Bhastrika Pranayama (Bellows Breathing)
One caveat about this pranayama exercise — it is strong and may make you feel dizzy. If you feel dizzy or out of breath in any way, stop immediately and just breathe until you feel better. I do not recommend attempting this one if you have respiratory issues or high blood pressure.
1) Sit in a comfortable cross-legged position. Unless you can sit comfortably in padmasana (full lotus) — and who can? — this is a great time to sit on the folded edge of a blanket. Just your sitting bones should rest on the blanket, not your thighs, to tilt your pelvis forward slightly and give you more space to breathe. Alternatively, you may kneel and sit on your heels or place a block between your heels and sit on the very edge of it. Either way, find a place where it is easy to breathe.
2) If you are in cross-legged position, rest your hands, palms facing up, on your knees. If you are kneeling, place your hands in your lap, palms up, one on top of the other, thumbs touching. Close your eyes and breathe in and out through your nose. Spend a few moments watching your breath, becoming conscious of it.
3) Slowly begin to lengthen your inhales and exhales, gently stretching your lungs. Feel yourself filling with the prana (energy) that comes from the air around you. Consciously exhale completely, feeling the stale air leave your lungs.
4) When you are ready, at the bottom of an exhale, pause for a moment and see if you can use your abdominal muscles to squeeze out just a little bit more air. Think of your navel moving in toward your spine and up toward your heart.
5) Inhale completely and continue to practice using your abdominals to squeeze out more air at the bottom of your exhales for a few more rounds.
6) When you feel like you have command of the abdominal push, take a deep, full breath in and then strongly pull your navel in and up for a quick blast of exhaling through your nose. Then just as strongly let your navel move away from your spine and fill the space with air, creating a sharp inhale through your nose. Exhale by pushing your navel in and up and sending the breath out your nose again.
7) Continue with these strong, short blasts of air in and out, working like a bellows. Count 10-25 rounds before resuming slow, deep, even breaths.
Make sure you breathe slowly for a while before you stand up. Then see if you don’t feel a little bit like the spring day that awaits you.
Note:
We strongly recommend you try new poses under the supervision of a qualified yoga teacher. As with any physical activity, when you practice on your own you assume a risk of injury for which YogaMamaMe.com and its author are not responsible. Please treat your body with care!
Dirga Pranayama (Three-Part Breathing)
1) As with all pranayama, you need to find a comfortable seat, find your long spine and open heart, and breathe through your nose.
2) Close your eyes and watch as you inhale into the lowest third of your lungs. Pause and experience this feeling. Do not exhale. Inhale again, filling the middle third of your lungs. Again, pause and observe. Do not exhale. Finally, inhale a third time, filling your lungs all the way up to your collar bones.
3) Sit without exhaling for as long as it is comfortable. Observe the shape of your lungs, their finiteness, the limit to how much air you can take in. At the same time, notice how your lungs are subtly opening to accommodate the air you have inhaled.
4) When you are ready, exhale slowly through your nose, still calmly watching as your lungs empty.
Repeat at least two more times so you can appreciate how recognizing our limitations helps them melt away.
Note:
We strongly recommend you try new poses under the supervision of a qualified yoga teacher. As with any physical activity, when you practice on your own you assume a risk of injury for which YogaMamaMe.com and its author are not responsible. Please treat your body with care!
The point of this pranayama exercise is simply to bring your mind more clearly to your breath, so your breath can inspire your movements, rather than the other way around. It is also a lovely way to bring yourself back to the stillness we seek in yoga. I recommend establishing the four-part breath at the beginning of your practice, as you sit still. Then incorporate it as you begin to move. See if you can hold onto it through your entire practice, until you consciously let it go in Savasana.
1) Take a few rounds of breath, just observing the natural rhythm and feel of your breath. Be sure to breathe through your nose and take particular note of the feel of the air entering and exiting your nostrils, establishing your connection to something bigger.
2) Begin to observe the space between your breaths — that brief moment of stillness between the exhale and the inhale, and between the inhale and the exhale. Don’t alter it, just observe how you are perfectly still before reversing directions, like a ball on a rope.
3) When you are ready, take a long, slow inhale, counting to four to fill your lungs.
4) Pause at the top of the inhale, and count to four. Don’t struggle to hold your breath. Just be with the stillness.
5) Exhale slowly and with control for four counts.
