The Breath of Life
No one can live for more than a few minutes without breathing, yet how many of us are aware of the importance of proper breathing? We need to breathe slowly and deeply. Then the body cell work in unison and bring back harmony and health to the system.
Here are three breathing techniques to distress. One should practice all of them everyday as many times as one can. But minimum one should do 11 times each of these techniques to be able to feel the benefits. If one is doing after meal, there should be a gap of two hours. Otherwise, one can finish the technique and immediately sit for food.
Yogic Breathing
(The complete breath)
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This breathing exercise uses the lower, middle and upper part of the respiratory muscles.
Start with abdominal breathing, followed by thoracic breathing and finally clavicle breathing. Reverse the order when you exhale.
Benefits:
Increases lung capacity | Slow respiration rate | Calms the mind.
Nadi Shodhana:
(Alternate nostril breathing)
This is a simple form of alternate nostril breathing.
“Nadi” means channel and refers to the energy pathways through which the prana flows.
“Shodhana” means cleansing.
“Nadi Shodhana” means purification of nadis or channels
Inhale through the left nostril, exhale through the right; inhale through the right and exhale through the left. This is one round of breathing.
Benefits:
Strengthens the nervous system | helps conditions such as anxiety, depression, hypertension and hypotension.
Bhramari
(humming bee)
Bhramari means bee. The exhalation sound in similar to a bee.
Place the thumb on your ears; shut your eyes and inhale, then exhale making the sound of the humming bee.
Benefits
Nourishes and calms the brain cells | Soothes the nerves | helps in treating insomnia
(inputs from Namita Jain,
Mumbai – based clinical exercise specialist)
