The greatest treasure in life: BREATH

Breath is life. The vitality of all living beings depends on respiration. We live for 3-4 weeks without food, 3-4 days without water, but in 3-4 minutes if we are out of breath. The first thing we do when we come out of the mother's womb is to breathe, and the last thing we do when we die is to exhale.

For example, a few questions for you…

How many times do we breathe per minute?

How many breaths do we breathe in a day?

I guess it's not easy to answer questions right away. From this perspective, it is surprising how little we care about proper breathing in our daily lives. Fifteen times a minute, and about 22,000 times a day, yes, you read it right, we breathe twenty-two thousand times. How many of this number do we use effectively and correctly? Perhaps the first thing that needs to be changed when we want to change our quality of life is our breathing.

Most people forget to breathe properly. The diaphragm that we used to breathe as babies, we use little or nothing when we become adults. We take a short breath through the mouth, raising our shoulders and contracting our bellies. In this way, we take in very little oxygen without realizing it. Only the upper parts of the lungs work, which leads to a lack of strength and a weak immune system against diseases.

Yoga exercises allow us to reverse these habits. correct breathing; Inflating your abdomen (diaphragm) means breathing through your nose and exhaling through your nose. In this way, your lungs work fully and you can breathe correctly. As you breathe out, the abdomen goes in and the diaphragm goes up to massage your heart, while you breathe out, the abdomen expands and the diaphragm goes down to massage your internal organs.

People often think that breathing is more important during breathing. However, breathing is the most important. The more used air you can expel, the more fresh air you can breathe in. In yoga breathing practices, the exhalation time is kept longer than inhalation.

We have mentioned that in yoga, except for special studies, generally breathing through the nose and exhaling through the nose. There are several important reasons for this. When you breathe through your nose, the air becomes warm and clear. But from the perspective of Yoga, the most important reason for breathing through the nose is Prana. In the classical teaching of Yoga, this concept is used in the sense of "life energy". Prana, the life force, is at the center of all yoga exercises. Prana is in matter, but not matter. It is present in the air but not oxygen. It is an invisible type of energy that is carried in the air, food, water and sun rays, giving life to all substances. To increase the amount of Prana entering your body, you should breathe through your nose.

Your brain is affected by the way you breathe, you can control your brain by controlling your breathing. This is why breathing exercises have recently been used frequently in methods of coping with stress. In times of stress, you breathe short, irregularly and quickly. When you're scared, you hold your breath. On the contrary, when you are relaxed, you take long, regular and slow breaths. Also, by controlling your breathing, you can not only inhale more oxygen and prana, but also prepare yourself for focus and meditation.

Hoping that we can open our hearts to new awareness...