6) Count to four at the bottom of your breath. Again, take care not to struggle. Just observe the stillness.
7) After a couple of rounds, you may wish to lengthen to counts of five for a round or two and then maybe even six. Take your time, complete each round, and if you start to struggle, back off. You are looking for peace and ease in this pranayama exercise.
8) When you are ready, stop counting and instead just feel the evenness of your four-part breath, giving equal space to the stillness between the exhales and the inhales as you give to the exhales and inhales themselves.
9) Carry this sense of balance and equanimity and peace into the rest of your practice and the rest of your day.
Note:
We strongly recommend you try new poses under the supervision of a qualified yoga teacher. As with any physical activity, when you practice on your own you assume a risk of injury for which YogaMamaMe.com and its author are not responsible. Please treat your body with care!
1) Sit in a comfortable position with a long spine and plenty of room to breathe.
2) Inhale and exhale deeply through your nose a few times, stretching your lungs.
3) Take a deep inhale, completely filling your lungs. Now force the exhales through your nose by sharply pulling your navel toward your spine.
4) Continue this action so you are working on exhales only. (Some people call this “bellows breathing.”) Let the inhales happen — don’t try to inhale. Work only on the exhales.
Do this 10-20 times. It’s a heating exercise, not recommended for, say, right before bedtime. It also helps force stale air out of your body.
The non-attachment part? It lies in letting go of the notion that you have to breathe in. Many of us panic at the idea that we’re so deeply exhaling and not trying to get the air back into our lungs as quickly as possible. If that panic arises, just stop and try again some other time. You’ve still introduced your mind to the concept of non-attachment, and if you give it some more opportunities to practice it will, in its own time, start to trust the notion.
Note:
We strongly recommend you try new poses under the supervision of a qualified yoga teacher. As with any physical activity, when you practice on your own you assume a risk of injury for which YogaMamaMe.com and its author are not responsible. Please treat your body with care!
Nadi Shodhana (Alternate Nostril Breathing)
1) Find a comfortable seat where you can breathe deeply. Using whichever hand is dominant for you, fold your first two fingers (pointer and middle) down toward the palm. You will be using your thumb and ring finger for this exercise.
2) Close your eyes and exhale completely. Bring your hand in front of your nose (your nose fits in the space created by your folded down pointer and middle fingers) and hold your left nostril closed as you inhale deeply and slowly through your right nostril. You may choose to count on the inhale.
3) If you are experienced at pranayama, hold both nostrils closed as you sit in stillness for the same length of time as your inhale. Skip this step if you feel faint or dizzy, if you are pregnant, or if you have respiratory or cardiac issues.
4) Release your left nostril and hold your right nostril closed as you exhale slowly through your left nostril. Try to make your exhale the same length as your inhale.
5) If you are experienced at pranayama, hold both nostrils closed as you sit in stillness for the same length of time as your inhale. Skip this step if you feel faint or dizzy, if you are pregnant, or if you have respiratory or cardiac issues.
6) Keeping your right nostril closed, inhale deeply and slowly through your left nostril (the nostril out of which you just exhaled). Try to make this inhale the same length as your first inhale.
7) If you are experienced at pranayama, hold both nostrils closed as you sit in stillness for the same length of time as your inhale. Skip this step if you feel faint or dizzy, if you are pregnant, or if you have respiratory or cardiac issues.
8) Close your left nostril and open your right nostril. Exhale slowly and deeply through your left nostril. Try to make the exhale as long as your inhales.
9) This completes one round of nadi shodhana (one inhale through the right nostril, exhale through the left, inhale through the left, and exhale through the right).
10) Complete from four to eight rounds before releasing your hand to your thigh. Take several rounds of conscious breath. Notice how your balance feels.
You can also do a “mental” nadi shodhana without using your hands. Instead, close your eyes and focus on inhaling and exhaling through one nostril at a time. See if you can balance and control your breath in this way.
Note:
We strongly recommend you try new poses under the supervision of a qualified yoga teacher. As with any physical activity, when you practice on your own you assume a risk of injury for which YogaMamaMe.com and its author are not responsible. Please treat your body with care!
