How to Master The Art Of Breathing In Yoga
Breathing is an integral part of the yoga asanas, just like water is mandatory for fish. In the ancient mythology of India, there was a famous saying, “If you breathe in the right way, you can enhance your life.”
Pranayama is simply defined as “the exercise of breathing in yoga” and is considered the fourth limb of yoga. But breathing correctly during yoga exercises gives your mind and body a plus point.
This article will explore excellent tips to breathe well in yoga.
Equal or Balanced Breathing (Sama Vritti)
If you are a beginner, you should commence with a few rounds of equal breathing. This practice is known as sama vritti in yoga. In this practice session, you inhale and exhale your breath at the same length.
For instance, if you take a breath in for 5 seconds, then your breath out should also be for 5 seconds. This way, you can sharpen your mind, relax your body muscles, and enhance the connection between your mind and body. But if you want to master the art of breathing and significantly improve your clients’ health, you should participate in the globally recognized breathwork certification program. Let’s learn more about how to do equal breathing.
How To Do It
Stand or Sit in a Straight Position
You must stand or sit in a straight position while doing sama vritti because a straight spine facilitates the proper expansion and contraction of the rib cage. If you allow your chest to collapse, you might confine the movement of air entering and exiting your lungs. Remember that you must keep your spine straight in the posture of sama vritti.
Deepen Your Breathe
You must unleash the full capacity of your lungs because, in the opening session, you should breathe deep, slow, and smooth. Remember to take a nasal breath because it relaxes your muscles and allows maximum oxygen into your organs and blood. Keeping the balance between inhalations and exhalations will relax your body parts and release hypertension and stress.
Maintain Diaphragmatic Breathing
The foremost thing in yoga is to maintain balanced muscle contraction while breathing in your whole practice. Usually, when you inhale, your body and spine extend, and your spine relaxes and rotates the very spinal cord. On the other hand, when you exhale, your body feels rotation in the spine. However, diaphragmatic breathing practice aligns your breathing and body movement.
How to Do It
Keep Focusing on Contact with the Breath
The essential element in diaphragmatic breathing is to stay focused in your session because, firstly, while breathing, your thoughts could scatter, and you might be distracted by the thoughts and lose focus. It's natural, but practice will alleviate distracted thoughts. It is more challenging to master breathing than meditation, but you can make it possible by maintaining focus and practice.
Maintain the Rhythm and Improve Synchronization
You must maintain smooth and diaphragmatic nasal breathing. It is quite challenging because it involves too much force, especially if you are in an awkward posture, such as a twist. In this case, take a deep breath and slowly inhale and exhale. This way, your nervous system allows for the release of tightness and keeps you relaxed.
Remember that you must maintain rhythm and synchronization because it will help you gauge the right effort to keep you peaceful and safe.
Extending your Breathe Out Practice
When you inhale, your autonomic nervous system slightly increases muscular tension, and while you breathe out, this tension decreases to a comparable extent. So, when you hold your breath, your body reacts in protective mode because your nervous system invokes your body’s innate reflex reaction and prevents the muscle from lengthening to save it from any injury.
So, when you want to do breathing practice, soften your belly and commence to draw out the duration of your exhalations. It will prevent you from damage and pain caused by muscular imbalances.
Focus on Meditation
Breath-focused meditation is releasing control over the breath at the last stage of your yoga practice. Observe the self-regulation of your breath by your body. Concentrate on how your body reacts to each breath, noticing the subtle movements in your abdomen and chest as they rise and fall. Remember to keep the focus on your mind. If your thoughts run elsewhere, direct your attention to your breath and let it naturally find a state of tranquility.
Summing Up
Yoga is the best exercise to enhance your lung capacity, which keeps you energized and relaxed. You can get rid of depression and anxiety by correcting your ways of breathing in the yoga sessions. This article gives superb tips to improve your poses and breathing techniques in yoga practice.
