Breathing exercises are beneficial for many reasons. They help you take in more fresh air while exhaling the stale air inside your body. Breathing exercises help bring your awareness to the present moment and relieve feelings of anxiety, stress, worry, fear and anger. The yoga practice contains a couple of different advanced breathing exercises.
Longer Breaths
Taking longer inhales and exhales is an advanced breathing exercise that you can continue to make more and more challenging by building on the amount of time you breathe in and out. You can, for example, begin by inhaling to the count of 3 and exhaling to the count of 6. When this begins to feel easy for you, try to inhale to the count of 5 and exhale to the count of 10. Make sure you count slowly and evenly; this is part of what makes the breathing exercise challenging. Coordinating longer breaths with your movements when walking or practicing yoga also constitutes an advanced breathing exercise.
Alternate Nostril Breathing
An advanced breathing exercise from the yoga practice is called anuloma viloma (a Sanskrit term for alternate nostril breathing). To do this exercise, begin by folding your index and middle fingers of the right hand into your right palm. Close your right nostril with your right thumb and exhale completely through your left nostril. Inhale completely through the left nostril. Keep your right nostril closed. Inhale to the count of 4 to start, then gradually build on this number. Close your left nostril with the two end fingers so that both nostrils are shut. Retain the breath for a count of 16 (or four times the count of the inhalation). Keeping your left nostril closed, release your right nostril and exhale the count of 8 (or twice the count of the inhalation). With the left nostril closed, inhale through the right to the count of 4. Close both nostrils and retain the breath to a count of 16. Keeping your right nostril closed, release the fingers from the left nostril and exhale to the count of 8 to complete one round. Do at least six rounds.
Kapalabhati Breathing
Another advanced breathing exercise from yoga is kapalabhati. This breathing exercise cleanses the respiratory system and brings a glow to your face when practiced regularly. Sit in a cross-legged position. Inhale deeply. Then contract your abdominal muscles quickly, causing your diaphragm to move up into your thoracic cavity to push the air from your lungs forcefully. Relax your abdominal muscles to allow your diaphragm to descend into the abdominal cavity; passive inhalation takes place. The lungs automatically expand to inflate with air. Do not try to forcefully inhale. Repeat this pumping quickly. Start with 20 to 30 pumps and work your way up to 50 to100 pumps. After each round of pumping, hold your breath for 30 to 60 seconds. Do three rounds.
References
- Sivananda Yoga Teachers Training Manual; Swami Vishnu-devananda; 2000
- Yoga Journal: Breathing Lessons