There’s a moment of perfect stillness with every breath we take — between the inhale and exhale and between the exhale and inhale. Imagine a pendulum on an old grandfather clock. As it shifts from its swing to the right and prepares to swing to the left, it hovers for one moment, moving in neither direction. So, too, you can not both inhale and exhale at the same moment. The energy in you — the prana that enters with every inhale, the old thoughts and emotions you release with each exhale — is perfectly still in between the breaths. Just watching this space, trying to grasp it without holding your breath, is one of the most calming, beautiful exercises I know.
Note:
We strongly recommend you try new poses under the supervision of a qualified yoga teacher. As with any physical activity, when you practice on your own you assume a risk of injury for which YogaMamaMe.com and its author are not responsible. Please treat your body with care!
Two-Way Heart Opening Pranayama (Heart Breathing)
1) As for all pranayama breathing exercises, find a comfortable seat on the floor with your legs crossed or, if it is comfortable for you, sit in lotus or half lotus. If your lower back feels constricted, sit on the very edge of a folded blanket. (Only your sitting bones should rest on the blanket, not the backs of your thighs.)
2) Take a moment to let your shoulders loop forward, up toward your ears, and down your back. As your shoulder blades melt down your back, let your heart lift up. Support your singing heart by drawing your navel in toward your spine and up toward your heart, feeding it with fire.
3) Place your palms on your thighs or knees, (You may place first finger and thumb together in yoga mudra to focus your attention.) Take a few deep breaths, feeling the air fill your lungs.
4) As you continue to breath slowly and deeply, draw your attention to your heart. Feel the prana, or energy of the breath, enter your heart.
5) Then start to open your heart out as you exhale. Observe what comes out of your heart. It may have a physical appearance to you — mist or lights or something soft. Or it may just be a feeling. Enjoy it as you draw your exhales out. Inhale deeply into your heart to support it.
6) Now let the energy flow in as well. Start to breathe directly into your heart. Feel yourself absorbing the beautiful energy you have been putting out. And see what is mingled with that energy. The lingering laughter of your child who was playing in this room earlier? The absentminded caress of your partner as he passed you in front of the refrigerator this morning? Something more distant, some life you have touched, some happiness from a neighbor’s home?
7) Take your time feeling both the beauty and the rhythm of this two-way heart breathing. Then take the feeling with you as you move into your day.
Note:
We strongly recommend you try new poses under the supervision of a qualified yoga teacher. As with any physical activity, when you practice on your own you assume a risk of injury for which YogaMamaMe.com and its author are not responsible. Please treat your body with care!
Try this simple exercise to reconnect with your ujayi breath so you can whip it out next time you find yourself sidling toward that spiral descent into old patterns. (I see myself perched at the top of a twirly slide Jake made me go down with him last weekend, a tube enclosed on all sides that, frankly scared me more than a little bit.) Practicing just ujayi breath alone regularly will make it easier for you to access it when you need it — or just during a tough asana practice.
1) Sit comfortably on your mat — legs folded in front of you either in an easy cross-legged pose, in ardha padmasana (half lotus), or in padmasana (full lotus). The important thing is to be comfortable, not to push yourself into a position that you can’t hold for a while. If you are in comfortable cross-legged pose or half lotus, sit on the edge of a folded blanket to tip your pelvis forward slightly.
2) Close your eyes and breathe normally for a few rounds. Observe the breath coming into your nostrils and moving into your lungs. See if you can slow your inhales so you can see the breath move all the way down your spine to the floor and follow it back up on the exhale.
3) When you are ready, gently constrict your throat. Send the breath directly to your throat, as if your throat alone were responsible for breathing. See if you can find the place where you hear the sound of the ocean.
4) If you have trouble finding this place, you may try dropping your chin slightly or moving your head from side to side until you find the right spot. Or perhaps you practice the throat constriction without finding the ujayi sound and honor your body’s limitations.
5) Start moving the breath more forcefully. Don’t be violent; simply be very conscious of it once again moving into your nostrils, through your throat, and into your belly. Let your abdomen expand and contract to help add to the force.
6) See if you can find the peace in this heated breath. Listen to it and let your thoughts melt. Let the sound be a release for tension. Fully explore it and make it your own.
I know I’ll be listening to my own ujayi tune next time my mind starts its same old song and dance.
Note:
We strongly recommend you try new poses under the supervision of a qualified yoga teacher. As with any physical activity, when you practice on your own you assume a risk of injury for which YogaMamaMe.com and its author are not responsible. Please treat your body with care!