[00:00:00] Foreign Hi, this is Lauren Leduc, owner and founder of True Love Yoga. And you are listening to deepen your yoga practice. Today we're going to talk about the power of pranayama. What is pranayama? How does it relate to our yoga practice? Why do we do it? And how can it have a positive effect on our health and lives? So today is all about the breath. So you might have heard the word pranayama before, but what is it? Is it synonymous with breathing? Yes, but there is more to it than just the breath. So prana in yoga means life force, energy you can think of like the force from Star wars. And ayama means extension or control. So essentially with pranayama, we are harnessing our life force energy. So we're putting intention behind it, putting it to work for us so that we can get the outcome that we are looking for. That might mean more energy, that might mean balance, that might mean relaxation. There are so many different ways to use the breath. I love pranayama so much because it is free. If you have lungs, if you have a nose and a mouth, you, you can practice pranayama. And I think that the effects of it, if they could bottle and sell it, would be worth a whole lot of money. But they can't bottle and sell it. Your breath, your energy, it belongs to you, it belongs to all of us. So why not learn how to harness it for your own sake so that you can be maybe a little bit more in control of how you feel. So we'll take a little bit of time to understand pranayama's significance, its roots and practical applications both in yoga and in everyday life. My first experience with breath was actually through singing in choir. I learned how to use my diaphragm, how to project my voice, things like that. But it wasn't until I became a yoga practitioner that I really started to understand a little bit more of why breathing a certain way can be so effective. And then I got to dive more and more deeply into the different techniques and things. And it is absolutely a part of my everyday practice in life. Now I would consider one of my hobbies, like holding my breath, which sounds really silly, but it is something that really revitalizes me on a day to day basis. And honestly, that doesn't take all that much time that I can do at home and that I can even do right next to my daughter and she likes to try to do some along with it. Gets a little bit bored, but knows that it's part of my, my everyday practice. So pranayama has its origins in different ancient yogic texts. I don't know exactly when people started harnessing the breath. My guess is probably way earlier than we know, because we all breathe, we do it from the moment we're born till the moment we pass. So I'm sure that this is something that different societies in history have developed techniques around. But specifically in yoga, pranayama is the fourth limb of Ashtanga yoga in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. So I have an episode on the eight limbed path. If you are not familiar with that, you might go back and check that out. But with the eight limbed path of Yoga, we see that there are many different things that make up what yoga is and that lead to freedom, enlightenment, oneness, whatever you might want to call it. So Pranayama is the fourth limb, and that is 2,000 to 2,500 year old text. And it's also mentioned through different techniques in the Hatha Yoga, Pradikapa and other classical texts. So those are going to be from a slightly later time period than the yoga sutras. But in those, they're really harnessing the life force energy for enlightenment to bring kundalini energy up the spine to balance Shiva and Shakti. I talk a little bit about that in my Divine Feminine episode from a few back. So if you want to get more into the energy body and what all those terms mean, I definitely recommend listening to that. So because pranayama is one of the limbs of yoga, it is one of the ways that we achieve higher states of consciousness. And it also serves as this beautiful bridge between the body and the mind. So pranayama is the fourth limb. The third limb is asana, which now we know of as all the different postures in yoga. It really means a seat for meditation, but it has to do with the body. And the fifth limb is pratyahara, which is drawing our senses inward to prepare for focusing and for meditation. So pranayama is this bridge between the body and drawing all of our senses inward. So pranayama works in different ways. It can activate our nervous system by downregulating it and upregulating it, depending on what we're needing. Because we're harnessing this life force energy, oftentimes people use it to downregulate. So if you're feeling like you're in fight or flight, you're feeling stressed out, different pranayama techniques can really help bring that down so that you can feel more grounded and balanced and focused. Pranayama also can increase oxygenation and enhance lung capacity, and it also supports cardiovascular health and stress regulation. There are so many wonderful physical benefits to it. But from an energetic perspective, prana is the subtle energy that flows through channels within our body and it connects to these channels, create chakras and we can harness pranayama or this control of prana to help balance out these channels. So we can use pranayama not only to enhance our physical well being, but energetic as well. So I'll go over some basic techniques for beginners and then go into a couple more intermediate and advanced techniques. It's almost like a breath buffet, if you will. So you try some of these out and see what works for you. The first would be diaphragmatic breathing. This is if you're going to learn one technique, this is absolutely it. So fun fact. The lungs don't breathe themselves. They have an accessory of muscles around them that expand the lungs and contract them. The diaphragm is the biggest one, runs through the body under the lungs, and it expands and contracts to create the breath. So to harness this, I like to invite you to place your hands on your belly. And as you inhale, let your belly expand into the hands. And as you exhale, the belly will soften more toward the spine or away from the hands. And you might even place the hands then on the ribs and breathe in, feel them expand, breathe out, feel them soften, and maybe on the belly again. So this is how babies naturally breathe. And then as we become older, as stress is introduced more into our lives, most of us become shallow breathers. I catch myself breathing shallowly all the time still, even though I have these pranayama practices in my handbag and when I catch it, I take a nice deep breath and it feels so luxurious and so good. So I definitely recommend practicing that. I love Nadi Shodhana. It's a little more advanced than diaphragmatic breathing, but essentially it's breathing through one nostril at a time. So you breathe in through one, breathe out through the other, breathe in through the other one, and then breathe