Breath Work
Our breathing we know is very important - after all it helps keep us alive. But if we look more closely at our breathing we will find that it has a tremendous influence on our organs and systems, our brain and our mind. Breathing will affect the way you think and the emotions that you feel.

The Breath In Yoga
As you will begin to understand, yoga looks at our physical existence from a particular viewpoint and gives our breathing great significance. In Classical yoga, Hatha or Raja yoga, which are the basis of the practice that I teach, a whole limb - an element of practice - is devoted to the breathing. It is called, in Sanskrit, pranayama. This is where yoga departs from science as we know it in the West. The breath is so important in yoga not for the oxygen we take in, but because it has been found that breathing is the most direct way we posses to influence our life force, called prana. Prana is not oxygen or other gases that we breath in. Through breathing we connect to this life force. Yoga says prana is the energy that gives us life. The universe and all life within it was created and is sustained from prana. The practices of yoga, whether they be practical body postures, meditation, the sounds of mantra, concentration techniques or breathing methods all connect with and influence in some way prana.

More information on prana and how it moves in the body can be found here in 'THE PRANIC BODY'

Yoga Wisdom

'Rhythmic, deep and slow respiration stimulates and is stimulated by calm, content states of mind. Irregular breathing disrupts the rhythms of the brain and leads to physical, emotional and mental blocks. These in turn lead to inner conflict, imbalanced personality, disordered lifestyle and disease.' ASANA, PRANAYAMA MUDRA BANDHA, SWAMI SATYANDA SARASWATI

'Hindus often say that GOD is Generator, Organizer and Destroyer. Inhalation is the generating power, retention is the organizing power and exhalation, if the energy is vicious, is the destroyer. This is prana at work' FROM BKS IYENGAR 'LIGHT ON LIFE'

Pranayama

'Prana in the form of breath, is the starting point. The suffix, ayama, means stretch, extension, expansion, length, breadth, regulation, prolongation, restraint and control. Put in its simplest form, therefore, pranayama means the prolongation and restraint of breath. Since prana is energy and life force, pranayama means the extension and expansion of all our vital energy.' BKS IYENGAR 'LIGHT ON LIFE RODALE 2005.

Diaphragmatic Breathing
This exercise will help you understand how the body breathes.

Inhaling is a process where the difference between the pressure of air in the lungs inside the body to that outside the body causes air to be sucked in when a large sheet of muscle called the diaphragm bows downwards into the abdomen. In the reverse action when we exhale, the diaphragm bows upwards pushing against the lungs. This helps encourage the breath to leave - a bit like a bellows works in a blacksmith's forge.

It is believed we are the only living thing that has conscious control over the life sustaining breath. As such we are able to command the speed at which we breath and how much air we take in and breathe out. We describe this breathing volume in zones or bands - three of them, abdominal, rib cage and top chest. It is possible to isolate the breathing under mental control into one band at a time.

Think about it. If you are breathing exclusively into just one third of the available lung volume two thirds are not used. This is not a healthy way to breathe. However, and this is the very important thing to remember, because of the way our brain and nervous system work it is possible to develop faulty breathing. This might be as a result of being very stressed and anxious for a long time or could be the result of an operation or a serious injury. The technique given below will help you to retrain your breathing. A stressful breathing style results in you feeling even more stressed. So not only may you be suffering with anxious thoughts or a stressful lifestyle but your body's systems are not helping you by shallowing your breathing! Here's how to put that right:-

When practicing this breathing technique, try and keep your upper chest and neck muscles as relaxed as possible. The aim is to keep the upper chest quiet and to rely solely on the diaphragm. If you are doing this technique properly, you should feel hardly any movement in the shoulders and chest at all.
Step 1
Sit or lay down comfortably
Step 2
Place the hands on your tummy near the navel so that the finger tips just touch.
Step 3
Breathe in slowly and deeply. Concentrate on taking the breath into the base of the lungs. Your diaphragm is bowing down sucking breath in. Your abdomen will rise pushing your hands up and apart.
Step 4
Breathe out slowly feeling abdomen descend and your hands lowering.

Practice breathing in this way for five minutes extending to ten minutes over a week of daily practice. Learn the technique when you feel calm. It will help you to relax deeply.

The next stage move the hands to the rib cage. You now keep the abdomen flat and still and breath into the middle band. Feel the lungs push out on the rib cage, then the ribs push out against the hands. Learn to control the breath so it moves just in the rib cage not top chest or abdomen. Try a dozen breathes, then relax to natural uncontrolled breathing for a minute or two.

Shallow top chest clavicular (collar bones) breathing is very stressing. We learn this breath so that we may fill the lungs to the brim to fill up that space in the complete breath that follows. Finger tips to collar bones and try a handful of panting breaths.

Having relaxed for a few breaths put all three zones together into the complete breath. Abdominal, followed by rib cage then filling to the brim with top chest all in one smooth long inhalation. As you breath out feel how the diaphragm bows up pushing on the lungs. You can work this muscle a little harder by breathing out as much air as you can. Some air will always remain in the lungs, that is how they are designed to work - just keep exercising this system and breathing well. Try five minutes then build to ten. It can be hard work at first. You will strengthen and condition all the time.