The Power of Breath for Your Life and Transformation

The Power of PRANA in PRANAYAM

Pranayama or pranayam is an ancient Eastern practice of breath control. This Sanskrit term gets its meaning from PRANA meaning life force and YAMA the practice or art of restrain or controlling the prana (life force found in the air we breathe). Typically it is a set of breathing techniques where the breath is intentionally altered in order to produce specific results. The main goal is to trigger a change in your brain waves. Changing your brain waves changes the automatic functions of your body – making them more effective and efficient. You become more aware, more vibrant. The more aware you are, the more conscious you are. Your emotional quotient improves and you develop the ability to be more present with others.

Few things work as rapidly, in changing your consciousness and your mood (among other things), as 3 minutes of powerful breathing. Since I began teaching in 1999 breath-work has been my 2nd love. Meditation being my 1st. And, Meditative Breathing techniques are my all-time favorite thing to teach. There is nothing that gives me more pleasure than to sit in front of a class of stressed out people and watch them melt into relaxed, happy beings within a matter of minutes.

This is powerful stuff. 

Increasing Your Spiritual Potency

Using the power of breathing to get into a meditative state enables you to tap into the infinite reservoir that exists within you.

Not only that . . . you are setting yourself up for a mystical experience – a meeting with your higher consciousness and from there it’s possible to slip more easily into the Zero Point Field, the Field of All Possibilities, or the GOD zone.  You become more AWAKE. Remember we are like a multi-faceted diamond. We can be awake in several areas in our lives but remain blocked and asleep in others. Being fully awake is achieved by few. Hint: if you are having any experiences that are not smooth, neutral or blissful you may still have a few old programs to transform (one method is below).

As we slow down our brain waves our consciousness moves from the thinking neocortex of our brain to the limbic part of our brain and the autonomic nervous system – our body’s subconscious. When we merge our consciousness with that of our body’s autonomic functions (everything involved in healing, restoring and regenerating) the body can slip into the healing mode and bring all systems on line.

When you slow down in this manner you have the ability to change and expand your bandwidth. It’s ironic – by narrowing your focus upon your breathing or your present moment you trigger expansion everywhere — in your mind, body, spirit system. It’s like restarting your computer. Slowing down your breathing, slows your brain waves; and, over time, this practice will raise your level of consciousness. In other words, you feel more calm, your heart feels more open, you experience less fear and you have a greater sense of well-being.

MIRRIAM-WEBSTER Defines CONSCIOUSNESS as:
1. a. the quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself.
b. the state or fact of being conscious of an external object, state, or fact
c. AWARENESS; especially concern for some social or political cause
2. the state of being characterized by sensation, emotion, volition, and thought : MIND
3. the totality of conscious states of an individual
4. the normal state of conscious life
5. the upper level of mental life of which the person is aware as contrasted with unconscious processes

In case you were wondering, here’s what your brain is doing, in terms of brain-waves, as you go from waking consciousness to deeply relaxed states:

• Beta Waves – Conscious Mind – High, Medium and Low Levels
• Alpha Waves – Analytical or Creative Mind-thinking relaxed mind
• Theta Waves – Subconscious Mind – Just before we fall asleep or in meditation
• Delta Waves – Deep Meditative States – Subconscious Mind
• Gamma Waves – Super-conscious – very deep meditative states

Repattern Your Subconscious Mind with Breathing

Our goal is to “Increase your ability to observe neutrally, to become still, to clear your mind of distractions and intrigues, to recognize when you establish a state of shuniya, and to recognize the different functional parts of your mind.” Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, PhD. from Kundalini Yoga Mind & Meditation Manual

It’s all about using your mind as a rudder – it should only aid in taking you to where YOU want to go. Through practice you will be able to take back control of your mind more and more as you move through your spiritual journey. Remember I mentioned that we all have places where we are not awake. This can be frustrating at best, right? Just when you think you’ve healed or transcended an issue it pops up again in some other situation. Typically, there are a few reasons for this:

1. You need to address another layer or dimension of the issue.
2. You are still learning something from the past experience.
3. The issue could be linked to a past trauma, broader belief system or sabotaging mental construct.

