger. Do this for about eight to ten cycles. You should feel this breathing calming you yet energizing your chakras. Susan P. Boles lives in a small town, east of Toronto, Canada, and is a student and teacher of chakras. A gifted healer, using her own brand of hands-on and remote healing, she makes use of Reiki, Therapeutic touch and an inner child process to help people. This is not a full time occupation - she mainly helps people over the Net as she finds her effectiveness is greater using this energy medium. She has facilitated earth healing meditations for several groups. When Susan first started taking Kundalini yoga, she had a very hard time even getting on the floor. She had broken her back at work. Doing anything was extremely painful. Her teacher was very patient with her - allowing her to adapt positions she couldn't get into or found hard to maintain. After a few months, and the aid of other alternative healing methods, she was able to move with much greater mobility, feeling the energy move up her spine. The fire breath, actually just learning to breathe properly, helped her a lot. Now, she says, if you look at her back, you will not find the break. She went from being wheelchair dependent, according to allopathics, to being able to do anything she wanted, and she does too! --Susan