Yoga Health Secrets

Yoga for tension and emotional stress

The Complete Breath

1. Slowly exhale as completely as you can.

2. Very slowly inhale through the mouth, drawing in the air evenly and without sudden jerks. With your hands placed lightly over your diaphragm you will find that this is the first area to expand.

3. As your inhalation progresses you will feel a very slight retraction of your lower abdomen.

4. As you complete your inhalation you will feel your shoulders rise slightly as your upper lung becomes fully expanded.

5. Slowly exhale through the mouth, using slight force. Con tract the abdomen as you complete your exhalation to expel as much air as possible.

Lie quietly for a few minutes after you have taken your first Complete Breath. Do not attempt to sit up for a while or you may experience a slight dizziness or faintness due to hyperrven-tilation caused by a sudden, excessive, and unaccustomed intake of oxygen. If you do have such a reaction it only proves how badly your poor lungs needed that extra oxygen, but do not worry, the dizzy feeling will soon pass. Go carefully at first with this exercise and soon you will be able to perform it with no unpleasant side effects. When you reach this stage you can perform the exercise sitting up straight with your head level and your hands in your lap, or even standing erect with your hands at your sides. Always, of course, practise Yoga breathing exercises before an open window and if at all possible, in the open air. For the first few days do not take more than two Yoga Complete Breaths a day, but gradually increase the number ad lib up to sixty full breaths a day. This should be a slow process and you should allow yourself quite some time before attempting the full quota of sixty a day. Be content at first to take just a few at a time.

When performing the Complete Breath I want you to be conscious of the slow filling up of your lungs, from the abdomen to the shoulders, and the ensuing slow exhalation should produce a feeling of calmness and relaxation in your body and in your mind. Never hurry this exercise. It is far better to take two slow correct Complete Breaths than to take ten hurried ones. In Yoga exercises it is always quality and not quantity that counts.

Tense people will particularly benefit from this exercise if they perform it just before bedtime as it promotes healthy, natural and refreshing sleep. When you are able to perform it correctly do try to practise it whenever you can during the day but particularly when you feel tired, depressed or upset. You can even take a few deep breaths as you take that morning walk up to the bus stop or the train, in which case you can match your breathing to your footsteps, say breathe in for six and exhale for six. If you are lucky enough to be anywhere near the sea draw in that wonderful, sweet-smelling air for all you are worth.

It is said that some people are tense by nature. Not true. They are tense by sheer bad habit, and these so-called natural-tension-merchants unconsciously allow all kinds of lurking tensions to accumulate until, hey presto! a beautiful, full-blown peptic ulcer, a chronic heart condition or worse. The breaking up of tension is going to be, for most people, the breaking of the habit of a lifetime. I have been told in all seriousness many times, ‘But, Miss Richmond, I must build up tension while I am working otherwise . . .’ Otherwise what? Otherwise, I would add, you would have so much more energy that you wouldn’t know what to do with it, so you feel you must squander a little by becoming tense!

Let us consider this problem in its proper perspective. No one, repeat, no one ever got the best out of themselves by means of tension. You may think you need it, that you could not do without it, nevertheless you wonder sometimes why you are unable to sleep and that your nerves are often ‘worn to shreds’, and you suffer from nameless fears. Can you imagine what it would be like to be free for ever of these distressing symptoms, to feel relaxed and cheerful and full of energy ? I can show you the way, through Yoga, but there is a price. You will have to part with those precious tensions of yours.