Breath: the benefits of Pranayama

"When you own your breath, nobody can steal your peace." ~ Unknown.

In yoga and meditation the Sanskrit word pranayama is regularly expelled from the lips of our teachers and occasionally even explained. Obviously every word can't be explained in every class as time permits and regulars would eventually tune out. So, if you are new to yoga or just need a re-cap here is a quick reference to pranayama.

Prana means energy, life force and/or vitality. Other countries recognise this energy and in China call it chi, Korea qi, and Egyptians refer to it as ka. Yama means to control, therefore the practice of pranayama is to control or influence the vital energy and life force that is within each and every breath. 

Centuries ago, people discovered approaches that help calm our mind, one of the tools they utilised was breath-work. Early yogis discovered that if they could calm and even out the breath, they could calm and even out the business of the mind. 

Through pranayama, you use the breath to affect the constellation of energy that is your body-mind. ~ Tony Biggs.

When you bring awareness to your breath the mind is redirected away from the inner dialogue to a calming influence, one that slow us down and creates space throughout the body and mind. Once we have space and are highly alert due to conscious breathing it is as though we have come to an intersection where we can choose which path to follow; a path to growth, freedom, and/or peace instead of mindlessly driving along occasionally being nudged to quickly react to what unfolds. 

So a wonderful benefit of breath control and awareness is the power of choice. Other wonderful benefits are: the improvement of memory and concentration levels and improved lung function as we age. Pranayama can even reverse or reduce the effects of aging which includes joint pain, loss of vitality, stiffening muscles, rheumatism, less flexible joints, headaches, sluggish diaphragm, backaches and hardening of the arteries.   

• "Life is the interval between one breath and another - he who only breathes half, only lives half. But he who masters the art of breathing, has control over every function of his being. ~ Sri Yogendra.
   
• Breath is Spirit. The act of breathing is Living." ~ Unknown.
   
• "Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor." ~  Thích Nhất Hạnh.
   
• "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. " ~ Viktor E. Frankl.
   
• "Without full awareness of breathing, there can be no development of meditative stability and understanding." ~ Thch Nhat Hanh.
   
• "The breath is our link from the external to the internal, from the unconscious to the conscious. When we connect, control and regulate the breath we can consciously effect the body, mind and spirit. " ~ Timothy Burgin.
   
• "Breath has no real form, and since ancient times has been equated with the spirit. The fact that it has no form is one of the reasons why breath awareness is an extremely effective way of bringing space into your life, of generating consciousness." ~ Eckhart Tolle.