Pranayama - Three Breaths To Beat Stress
Reprinted here on Nurturework with the authors permission.
by Howard VanEs. M.A.
Certified Yoga Teacher and Author of "Beginning Yoga: A Practice Manual"
To deal effectively with stress it's helpful to understand what causes it. Imagine for a moment that it's 20,000 years ago and you are a cave man or a cave woman stalking a prey. As you walk along you hear a noise in the tall grass up ahead and spot a huge tiger leaping towards you. Being the expert hunter that you are, you raise your spear and thrust it at the tiger. In that instant a hormone called epinephrine was released into your blood stream causing a rise in your blood pressure, heart rate and breathing rate. As sugar and fat is release into your blood stream, blood is diverted from your skin and digestive system to your muscles and brain. Your senses are heightened! This physiological process is known as the "flight or fight" response.
This "flight or fight" response to stress occurs when you are driving on the highway and get cut off by another driver. It also occurs when you have to make a presentation to a large group, or go on a job interview, or take a test, or have a fight with your partner, or simply are overwhelmed with a lot of "important" things to do. Unlike the life and death example of the tiger, most stress related issues in our life are not a matter of life and death. Herein lies the problem as our biology has been preprogrammed to respond to challenging situations as is if was life or death by initiating the fight or flight response. Useful for hunting and fighting wars but very limiting in our modern lives. Everyone experiences some stress in his or her life, however what makes stress a killer is when it is ongoing and your system does not get a break from it.
So now that you know how stress occurs and what it does, let's look at one of the most effective ways of dealing with stress. It is called the relaxation response and it is your body's own natural way of bringing your system back into balance. The good news is that the relaxation response can be activated voluntarily. And yogic breathing practices, pranayama, offer us many ways to do this. Among them here are three that are easy to do yet very effective at reducing stress, activating the relaxation response and quieting your mind.
The Yogic Breath: Sit in a chair with your feet apart on the ground and bring your neck, head and spine into one line. Place your hands on your chest and breath in through your nose and out through your nose, feeling your chest expand. Do this three or four times. This is a chest breath and is rather shallow. Now place your hands on your belly and begin to inhale through your nostrils. As you do this let your belly expand filling the entire abdominal area with your breath. Exhale and through your nose and press in slightly with your hands. Repeat this three or four times
Next place your left palm on your chest and your right palm on your belly. As you inhale through your nose let your belly expand and then bring your breath up into your chest, feeling your ribs expand. Exhale through your nose, release your breath first from the chest and then your stomach. Repeat three more times. Now close your eyes, rest your hands on your lap and repeat this breath ten times. To make this breath even more effective make the exhalation slower than the inhalation. This breath is quieting, calming and will leave you feeling more relaxed.
Nadi Shodana / Alternate Nostril Breathing: Place your right index finger and middle finger on the bridge of your nose. Close the right nostril by pressing your right thumb, inhale and at the top of the inhalation close your left nostril with your ring finger. Release your thumb and exhale through the right nostril. Inhale through the right nostril and at the top of the exhalation, close the right side with your thumb. Release the ringer finger from your left side. This is one round. Repeat six to twelve times. This breath is very calming and helps to balancing effect on the system.
Left Nostril Breathing: This breath helps to quiet the mind as well as being cooling and calming to the entire system. It is particularly useful when you are feeling hot or angry. Simply close your right nostril with the thumb of your right hand. Breath in through your left nostril and out through your left nostril. Repeat this ten to twenty times.
The above breathing practices may be used individually or practiced together. Experiment and see what works for you. If you feel dizzy or light headed at any time, stop and let your breath come back to normal.
Howard VanEs, M.A. has been studying and practicing yoga for over eleven years and is a certified yoga teacher teaching in the East Bay area of San Francisco. He is author of "Beginning Yoga: A Practice Manual", co-creator of the audio CD "Shavasana / Deep Relaxation" and publisher of a FREE mothly Yoga Health and Wellness newsletter available at www.letsdoyoga.com. He can be reached at info@letsdoyoga.com or 510-587-3399. If you would like to know more about pranayama and its many practices check out "Beginning Yoga: A Practice Manual" available through www.letsdoyoga.com.