Ingredient Number 1 for our Health - OUR BREATH
This is part one of eight series about “our health” - how we can improve our health and maintain our health. Yes, I am not a doctor, but I have a pharmacy degree from Germany and have practiced for many years as a yoga teacher, massage therapist and “natural healer” as my clients call me.
From a yoga point of view - and mine - our health is our resposibility and to look at health as more than the absence of sickness needs awareness on our part. In Yoga as in massage you start by becoming aware of the body and immediately also become aware of the breath and the connection between the two.
Awareness is really the first step; so let’s connect it with our breath. Our breath is the connector to the mind and to the body. Of all our body’s automatic processes, the breath is the easiest to become aware of, because it lies at the interface of the conscious and subconscious mind. We can easily take control of it whenever we want, though at most times it goes on by itself, controlled only by the autonomic nervous system. It is, therefore, a subtle mirror of underlying neural and mental activity. When we are happy it is rhythmic, deep and slow, and when we are unhappy or tense it is gasping, shallow, fast and uneven.
Regular breathing induces relaxation, regularity and integration of the body’s rhythms and processes so they work together in harmony.
The breath and mind in most people are like a team of wild horses whose driver has lost the reins and who are running in whichever direction they please. Without awareness of breath ( and mind), we can easily slip into unstable brain and thought patterns, neurosis and disease. William Reich, the German psychiatrist, highlighted the need for controlled breathing when he stated: “There is no neurotic individual who is capable of exhaling in one breath, deeply and evenly.”
”When we take the reins of the breath (and the mind) into our own hands and allow the chemical changes and neural patterns to fall into their proper place and to work efficienetly for good health.” (Dr Swami Shankardev, Sydney)
Our health, meaning the optimal function of our body and mind is enhanced via the powerful practices of pranayama such as “Nadi Shodhana - alternate nostril breathing” as the practice releases daily accumulated psychic and nervous stress, which if not released creates imbalances in the nervous system.
A daily practice in the morning and in the evening can be
sitting with your eyes closed for few moments of breath awareness
placing (using some pressure) the right hand under the left armpit and the left hand under the right armpit and continue slow deep breathing for 5 minutes OR practicing 7 rounds of the following: breathing in and out of the left nostril for seven times then 7 times in and out of the right nostril and then 7 breaths through both nostrils.
You can also check out more in detial the link below or come to a yoga morning or yoga class with me “Aishani by Shaktiprem” Yoga Danda