Yoga breathing exercises, also known as Pranayama, are an important part of a developing yoga practice. Pranayama is one of the Eight Limbs of Yoga, as defined by the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In addition to deepening your yoga practice, learning ways to calm or invigorate the body through breathing will greatly benefit your life off the mat. Breathing is an involuntary act; it is an essential part of life. Although we cannot control whether or not we breathe, we can control the way that we breathe. A belief that different methods of breath effect the body's health and life force is the core of Pranayama practice.
Three-Part Breath - Dirga Pranayama
A good breath for beginners, this exercise teaches you how to fill and empty the lungs completely. Benefits: Focus is the attention on the present moment, calms and grounds the mind. This pranayama exercise is often done while seated in a comfortable, cross-legged position, but it is also nice to do while lying on the back, particularly at the beginning of your practice. When you are lying down, you can really feel the breath moving through your body as it makes contact with the floor.
1. Come to either sit cross legged or if you prefer llie down on the back with the eyes closed, relaxing the face and the body.
2. Begin by observing the natural inhalation and exhalation of your breath without changing anything. If you find yourself distracted by the activity in your mind, try not to engage in the thoughts. Just notice them and then let them go, bringing your attention back to the inhales and the exhales.
3. Then begin to inhale deeply through the nose.
4. On each inhale, fill the belly up with your breath. Expand the belly with air like a balloon.
5. On each exhale, expel all the air out from the belly through your nose. Draw the navel back towards your spine to make sure that the belly is empty of air.
6. Repeat this deep belly breathing for about five breaths.
7. On the next inhale, fill the belly up with air as described above. Then when the belly is full, draw in a little more breath and let that air expand into the rib cage causing the ribs to widen apart.
8. On the exhale, let the air go first from the rib cage, letting the ribs slide closer together, and them from the belly, drawing the navel back towards the spine.
9. Repeat this deep breathing into the belly and rib cage for about five breaths.
10. On the next inhale, fill the belly and rib cage up with air as described above. Then draw in just a little more air and let it fill the upper chest, all the way up to the collarbone, causing the area around the heart (which is called the heart center in yoga), expand and rise.
11. On the exhale, let the breath go first from the upper chest, allowing the heart center sink back down, then from the rib cage, letting the ribs slide closer together. Finally, let the air go from the belly, drawing the navel back towards the spine.
12. You are practicing three-part breath! Continue at your own pace, eventually coming to let the three parts of the breath happen smoothly without pausing.
13. Continue for about 10 breaths.
Equal Breathing - Sama Vritti Pranayama
Benefits: Calms the body and focuses the mind.
Instructions:
1. Come to sit in a comfortable, cross-legged position such as easy pose, taking padding under your seat as necessary.
2. Close your eyes and begin to notice your natural breath, not changing anything at first.
3. Begin a slow count to four as you inhale. Then also count to four as you exhale. The exercise is to match the length of your inhale and exhale.
4. You may experiment with changing the number you count to, just make sure your inhale and exhale stay the same length.
5. Continue breathing this way for several minutes.
Alternate Nostril Breathing - Nadi Sodhana
Bring yourself in to balance by clearing the energy channels on both sides of the body.
Benefits: This breath is balancing, relaxing, and calming.
Instructions:
1. Sit in a comfortable cross-legged position.
2. Using your right hand, fold your pointer and middle fingers into your palm, leaving your thumb, ring finger, and pinky sticking up (Vishnu Mudra).
3. Bring your thumb to the right side of your nose and your ring finger to the left side.
4. Close off your right nostril with your thumb.
5. Inhale through your left nostril.
6. Close off your left nostril with your ring finger.
7. Open and exhale through your right nostril.
8. Inhale through your right nostril.
9. Close off your right nostril with your thumb.
10. Open and exhale through your left nostril.
11. Inhale through your left nostril.
12. Continue alternating 5 to 10 times.
Cooling Breath - Shitali Pranyama
A simple breath, perfect for a hot day or after practicing yoga postures.
Benefits: This breath cools the body so it is best done in hot weather or at the end of a vigorous yoga session.
Instructions:
1. Come to sit in a comfortable cross-legged position.
2. Take two or three deep inhales and exhales through the nose to prepare.
3. Roll the tongue, curling the sides in towards the center to form a tube. Stick the end of the tongue out between your pursed lips. If you can't roll your tongue, just purse the lips making a small "o" shape with the mouth,
4. Inhale through the tube of the tongue.
5. Exhale through the nose.
6. Repeat 5-10 times as you feel the cooling effect.
Vigorous Pranayama Exercises Ocean Breath - Ujjayi Pranayama
This powerful breath helps you maintain focus while doing yoga and can really invigorate your practice. Hissing Breath, Victorious Breath
Benefits: Concentrates and directs the breath, giving asana practice extra power and focus. This pranayama is most often used in association with the practice of yoga poses, especially in the vinyasa style. Vinyasa yoga is breath-synchronized movement, and the breath used is Ujjayi breath. Learn this breath while seated in a comfortable cross-legged position. Once you feel confident, begin to use it during asana practice.
Instructions:
1. Inhale and exhale deeply through the mouth
2. On the exhales, begin to tone the back of the throat, slightly constricting the passage of air. Imagine that you are fogging up a pair of glasses.
3. Once you are comfortable with the exhale, begin to apply the same toning of the throat to the inhales. This is where the name of the breath comes from: it sounds like the ocean. (It also sounds like Darth Vadar.)
4. When you are able to control the throat on both the inhale and the exhale, close the mouth and begin breathing through the nose. Continue applying the same toning to the throat that you did when the mouth was open. The breath will still make a loud noise coming in and out of the nose. This is Ujjayi breath.
5. Now start to use this breath during your practice. If the teacher tells you to move on an inhale, make it an Ujjayi inhale. If you need a little something extra while holding a pose, remember this breath.
Another way to think about Ujjayi Breath is to visualize your throat as a garden hose, with the breath passing through like a trickle of water. If you put your thumb partially over the opening of the hose, you increase the power of the water that is coming through. This is the same thing you are doing with your throat during Ujjayi breathing. The air that comes in through your constricted throat is a powerful, directed breath that you can send into the parts of your body that need it during yoga.
Skull Shining Breath - Kapalabhati Pranayama
This advanced breathing exercise should be learned from an experienced teacher, as it is possible to become light-headed if it is done incorrectly. Once mastered, this breath generates heat and clears the nasal passages.
Benefits: cleansing, invigorating, warming, prevents illness and allergies This breath consists of rapid, forced exhales followed by passive inhales. It is best done at the beginning of a yoga session. In Kundalini practice, Kapalabhati breath is sometimes done while holding poses.
Instructions:
1. Come to sit in a comfortable cross-legged position.
2. Take two or three deep inhales and exhales through the nose to prepare.
3. Inhale to a comfortable level, and then exhale sharply and forcefully through the nose, drawing the belly in as you exhale.
4. Let the inhale happen passively, and continue this cycle of forceful exhales and passive inhales at a fast pace, so that the belly is pumping continuously.
5. Do three rounds of thirty breaths each, coming back to deep inhales and exhales between each round.
6. Come back to normal breathing if you feel light-headed at any time.