Breathe Easy!

"The mind is the king of the senses. And the breath is the king of the mind."

Without awareness of our breath during yoga practice, we are simply stretching or doing aerobic exercises. However, when we add conscious breathing, we are moving deeper into the tradition of yoga and all of the benefits it provides.
Prana is our life force, our energy, and it rides into our body on our breath. Prana is like the electricity in an appliance. Turn off the electricity, and the appliance turns off. It is that simple: no prana = no life.
Lucky for us, breathing is one of our first responses to entering the world. So, we should know how to breathe, right? Unfortunately, along the way, our lives interrupt our breathing. We no longer use our full lung capacity and therefore lose out on the benefits of a full "dose" of prana. Yoga's pranayam practice is a wonderful way to reintroduce ourselves to our breath.
Respiration is the only body system immediately under our conscious control (you can't change your heartbeat or redirect your digestion). Because we have this control, our breath is our doorway into the body.
In yoga, it is believed that different stages of our life have different needs:
Sunrise (0-25): Asana (movement, poses)
Mid-day (26-75): Pranayam (breath work)
Sunset (76 +): Meditation
You can see that pranayam practice is critical during most of our lives, yet we often focus externally, worrying more about outward appearance while leaving our breath health out of the picture.
When you decide to focus on your breath, there are six principles to explore:
1. Control directional flow (movement of awareness) - this is when we begin to notice the breath and consciously decide to breathe through our nose, for example, or a particular nostril.
2. Threshold (speed of breath) - we average 15 to 20 breaths a minute. That is a lot! Once we begin breathing with awareness, we can control the speed of our breath. Taking longer breaths and fewer breaths per minute can change your life.
3. Ratio - There are four parts of your breathing cycle: inhale, hold at top, exhale, hold at bottom. Different ratios have different effects on your body.
4. Technique - Different "types" of breath have different effects on your body. For example, some pranayam practices control temperature, some control relaxation effect, etc.
5. Place of Mind - Just being aware of your breath will change it.
6. Relationship of Asana, Pranayam, and Meditation - No one part of the yoga tradition works without the others.

For more information, a wonderful resource is "Yoga of Breath" by Richard Rosen. This book combines science, philosophy, and practical applications to truly explore your breath, and thereby your life. Also, a quick search on http://www.youtube.com/ using "pranayama breathing techniques" provides a huge number of hits - just watch with caution, as some practices can be quite powerful. I really enjoyed BKS Iyengar's 2 minute video of just one breath: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcPjvp4La8A He exhales for over 20 seconds!!