Breath your way to a healthy life With Pranayam

Let’s start with first splitting the word ‘Pranayam’ into Prana and Ayam.

The word Prana refers to vital energy (breath), responsible for life force.

Ayam means control.

Hence, Pranayama translates to control of Life Force through breathing.

We all know that our breath controls us, but here we have to take charge of our breath by changing the pattern of breathing to live a long and healthy life. Breathing is made up of 2 parts- Inhalation also known as Rechak and Exhalation also known as Kumbhak- in Yoga Sutra.

Pranayam has some well-known and established benefits. I am listing a few of those here-

1.  Pranayama to a great extent helps in relieving stress.
2. It is very helpful to get rid of various allergies.
3. It balances the energies in our body to attain an equilibrium.
4. Pranic breathing helps us in letting go of the negative energies.

Pranayama as a technique

Pranayam is a technique that can be learned and done by everyone. Even though ideally pranayama should be done in the morning, it can be done at any other tie of the day too followed by the various Asanas. By doing pranayama you can control or slow down your breathing process. Pranayama helps in throwing out toxins from the body through breath. This helps create a better space of Oxygen to enter the lungs. More oxygen can be supplied to the cells as well.

There are a series of Pranayamas that can be adopted in our day-to-day lives-

Let’s talk about the most popular type- Anulom-vilom today. It is also called Nadi-shodhan pranayama (alternate nostril breathing).

1. Sit in a comfortable position (Sidhasan) with your back straight.
2. Form a mudra of your right hand, by folding your thumb and ring figure.
3. Place the thumb on the right nostril, inhale through the left nostril, now close the left nostril, exhale through the right nostril, inhale through the right nostril, exhale through the left nostril.
4. This completes one cycle of Anulom-vilom.
5. This can be repeated five times at a stretch for beginners.
6. You can increase it further too.

Breathing comes naturally to us, but with correct breathing practices, we can absorb positive and vital energy from our surroundings and throw out the toxins and waste products from within us.