Pranayama - 5 awesome benefits - By Ambika Chadwick

It takes a long time (sometimes years) to understand that the 'movement and stretches' which we know as asana in a yoga class are simply tools. And yoga provides us with many tools, including asana, mantra, meditation, kriya and pranayama which help us reach the goal of yoga, self awareness. 

Pranayama is the formal practice of controlling the breath, and is the link between the physical and mental disciplines of yoga. Asana will help develop your body, and pranayama will help develop your mind. 

Unfortunately pranayama isn't practiced much these days in yoga classes in the west. I think this is due to the following:
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• We are obsessed with the physical postures and the desire to master the asana (that's another blog post!). 
• Classes are shorter, in some studios just 45 mins, so teachers don't have much time. 
• Yoga Teacher Training courses taught over 2 weeks in some exotic location don't give trainees enough information or enough time to process this information. What's left is a very inexperienced yoga teacher who knows very little about any of the other tools of yoga. 

These reasons, in my opinion, are such a shame. Pranayama can offer us so much. The majority of us breathe incorrectly, which has a direct link to our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. 

Here are some reasons why we should all be taking 5 minutes a day to practice pranayama. 

1. Mindful breathing helps us to slow down our heart rate and destress. - When stressed, our heart rate speeds up and our breath is shallow. This puts the body in ‘fight or flight’ mode (sympathetic energy system is used). Hormones are released like cortisol and adrenaline which keep you alert when danger is perceived. When the breath is elongated, and the heart rate slows down, our bodies ‘relaxation response’ kicks in (parasympathetic nervous system). Due to our busy lives its common for many of us to be in continuous ‘survival mode’ but we ultimately need the balance of both for our wellbeing.  Using simple breathing techniques, we can elongate our breath, which helps us to relax and calm. 
2. Theres a link between breathing properly and our digestion! This is because our digestive system is supported by our parasympathetic nervous system. 
3. Pranayama balances the energetic body. In yoga philosophy, the structure of the body is made up of five layers. We call these layers sheaths. Among these sheaths, the second (after the more gross food sheath) is called the vital sheath. Many of the pranayama exercises we practice in yoga were originally practiced to cleanse, purify and balance our nadis which are the channels that carry our prana (energy) through our vital sheath. There are three main nadis, our shushumna nadi which travels through the centre of our body which houses our chakras, and the pingala on the right, and ida on the left. The pingala nadi represents the 'ha' in hatha, and also represents the sun, heat, light and our masculine energy, whilst the ida nadi, the 'tha' in hatha, represents the moon, cool, dark and our feminine energy. Certain pranayama techniques are solely practiced to balance these nadis, like the yin and yang. Confusing? I get it. It's hard to understand this in the west cos it sounds a little 'new age, airy fairy'. I think though, If you really think about it, sometimes we feel imbalanced. At times we may feel a little too fiery, possibly hard to sleep, or sometimes we may need a little more fire in our belly to motivate us. Certain pranayama techniques can help with this :)  
4. Our asana practice (like downward facing dog) will improve! You can have the strongest biceps, the most flexible hamstrings and a core like a coat of armour, but if you don't know how to breathe properly, your asana practice will be missing out BIG TIME. Learning to use our breath can help us take our stretching type postures to a deeper level, like seated forward bend for example, our breath can guide us into a deeper stretch. Our breath can also help us with the strengthening type postures like crow pose as we use our breath to stay focused and also to preserve my energy. If we have an understanding of how to preserve our breath, our yoga practice is more efficient and we're able to power through my day. 
5. Pranayama can improve our sleep. It's no secret that we've been using breathing exercises as a technique to decrease pain, anger and anxiety. When our children hurt themselves, one of the first things we tell them to do is breathe. When a woman is in labour, she is encouraged to breathe. When we are angry, we are taught to close our eyes, count to 10 and BREATHE. Bedtime is often a time when our mind switches on and we start to run through our 'stuff' (you know .... all that stuff). Using breathing techniques, we can bring our focus to one thing, just one thing (the breath), which can help us detach from all the stuff. It's really that simple once we put it into practice. Like everything, practice is the key. 

There are so many more benefits of pranayama. Honestly, if you go to a class which doesn't include pranayama, well  that's a bummer if you ask me, but check out some techniques on youtube. I strongly advise you to practice Nadi Shodana or Anuloma Viloma (alternate nostril breathing) for learning to control the breath, and calming the mind, Kapalabhati (shining skull breath) for energy and vitality and also simple Sama Vritti or Vishama Vritti (even or uneven breathing) for a quick 5 minute destress. 

Happy breathing :) 

(image insert is my teacher training trainees studying pranayama in Colllingwood, Victoria 2017). 

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