My Dear Readers,
Greetings from Maverick!
Have you ever wondered why we bother breathing? Well, because breathing is the most essential physiological function we have when it comes to sustaining life. No breath – no life! Which mandates that we do it right – every time!
Our emotional state is reflected in our breathing apparatus. Because the whole body breathes – every cell requires oxygen, if we don’t do it right – if we have restrictions in our muscles, joints – anywhere in the body, it can place unwanted load on the respiratory muscles. This often results in excessive neck and shoulder tension and headaches! Breathing right is the best Detox!
All activities in the body can be grouped as voluntary and involuntary actions. Voluntary actions are those that take conscious will – for instance moving your hands, chewing your food – all these are voluntary actions. Involuntary actions are those that happen automatically in your body without the need for your conscious intervention – like your heart beat, the peristaltic movements and all of that.
The ancient yogis of India realised that, breathing is the only action that is normally involuntary but can be brought by everyone under their conscious will to make it voluntary. Understanding the importance of not just oxygen per se, but the very act of breathing, these enlightened masters, placed ‘pranayama’ or the science of breathing on the top most pedestal for improving health. Not only did they find enormous physical benefits from regular practice of pranayama, they also found enormous mental and spiritual benefits from adopting proper breathing techniques. Control over involuntary actions were achieved through this chord called breathing. They were also able to control the wandering mind and bring greater coherence to their thought processes by ensuring they were breathing right.
While pranayama advocates many advanced methods to achieve several bodily and mental controls, the basic essence of pranayama is to elongate the exhalation to ensure that the toxins are fully thrown out of the body. When such a negative pressure is built, the inhalation of oxygen is a natural effortless process by which volume of O2 greatly expands. However, on the same note, caution has to be taken to avoid amateurish efforts at elongating the exhalation because an unprepared body can be enormously endangered in trying to exhale too much without the proper relaxation to facilitate deep inhalation.
The technique of elongating the breath is not something to be embarked on without proper lessons. But every uninitiate can begin by simply watching their breath and bringing that activity under their conscious awareness. It is worth investing some time to learn pranayama and practice it for a few minutes on a daily basis.
As they say, with every breath you are reborn! Let us not leave that to chance!
Yours in wellbeing
Gita Krishna Raj
