Yoga Pranayama

Yoga Pranayama is a breathing practice in Sanskrit, and it is an integral part of any yoga practice. If you focus on the performance of asanas and at the same time ignore the art of breathing pranayama, this will lead to the fact that you leave your body without an important, significant part of this practical philosophy.

Pranayama breathing exercises have many techniques, consider only one of them, which ideally should start your morning right after the bath. This practice is called "Uddiyana bandhi," or purification by fire, and it takes about 15 minutes. Practicing it, you can understand the basics of pranayama.

The practice of pranayama begins with a glass of water drunk. Then you need to sit in a lotus posture with a straight back.

1. We perform sharp short exhalations, which are called kapalabhati. Breathes are arbitrary. This is done about 500 times at an advanced stage, but for beginners it's enough and 100. Make sure that your stomach is completely relaxed, like the diaphragm.
2. Further we make powerful breaths and exhalations with the maximum amplitude and speed, which are called bhastra, 10-15 times. If the head begins to spin, stop. The stomach is still relaxed, the face is relaxed, the shoulders do not move. Only the chest and lungs work.
3. At the end of this, perform bhastraki - a calm slow breath, not the full volume of the lungs. Hold your breath, and only with a second burst you can exhale to exhale. Watch for the absence of extraneous thoughts, your head should be absolutely clean.
4. Immediately after holding the breath, perform a deep, as full as possible exhalation, and after this it is time to perform the actual uddiyana-bandhu. Pull your chin to your chest, relax the abdominal wall, lean your hands against your knees and perform a false breath, "pushing" the ribs apart. Imagine how all the intestines are pulled upward, into the chest. Keep to the limit of oxygen starvation and at the end make a smooth breath. The stomach must be relaxed.
5. Repeat the previous two steps, putting your breathing in order, and then repeat two complete cycles.

You can use pranayama for weight loss or just to harmonize the spirit and body. In order to better understand the technique of uddiyana-bandah, you can get acquainted with the video, which clearly understands the individual elements. One of them you can find in this article.