Pranayama – The Art and Science of Breathing

Pranayama comes from Sanskrit word prana which means life force. Pranayama is a deliberate and conscious way of controlling your breath for pranayama. It is amazing to know that our lung pumps around 7 litres of air every minute.

Going back to thousands of years in past, the one of the major reasons for practice pranayama was encouraged in order to prolong the longevity of practitioner. According to the ancient texts of yoga, it was believed that the life span of living beings was determined by the number of breaths he/she takes in his/her whole life.

Some how, if we slow down the breathing process, then we may live longer was the initial idea of pranayama. Without trying to test and debate the validity of this particular belief, we will try to understand its benefits for the mass form the perspective of using it for gaining more vitality and better health.

The science or art of pranayama is based on 3 basic process of breathing which are

1. Rechaka – Inhaling of breath
2. Puraka - Exhaling of breath
3. Kumbak – Stopping/Holding your breath

Pranayama or breathing exercise generally involves either or all of the below method of breathing

1. Shallow and rapid Inhaling and exhaling breath
2. Slow and deep Inhaling and exhaling of breath
3. Stopping the breathing process completely

Benefits of Practicing Pranayama

1. Stronger Lungs : Increased activity in lung due to practicing of pranayama results in making the lungs more stronger and healthier.
2. Better Concentration Power : Increased supply of oxygen to brain makes it more active and receptive, and triggers alpha, or theta brain waves which may result in improved learning abilities. Sometime intense practice of pranayama may activate psychic centers or chakras in our subtle body.
3. Improved Relaxation Response : Deeper and slower breathing relaxes leads to mental, emotional and physical relaxation, which means pranayama is effective in stress management.
4. Peace of mind : Regular practice of pranayama lead to peace of mind or chittashanti. Please remember, peace of mind is the ultimate thing that we all crave for, and achieving this can done via practice of pranayama or breath control excercises.
5. Improved Quality of Sleep : Regular practice of pranayama can assist in curing sleeping disorders like insomnia.
6. Better Quality of Breathing : Many people have incorrect breathing pattern and this can be corrected, if pranayama can be practiced regularly.

Somebody has rightly quoted, that the secret of life in embedded in our breath, and if we learn to master our breathing we can control our thoughts and emotions and in turn our actions which make us fail or succeed in life.

Happy Breathing

Best Wishes

Keshav Jha