Former yoga teacher in Wellington New Zealand
Pranayama refers to practices or techniques to moderate, change or influence how we breath. It can involve changing the pace, quantity and method of breathing. Scientific research has shown many benefits while historic yoga texts outline pranayama as one of the practices leading to mind-body connection and connection with the greater consciousness.
Breathing deep and fast when you are moving helps increase your heart rate and can trigger the fight or flight response. If you are practicing yoga to relax you might rethink how and when you breath. Is the point to relax, to develop body awareness or to fire up a physical response in your body?
Yoga and research have shown that lengthening your exhale can help trigger the relaxation response. This audio recording talks you through the steps starting with 1) breath awareness, 2) finding an even breath, 3) lengthening the exhale, and 4) then returning to the even breath.
Learning to control and change your breathing patterns can be difficult when you are first starting. It’s helpful to start with basic simple and easy practices.
‘Breathing into your pockets’ is a way to explore the link between breathing and your abdominal and pelvic floor muscles, and your hip flexors.
This brief audio recording walks through how to do alternate nostril breathing including an option to visual the practice if you would rather not use your fingers to control your nostrils.
Yoga can influence your body by combining breathing patterns with movement. Connecting breathing with movement in yoga can help with breath and body awareness, help with micro-movements and help you understand and influence the muscles of breathing.
I’m not sure who came up with the idea of taking a deep breath to relax. But unfortunately, it’s a very unhelpful suggestion. Breathing deep will not relax your body. Instead it leads to hyperventilation (too much oxygen) and that
To get ready for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori | Māori Language Week 2018 which kicks off on 10th September, I thought I would share a calming breathing exercise that uses Te Reo Māori and draws on Te Ao
This breathing practice or pranayama is helpful for relaxing. It involves matching the length of your inhale to your exhale. I’ve previously described how to do this breathing practice but it can be easier listening to someone rather than reading