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Article 1 - What are the Benefits of Doing Yoga? - by Pam Breithaupt
Article 2 - Learn Breathing the Yoga Way - by Arun Goel
What are the Benefits of Doing Yoga?
It can create strength, stability, flexibility, balance, in all areas of your being. Not just in your body, in your mind as well, in the way you, if you're doing the right practice for you, it can change your relationships with other people; it can change your relationship with yourself. It's about you. Yoga is the process of self observation and you start to observe yourself. Yoga is about knowing yourself, really understanding who you truly are, what gives you joy, what makes your heart sing. If you find yourself becoming more rigid, you're not doing the right practice for you. You should find yourself becoming more free. It can make you better at whatever you do, so for the person who doesn't want to see this as a more holistic thing, and they want to see it as 'I'm a golfer,' 'I'm a tennis player' or 'I'm a football player,' it can make you better at what you do. The breath work can create more of a sense of focus and concentration. If you are an athlete that that is important, like for golf or tennis, I guess it's true for all athletics, but if you work at a computer desk, just having a sense of ease in your body can make you just a nicer person. When you're in pain, you tend to only be focused on your pain, whether it's physical pain or an emotional pain. So, it's about the cultivation of joy, to me. The cultivation of real joy, inner joy, that radiates out.
One of the things that I like about yoga is the work on the deep core musculature, so it's not just about getting buff. We go into the core and if somebody's really doing the breath work correctly, they can really access the deeper inner core musculature of the body, you know, the pelvic floor and these deep core muscles, not just the things on the outside. It's also about finding out where your aches and pains are, where your chronic tensions are, and that can be mental too, and it's like you have these kinks in your body, and where those kinks are is where pain can collect or, its just kind of a stagnation in the body. And what we're trying to do is open those spaces up so that the energy can move through the body in a fluid way, and so there's a general sense of lightness and well being throughout the body that really is indescribable. And how I get people to see that, what I call the magic of that, is we'll do something a-symmetrical, and I'll let them be there in that and then we come back to just a symmetrical position for a moment and you can feel the difference from one side of the body to the other, and its big, it can be a huge difference from one side of the body to the other and that's when people go 'Oh, I get this. So this means that I can feel like this on the other side, too.' And so then we do the other side and then there's that sense of symmetry in the body and then they can start to realize 'If I do something like this every day, my body will always feel this light,' as light as it felt on this one side. Because you can really feel a lightness on one side and a heaviness on the other side. So you know that you're walking around most of the time like this, so it's about that movement, opening up those channels so that energy can flow freely.
Yoga can also help you sleep. It can keep you awake. It depends on what you do. Most people that come to classes in the evenings that I offer report that they sleep better on the nights that they come to class, I think because it relaxes the muscles and the tension and things like that from whatever the daily stress is. But we can do practices that specifically create an ability to fall asleep better. We can create practices that create an energizing effect. So it depends on, and usually that's through the breath and the type of postures that we choose. What I do with the people who come here for the office yoga is the energizing for that afternoon slump and so I've taught them techniques to energize by using their breath and certain and choosing particular postures that bring the energy more into this upper part of the body so that their brain can wake up a little bit.
Learn Breathing the Yoga Way
With the ever-increasing incidence of lifestyle diseases like cardio-vascular and nervous system disorders, the time has come for us to address this ourselves, fair and square without external dependence.
Did you know that reprogramming your natural breathing technique would not only help in preventing these problems but also help in the "reversal" of several such harmful conditions? It's not only possible but proven too. In fact leading cardiac experts are advocating the benefits of "correct" breathing to their patients.
Surprising as it is, almost none of us use the full capacity of our respiratory organs. This is aggravated by our sedentary lifestyles and leads to several complications popularly called lifestyle disorders.
The first question that comes to mind is? "How can I alter my natural breathing process?" Well, astonishing as it may seem, it's true. By training our body to breathe in a particular fashion, we re-program our involuntary system to adopt this new way of breathing. Without wasting time, I'll plunge right away into the technique followed by its overwhelming benefits.
First, lie down on your back, relaxed, with hands and legs outstretched and eyes looking up at the roof. Gently close your eyes and relax.
Step 1: Abdominal breathing
Observe your natural breath. You will notice that as you inhale the abdomen rises and then falls with exhalation. Watch this for a few moments to check this flow. Now begin to deepen, lengthen and extend that movement. That is, while inhaling, let the abdomen rise to its limit and at exhalation let it fall completely. Keep the chest still during this entire process? only move the abdomen. Continue this for 20 breaths and then rest.
Step 2: Thoracic (chest) breathing
Again observe your normal breath, this time focusing your attention on the chest. You will notice the chest moving slightly up at inhalation and down with exhalation. Again, observe this pattern for a few moments. Now again, begin to deepen, lengthen and extend that movement. This time, on inhalation expand and lift the rib cage, filling the lungs completely. Then on exhalation, let the lungs collapse fully, sinking to the limits. In this step, keep the abdomen still, moving only the chest. Do this for 20 breath cycles and then stop.
Step 3: Full Yogic breathing
This combines the above 2 steps in the following way: First inhale by filling the abdomen and then CONTINUE inhaling as you expand and fill the chest. Then exhale first from the chest as it empties and falls and then CONTINUE exhaling from the abdomen as it draws inwards completely. This is one round of the full yogic breath. Repeat this for 20 rounds. Remember the pattern? Inhaling - abdomen then chest; Exhaling- chest then abdomen.
Golden Rule: All of the above steps should be done WITHOUT strain. The natural tendency is to heave with effort. The right way is to make it smooth and effortless. Go slow and easy.
Initially you will experience unevenness or bumps in this breathing process as if there are 4 separate parts to the full yogic breath. This is natural considering the years we have spent breathing improperly.
Instead, try to picture this breath as a continuous wave like pattern as if the breath moves up from the navel to the throat with every inhalation and then, down from the throat to the navel with each exhalation. It may take a few weeks of practice to perfect a "smooth flowing pattern with minimum effort and with maximum capacity." This is the desired effect. Over time, the yoga way of breathing will come naturally to you.
And now for the all-important benefits?
- The full yogic breath is the basic building block of the powerful yoga breathing techniques, also called 'Pranayama' in Sanskrit, which are known for their several benefits. But the tangible benefits of the full yogic breath are that it:
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- Releases acute and chronic muscular tensions around the heart and digestive organs.
- Helps sufferers of respiratory illnesses such as asthma and emphysema to overcome the fear of shortness of breath. It actually increases lung capacity and encourages proper nervous stimulus to the cardio-vascular system.
- Dramatically reduces emotional and nervous anxiety.
- Improves detoxification through increased exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen.
- Amplifies the auto immune system by increased distribution of energy to the endocrine system.
- Calms the mind and integrates the mental and physical balance.
And the real icing is that it contributes to both vitality and relaxation through this single practice.