Reflections on Pranayama & a simple practice for you
One of the many benefits of the “be more at home” through this last year of the pandemic has been a deeper exploration of my yoga practice into Pranayama, which serves to bring one further inward into the stillness through yoga’s specific breathing techniques.
I am truly in awe at the benefits I am experiencing from more time and awareness breathing consciously such as stretching my breathing capacity and increasing my respiratory resilience!
Slowing down the breath, breathing more fully and more freely, as well as opening the spaces between the breaths, has a direct pathway into the parasympathetic part of the nervous system, the rest, digest and healing part. I can see and feel a real calm centering within my being through all of the comings and going‘s of emotion and thought and the ups and downs & ins and outs of daily living. Exploring with breathing consciously assists the function and purpose of Yoga which is to unify all aspects of one’s being and to quiet the vrittis, the mental fluctuations and dysfunctional thought patterns that can be obstacles to contentment and joy.
The basic and simple Pranayama technique called Sama Vritti is intended to bring awareness to the mental movements and through an even inhalation and exhalation breath cycle, to smooth out the mental fluctuations, and bring our inner being to balance.
How to do Sama Vritti Pranayama:
Find a comfortable seated position with the natural curves of your spine supported.
Feel and relax the mind into your breathing.
Exhale slowly and completely.
Inhale for 5 counts (4-6 according to your comfort)
Exhale for 5 counts “
Continue for 5 minutes. Set a timer if this is supportive.
Rest…
Throughout, watch the quality of your breathing; As best as possible be gentle and smooth and if there is ANY disturbance, let it go, breath as freely as possible.
Inquire… What has occurred?
Pranayama can be translated as extending the life force but in a further exploration of the word more comes to light.
“Yama” is the first limb of Yoga’s eight fold path, yoga’s ethical precepts and the word “yama” is defined as control or containment. This part of the word in Pranayama might imply that a pranayama practice helps to contain one’s Prana for sustaining one’s vitality.
On the other hand one could look at and interpret the part of the word, “ayama” which means, not to contain. Perhaps this is a teaching from our breathing practices to let go and surrender.
Thus the moving dance of opposites! The coexisting of containment and freedom… like the banks of a river and the river itself. One can not exist without the other.
The practice of Pranayama expresses a co-mingling, an integration of structure, the physical perseverance and spiritual motivation that brings and returns us to the mat or the cushion, with then surrender to the unity and flow of life living through us. Inhale…exhale…