During this uncertain time, more than ever, our yoga practice has a LOT to offer us. The challenges we’re facing are various and different people will, of course, be suffering in different ways and to different degrees.
But if you practice yoga, or are interested in it, now is a really good time to find new ways of taking your yoga off the mat and integrating it into your way of life. Really, that’s what yoga is — it’s never just postures on a mat. Sometimes, we need the motivation of new challenges to make us see that.
Delving into the wonders of pranayama is amazing, because you come to realise not only that your breath can change your physical, emotional and mental state — but also that different breathing techniques have completely different effects.
You can use pranayama to create heat, energy, calm — and even coolness.
We live in a fast-paced world, so much so that it is not uncommon for most of us to live a life constantly on the go…
Running from here to there engaging in one thing after another - at the end of the day, it stops one from being able to just be….
Does getting caught up in all the things you “must do” sound familiar?
Recently, I shared a brief introduction to Pranayama to give you a sense of what Pranayama is and what it does.
Today, this introduction continues: in this blog post you’ll find an overview of the pranayama techniques you might learn during my classes, courses and retreats.
Over the next weeks and months this post will become an index of pranayama practices, with each technique listed below linking to another blog post that goes into close detail about that practice.
So bookmark this page, and keep checking back to learn more and more!
Full yogic breathing is a deep breathing pranayama practice with a number of profound benefits.
These include:
In order to practise full yogic breath correctly and effectively, a number of
If you’ve ever been to a yoga class, you may have heard the Sanskrit word pranayama — but what does it actually mean?
Prana means ‘life force’; the energy that courses through the body. Ayama means ‘to extend’. So pranayama is the practice of expanding and extending prana, energy.
In yoga, this is done by learning techniques to control and direct the breath, as breath is the vehicle that carries the prana. These techniques allow you to alter your physical and mental state of being by controlling your breath.
There are a number of different breathing exercises that are typically practiced within yoga. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be exploring some of them in more detail — so come back soon for further pondering on pranayama!
WHAT DOES PRANAYAMA DO?
A growing body of scientific research highlights the benefits of pranayama practices; for example, this study by Bangalore University suggests that when practised correctly, breathing exercises can have a positive impact on mental and physical health.
Pranayama can:
• Reduce emotional and physical tension
• Help with stress and anxiety, and be a useful tool for managing...
