If I were to do only one yoga practice for the rest of my life, it would be pranayama, or breath-control. Yogic breathing techniques are incredibly powerful. They can transform stress and anxiety into calming surrender, and they can energize a lethargic mind and body.
Relaxation
It’s almost impossible to relax completely, yet deep relaxation is essential to our health and well-being. Turning off our “fight or flight” reflex fully, for even ten minutes at the end of your yoga practice, relieves your immune system from the taxations of stress which, in an extended long-term state, can be severely damaging to your body.
Slow Breathing
You can use the yogic technique of pranayama (breath-control) during shivasana (corpse pose) to counterbalance your stress and give your parasympathetic nervous system, and your mind, a rest.
Start by gradually slowing down your breathing. Count to four for your inhales and exhales, then start to add a second to each side every few breaths, as much as feels right. Compare how you felt when you first sat down to how you feel this pranayama, and see what feels different.
Long Breathing
At this point you may want to do some seated yoga poses — like some sun-breaths and side-stretches. These will open up your back and chest. Maintaining your slow breathing pattern, start to fill your lower abdomen with air as you inhale. Imagine your body like a vase being filled with water from the bottom up: feel your breath sink down and then rise up, filling your mid-belly and ribs, then finally at the top of your breath fill your chest right up to your collarbones. Exhale, counting slowly, releasing your breath from the top, down.
Counterbalancing Breath
After a few minutes of slow, long, even breathing, you should notice a profound change in your mental and physical state. Moving from anxiety and stress can be tough, we seem to cling, in a way, to stress, because it also helps define ‘us’ or our egos.
To deepen your state of relaxation further, bring your inhale back to a 5 count, and then lengthen your exhales. In yogic terms, exhales create a calming effect on the body and mind, while inhales stimulate. In this way, you counterbalance deep states of stress with deep states of calm.
Still Holding On?
Check to see if you are still holding on to any mental stressors by noticing your thoughts. Drop out of your brain and into your breath, feel your lungs stretch and expand your abdominal and chest muscles as you relax and soften. If you are lying down in shivasana (corpse pose), feel the gentle massage of your back against your yoga mat as you ripple your breath up and down your spine. Stay with this sensation, listening to the sound of your breath.