out through the first one. A little easier to show you than it is to do it or than to explain it, but I definitely recommend looking that one up if you're looking to balance your energy so that balances the energy channels. And also it's said to balance like right brain and left brain and help you feel more in a flow state. A third beginner practice I love. If you've been to a Vinyasa yoga practice, I'm sure you've heard this breath or tried it, which is Ujjayi breath or victorious breath, where you breathe in through the nose and also out through the nose. But you make this sound in the back of the throat, kind of like Darth Vader. And this cultivates focus. It creates warmth through the body and it calms the mind. So Ujjayi breath helps set a pace for your class, but it also helps you move through hard things. To be honest, it keeps you really focused and calm while you might be balancing on one foot or in a plank or doing all kinds of things. So it's the perfect coupling for flow movement. A couple intermediate techniques that I talked about on my Ayurveda for spring episode just recently, our Breath of Fire or Kapalabhati and Bastrika breath. Breath of Fire is an exhale through the nose. The inhale comes naturally. This is an energizing breath. It's like getting high, but in a super healthy way. And it helps kind of clear away any mental chatter and bring you into a clear and focused space. Bhastrika is really similar. It's an equal parts inhale and exhale like this, which is really activating for your energy and warming for the body. So a rec recommend both of those breaths if you're feeling a little too downregulated and want to bring your nervous system up. If you're feeling sluggish or tired and want to bring yourself to a more awakened state. I love these before a yoga practice to help get the body ready for flow. Once you've practiced these techniques for days, months, years, some advanced techniques would involve more retention practices. Like I said earlier, I love holding my breath. It's one of my hobbies. Sounds so silly, but it's something you can work up to over time. So that would be retention practices called kumbhaka. They're not for everybody. They're definitely not for people with low blood pressure. They're not for pregnant people. But if it feels comfortable and safe in your body, you can try just using diaphragmatic breaths. Breathing in and then holding the breath for a while at the inhale or at the top of the inhale. Breathing out, holding the breath for a while at the bottom of the exhale. There are of course all different ways to combine a lot of these breaths together with the retentions for specific effect. So I typically use on a daily basis something like diaphragmatic breathing, breath of Fire, and then maybe some more advanced breath techniques followed by some long retentions, like two minutes or so. But I did have to work my way up to that. I think they're a lot of fun. And when I'm retaining an exhale, it's one of the only times my mind truly can go blank. So. So for me, it's a really effective meditation practice or pre meditation practice. So in a practical way, you can integrate pranayama into your daily life. Maybe with morning energizing breath work, like with those intermediate mediate techniques I talked about, like Breath of Fire, Bhastrika Pranayama. You can use evening calming techniques to prepare for bed. I have a whole episode on Yoga for Sleep, so I talk about some of that there. You can use your pranayama, for example, cleansing breaths or Ujjayi pranayama during your yoga practice to yoke body and mind together to stay super present and focused, to deepen your connection and deepen your practice. And you can also use pranayama really whenever you need it. For me, it's like the Swiss army knife of practices, because there is a pranayama practice so many beyond what I've explained in this episode too, for almost every situation. So if I'm feeling really anxious, maybe I want to do B breath. I'm breathing in and breathing out and humming. Maybe I'm taking deep diaphragmatic breaths, Maybe my mind's racing at night and I do a 4, 7, 8 breath, which is breathing in for 4, retaining for 7, breathing out for 8. They're such wonderful tools to use in such a variety of situations. And I think this practice is really catching on beyond the world of yoga into public speaking, into sports performance, into the military even, and really helping people harness their energy or control their energy in a really practical, mostly safe and very accessible way. A couple things to consider before starting a pranayama practice that help keep it really safe are starting slow and gentle, especially with the more energizing techniques and with breath retentions and things like that.
[00:12:21] I'd practice in a quiet and distraction free space. I would avoid anything that doesn't feel good or that feels more advanced without the instruction of an experienced practitioner. And I'd be just especially careful during pregnancy and with asthma or low blood pressure. Anything that affects like the heart or lungs and start slow. But I would say as a rule of thumb, diaphragmatic breathing is for everybody and is a really, really great place to start. So again, pranayama, or the control or extension of our life force energy, is an ancient technique. It bridges body and mind. It can help us regulate our nervous systems and increase lung capacity and support our cardiovascular health. It helps balance our energy and there are so many different techniques that can be applied in different situations. I encourage you, if this is new to you, to just start small and consistent. Maybe two minutes a day of diaphragmatic breathing or 10 diaphragmatic breaths at a time in the morning or at night and then maybe let that grow, see how it feels. I definitely recommend seeking support, whether that's through yoga videos or through classes in general. I usually try to include at least one Pranayama practice besides Ujjayi in my 60 minute class. And of course we go into depth into a lot of different pranayama practices in our yoga teacher training program here at True Love Yoga. But you can find so many demonstrations and breathwork videos, pranayama techniques and advice on YouTube or anywhere else. We also have a few videos on our On Demand for True Love Yoga so you can explore there. If you're interested, I'd love for you to try out one of these techniques and let me know how it feels. You can email me at
[email protected] if you're listening on Spotify. You can actually comment right below, which is a really cool feature. I didn't know that was added to Spotify. You can also reach out to me. I am Lauren Leduc on Instagram. I'd love to know what your experience is and I love these little mini episodes that go into some depth on these different aspects of yoga. So if there is a different subject you'd like to learn about, please let me know. Happy breathing everybody. Om Shanti Om. Peace.
