Ritual of Breath-work

Pran-ayama for Mornings / anytime

NEED

Lungs: Throat and lungs are directly affected causing difficulty in breathing. The course ‘Ritual of Breath-work’ teaches how to enhance breathing and lung capacity. It also attends to anxiety and depression.

INTRODUCTION

One can survive for many days without food and only a few days without water. But without air, one can survive not more than few minutes. Air or breathing air is the most important need for living. Despite breathing the same air, one may feel more energetic on certain days. A key reason is that on those days, our prana level is higher. Prana is the vital energy that rides on breath. By training prana every morning, we can make most, not only some, of our days more productive and joyous.

It is good to have a set of activities relating to Yoga to be done every morning at home. Structured and followed seven days a week, one can customise these activities as per personal preferences and this becomes a personal ritual. One doesn’t need to go to a Yoga studio for this.

This ritual could be performed at any time of the day or night, in addition to mornings.

The morning ritual that is followed at AZIMVTH Haridwar India consists of many practices. These are completed in about 30 minutes.

There are about 2 dozen different exercises on pranayama. We have curated 3 from these. The ritual also consists of Aum chanting, visualisations, and mantra recitations.

Posture: Sitting in a way to ensure that the spine is erect so that all of the chahkras are aligned in a straight line perpendicular to the ground. Padma-asana, Vajra-asana, or simply cross-legged are preferred postures. One may also sit on the floor against a wall or in a chair with straight back.

Ambience: If practicing indoors, it is advisable to have a potted-plant, or flowers in a vase in the room at the time of the practice. Alternatively, one may place leaves and twigs in a glass. It is good to have some natural olfactory ambience via natural fragrance like burning dhoop or incense-stick of sandalwood or other natural fragrance. Agar-agar and frank-incense are also fine. The room should have adequate natural light. A Yogin may wear white or light coloured clothes made of cotton or other natural fibres like wool or silk. Clothes with elastics, especially in the torso area should be avoided.

Time: This practice should ideally be done early morning. It can also be done at any time of day or night.

Caution: Bhramari should be avoided/customised if one has conditions similar to epilepsy or neurology. Bhastrika, although utilises breath-work is not a prana-ayama but a kriya. It should be practiced under guidance if some one has a tendency of high blood pressure and should be avoided during the menstrual period.

EIGHT FOLD PATH

The ‘Ritual of Breath-work’ is a guided meditation technique consisting of various Pranayama breath exercises organised in eight steps as outlined below. A Yogin is prepared keeping in mind aspects mentioned in the points ‘Ambience’ and ‘Posture’ mentioned above.

Step 1: Invocation with mantra and / or playing of a conch or flute.
Step 2: Cleansing of energy channels.
Step 3: Generation of energy.
Step 4: Concentrating energy.
Step 5: Proliferation across body.
Step 6: Synchronising and integrating energy.
Step 7: Sharing of Prana with all.
Step 8: Cooling down and peace.

BENEFITS

The Ritual of Breath-work becomes a good form of meditation when practiced every day.
It increases breathing capacity that comes in handy when a person is faced with pulmonary conditions and other medical conditions involving breath.
Though it is useful for people of all ages, those with advancing age may have more need for the ritual from the physical health point of view. Younger participants may also find the benefits to mental health useful.

RESOURCES

Step-by-step instructions and more details on ‘Ritual of Breath-work: Pran-ayama for Mornings / anytime’ are available here.

SIX COURSES

The list of the courses is given below.