The good news is that you can use breathing techniques to break up the program whatever it may be. As you bring awareness and new prana to any unwanted program it has to change. It’s how everything in our physical world operates – quantum physics. If you want more on this you can read my posts on Quantum Physics and the Zero Point Field. In short, observation has power at the level of the smallest particles (and waves). Thoughts are waves that can become particles.

Steps to break up an unwanted mental construct or program:

1. Call to mind and activate your issue. All you have to do is get yourself triggered again by remembering a related event.
2. Hold your issue in your mind with kindness. Try to look at yourself from the point of view of your higher self – with open-hearted compassion – as best as you can.
3. Choose a breathing technique which resonates with you. Breathing meditations with a moving hand mudra work best. They stimulate a number of centers in the brain which takes energy away from the ‘old neural’ group – mental pattern or wound—and create a new neural group.
4. Bring awareness to all the places you feel you are holding the old pattern within your body. Look for sensations of tightness, numbness, gripping or any level of discomfort.
5. Begin practicing the technique – again be super aware of the changes within your body and mind.
6. You can stop at anytime but it’s most effective if you wait until you feel yourself shifting the state of your mind around the issue. In other words, you don’t feel triggered anymore.
7. Depending on the depth of the issue you may have address it again – remember you haven’t failed! You can try another breathing technique or another activity like yoga, tai chi, dance, etc. Stimulating many centers of the brain through movement robs the pattern of its energy and will shift the pattern neurologically and energetically eventually. Note that you may have to try a few methods if your pattern has been habitual for many years.
8. With patience you will be able to change the body’s hormone response to the triggering event or thought.

Be kind and gentle. You will succeed. Guaranteed.

Where to Begin?

Ujjayi Breath (Simple Breath Awareness): 

1. Sit comfortably or lie down.
2. Closing your eyes will help you to focus more effectively.
3. As you both inhale and exhale through your nose, direct the breath slowly across the back of your throat. Ideally, this will create, and you should hear, a soft hissing sound.
4. Start with 3-5 minutes and work up to 11 minutes each day.

Long Deep Breathing: Long deep breathing is just as its name implies, inhaling for a long count (begin with 5 or at your level of comfort, longer if you can), retaining your breath in for the same count, and exhaling for the same count. Long implies a longer than normal segment count – ie. Inhalation, retention, exhalation. Deep means generating the breath from deep in your solar plexus. It’s a deep full-body breath.

1. Sit up with a straight spine.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Begin by inhaling to a fixed count. I suggest the 5-10 range to begin.
4. Retain your breath (remember not to hold your breath in your face – it’s held at your clavicles) for the same count as your inhalation.
5. Exhale slowly to the same count.
6. Repeat for 3-5 minutes to begin and increase to 11 over a period of days or weeks. Setting a timer will enable you to hold your focus without opening your eyes to look at a clock.

Square Breathing: Is like Long Deep Breathing but we are adding a step- holding the breath out after the exhalation.

1. Sit up with a straight spine.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Begin by inhaling to a fixed count. I suggest the 5-10 range to begin.
4. Retain your breath (remember not to hold your breath in your face – it’s held at your clavicles) for the same count.
5. Exhale to the same count.
6. Hold or retain your breath out. Be patient – this can be tricky for some.
7. Repeat for 3-5 minutes to begin and increase to 11 over a period of days or weeks. Setting a timer will enable you to hold your focus without opening your eyes to look at a clock.

Books on Breathing (Pranayama) for Your Own Library:

• Kundalini Yoga by Shakta Kaur Khalsa
• The Breathing Book by Donna Farhi
• Light on Pranayama by B.K.S. Iyengar

Thank you for reading!

Infinite Love!

Kaye