The Breathing Excercises of Yoga

by Marlize Joubert

The word Pranayama consists of two parts; prana and ayama. Ayama means to stretch or extend, and describes the action of pranayama. Prana refers to that which is infinitely everywhere also referred to as energy. With reference to us humans prana can be described as something that flows continuously from somewhere inside us, filling us and keeping us “alive" it is vitality. We create more prana in our beings by doing pranayama exercises in yoga. Pranayama exercises we do by playing with our breath. Someone who is troubled, restless, confused and ungrounded have more prana living outside of his body than inside. When we have too little prana inside the body we can feel restricted or stuck in our lives and can show up as a lack of drive or motivation to do anything. If all the prana lives within our body, we can be free from all this suffering, feel more peaceful and well balanced. Our state of mind is closely linked to the quality of prana living within us. Because we can influence the flow of prana through the flow of our breath, the quality of our breath influences our state of mind and vice versa. Whatever happens in the mind influences the breath. As yogis our goal is to reduce the amount of prana outside of the body, and do pranayama exercises and yoga to cultivate more prana living within. This will create less suffering and move us towards pure happiness in our hearts. Whenever you feel stuck in your life, stressed out, or ungrounded, bring your awareness to your breath, take a few deep breaths. This will be the first step towards calming the mind down. Then learn a few pranayama practices and start 5 minutes a day. This practice is much more powerful than the asana practice most of us do in the Western World. Remember, breath is healing, breath is balance, breath is life, breath is everything. Without breath there is nothing.