Yoga Health Secrets

Yoga for tension and emotional stress 

Alternate Breathing

I would like you now to try Alternate Breathing or, as it is also called, SUN AND MOON BREATHING. To explain this strange name before you begin, the two aspects of Prana or life force which surrounds us are personified as Pingala, the positive pole and Ida, the negative pole. One of the aims of Yoga is to balance their opposite currents in the body, which then produces a state of perfect spiritual and mental equilibrium. The breath that enters the right nostril or Pingala is called the sun breath and that which enters the Ida or left nostril is the moon breath. The ALTERNATE BREATH consists of deep controlled breathing through each nostril in turn.

Sit down either cross-legged on the floor or on a hard chair with your spine erect, but not stiff, and your head level. Close your eyes and proceed as follows:

1. Close your left nostril with your left thumb and breathe in, slowly and deeply, through the right nostril.

2. Hold the breath for two seconds.

3. Close the right nostril with the last two fingers of your left hand and exhale very slowly through the left nostril.

4. A natural pause will follow and when the impulse to inhale appears do so, this time through the left nostril, the right still being held closed.

5. Hold the breath for two seconds.

6. Exhale slowly through the right nostril with the left held closed.

This completes one round. Beginners to Pranayama should limit themselves to two rounds at first, but do add one round each week until you are performing six rounds a day. Ideally this exercise should be performed facing different points of the compass according to the time of day, following the path of the sun. Thus in the early morning you should perform it facing east, at midday facing the meridian, at sunset facing the west, and at night facing the north, SUN AND MOON BREATHING should be preceded and followed by three or four Complete Breaths to create the right atmosphere of peace and tranquillity throughout the mind and the body. Though 1 have concentrated on the physical aspect of Yoga in this book, as I said in the beginning, it is impossible to divorce the body from the mind and all Yoga exercises, breathing or otherwise, must always affect all parts of the organism, both physical, mental, and spiritual.

When you have been practising Sun and Moon breathing for a few days and have established some sort of rhythm and balance in your performance, proceed to the next stage, which is the regulation of the length of your exhalations to twice that of your inhalations. Thus if you inhale to a count of four, then you exhale to a count of eight. I use four only as an example for the length of your inhalation must always depend on your individual capacity and comfort. 1 reiterate the warning about undue strain. Please, no straining in this or any other Yoga exercise. It can only do harm and achieve nothing.

After a few days of the above controlled breathing your next step is to prolong very gradually the retention of the breath until it equals the length of your inhalation. Thus if you inhale on a count of four then hold your breath for four and then exhale on a count of eight. Again you must adjust this counting to suit your own capacity.

This is the simplest form of Sun and Moon breathing and will suffice for our purposes in this chapter which deals with the calming of the mind and nerves. The advanced forms of this exercise call for almost superhuman discipline and are practised in connexion with the awakening of a mysterious force in the body known as Kundalini, the Serpent Power. This may briefly be described as the Divine Power of Knowledge and Wisdom from which, through civilization, Man has become separated. But the Kundalini, said to lie coiled at the base of the spine, is not dead but dormant, which is why every man is potentially divine no matter how far he may have strayed from the Divine Path.

But to return to your frayed nerves and wayward emotions, I will end this chapter with two simple exercises, one which combines breathing and movement and one which calms the mind and quenches thirst. The first of these is called THE L BALANCE STRETCH because while performing it your body roughly resembles the letter L.

1. Stand up straight, feet together and hands at your sides. Inhale deeply and at the same time raise your arms above your head, lace your fingers together and turn them palms upwards. Remain stretching upwards with your arms while you complete your inhalation.

2. Hold your breath for an instant and then, while exhaling slowly bend your knees until your calves are touching the backs of your thighs. Remain thus until you have completed your inhalation, with your arms still stretched above your head.

3. A natural pause will follow the completion of your inhalation, during which you should rise into the standing positionand lower your hands to your sides.

When you can perform this exercise try a slightly more difficult version which requires you to hold the breath throughout the movement, thus:

1. Stand erect, inhale deeply while raising your hands above your head with the fingers laced as before.

2. When you have completed your inhalation hold your breath and bend your knees as before with your arms above your head. Remain in this position for as long as you comfortably can without exhaling.

3. When the impulse to exhale appears do so, at the same time rising to your feet. Repeat up to six times according to the time at your disposal.

This exercise taxes your sense of balance but it is a good exercise in calming the mind for it requires a considerable degree of concentration and muscular control to keep from overbalancing and this discipline, in conjunction with the deep slow breathing and the retention of the breath, results in a calm mind and soothed nerves.

In conclusion here is a simple exercise which imitates the respiration of the serpent. It is called Sitali, and it helps to calm the mind, purify the blood, quench thirst and cool the body when it is overheated. Protrude your tongue from your lips and fold it together to form a tube. Draw in the air through this ‘tube’ with a slight hissing sound until you have completely filled your lungs. Hold your breath for as long as you can and then exhale through the nostrils, SITALI should be practised up to twenty times a day. Combined with the other breathing exercises in this chapter the result will be a calmer, happier, more peaceful you.