There is more to yoga than twisting your body into a pretzel or eating Goji berries. Yoga is an ancient science described by Pantjanali in the Yoga Sutras nearly 2,000 years ago as "yogas chitta vritti nirodhah." Translated from Sanskrit, this is interpreted as "yoga is the removal of the fluctuations of the mind." Today, most yoga students practice a form of yoga known as Hatha Yoga, which is the physical practice of yoga and is the foundation for several other styles of yoga, including Power Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Kundalini Yoga and High Performance Yoga.To achieve that state of mind, Hatha Yoga practitioners focus on breathing during their practice.
History
The Yoga Sutras state there are eight limbs of yoga: restraint (yamas), observances or practices of self-training (niyamas), postures (asana), expansion of breath and prana (pranayama), withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana) and perfected concentration (samadhi). The fourth limb, pranayama, focuses on how a person can utilize the breath to connect the mind and body.
Importance
"Yoga practice is a breathing practice, first and foremost," says Jules Mitchell, a Los Angeles-based registered yoga teacher. "Without the mindfulness of the breath, yoga practice would be no different than exercise. In yoga, we use the breath to bring the mind and the body together."
Types
There are four types of pranayama: exhalation, inhalation, transition and continuous prana. Prana refers to the life-sustaining force within all living organisms that connects every living being to the universe. The repeated practice of continuous prana is believed to be the most critical of the four types of pranayama as it allows the practitioner to better access prana. Practicing continuous prana is an exercise in transcending breathing as we know it and comes after mastering exhalation, inhalation and transition.
Basics
In its simplest form, pranayama is conscious breathing. "Conscious breathing can be focus on texture, equalization of inhales and exhales, sound of the breath, velocity of the breathing rhythm, or linking each breath with a number or a blessed mantra syllable," says Steve Ilg, creator of High Performance Yoga. Mantras involve chanting a word, such as "Aum/Om" or phrases like "Sa Ta Na Ma" which are considered to be the five primal sounds of the universe.
Goal
Hatha yoga is interpreted to mean the union of the sun and the moon. According to Ilg, "The sun (ha) implies Pingali Nadi or the Tawny Current and is related to the subtle channel terminating in the right nostril governing such inner aspects as heat, lightness and the sympathetic nervous system. The moon (tha) implies Ida Nadi, or the Comfort Current, and is related to the subtle channel terminating in the left nostril governing such inner aspects as coldness, heaviness and the parasympathetic nervous system. A hallmark point in a yoga student's practice is to balance, through ongoing breathing and cleansing rituals, these two channels."
References
- "The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Commentary on the Raja Yoga Sutras" Sri Swami Satchidananda; 1990
- Wholistic Fitness
- Jules Mitchell
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