Don't Forget to Breathe...

Breath control is essential to practicing yoga and conscious relaxation techniques.

When we are born, we naturally breathe from our bellies or diaphragms--watch a newborn and see how his/her lower abdomen expands and contracts as he/she inhales and exhales bringing nourishing oxygen deep into the chest cavity. As we age, though, we are trained by society (suck in your gut so you look skinnier) and poor habits (slumping and rounding our chests) to breathe more from our chests (watch the shoulders of an adult go up and down as they breathe).

Did you know that the average adult typically only uses about 18% of his/her lung capacity? By relearning how to breathe correctly through basic pranayama techniques, you can actively improve your overall emotional and physical health.

Yogis & yoginis (yoga masters/teachers) have used pranayama ("Prana" means "breath" and "Ayama" means "lengthening") for thousands of years to actively relax their bodies, quiet their minds and prepare their bodies for meditation. In fact, many believed that individuals were born with a specific number of breaths in a lifetime and by "lengthening" these individual breaths, a person could also lengthen their overall lives.

There are a number of different basic pranayama techniques that you can try in order to re-train your mind and body to breathe properly (diaphragmatically):

• Mindful Breath: Sitting with your current breath & just observing it
• 3-Part Breath: Using the placement of your hands on your belly, solar plexus and chest/ribcage to FEEL your breath and how it expands and contracts the parts of the chest during the breathing process.
• Ujjayi Breath: Contracting the upper part of the throat so that when you exhale, you can hear an audible "Haaaa" sound. This is a very helpful breath when you want to clean out toxins in your body and/or hold a challenging position.
• Nadi Shodhana: Using your thumb, pinky and index finger to close off one nostril at a time. You will close off the right nostril and inhale through the left nostril and then close off the left nostril and exhale through the right nostril. This technique is very helpful in calming the body during stressful situations and balancing out the two sides of the brain.

Should you ever get frustrated with the more complicated techniques, just revert back to the "mindful breath." This will allow you to refocus and recenter your energy before trying again.

Try these various techniques and see which one you prefer and when you like to use it--each one has its own unique purpose, but all of them will help you in improving your breath control so that you can increase your overall quality of life.