Conscious Breathing
"Conscious breathing is also called mechanical breathing. Life depends on breathing.
Conscious breathing leaves you with consciousness.
Conscious relationship with praana is the conscious relationship with (Divine) Consciousness. It is your breath of life. You have to care for it.
"We don't remember that the breath has got any importance for us. We do not know that we are attached to the breath. We think it is automatic. And to develop intuition, you must have your breath, the basic elementary power of all life, under your control. If you can command the breath of life and consciously breathe, you can be in command of your life and environments will relate to you as per your wish."
"In yoga never breathe a breath of life automatically, always breathe mechanically.
If you do not breathe consciously for 11 minutes a day, you lose 40% of the vitality of life. This 40% you cannot recapture by any medicine or any exercise. But if you do breathe consciously for 11 minutes and make it very long, deep, and slow breathing, that can do exactly what no miracle can do, because our life is based on the breath of life."
31 minutes of mechanical breathing can give you better health than you ever had before. It can give you strength beyond understanding. It can give you answers for every question, which you can't even imagine
Anyone who breathes consciously for 2-1/2 hours during the 24 hours, which is one-tenth of the day, automatically is given all knowledge, all consciousness, etc. etc.
Breathing gives you a radiance around you and this is what attracts people to you. its strength, depends how deeply you consume praana and how many times during the day you try to breathe consciously - mechanically."
"Your mind stops automatically when you are doing a mechanical breath.
Keep your posture correct: spine straight, chest lifted, chin in. Keep space in your upper body so that the primary breathing muscles can do their jobs. You will have a stretch from the base of the spine all the way to the base of the skull.
'Your brain controls thirty trillion living cells perfectly and replaces them every seventy-two hours by the sensory ions of the planet Earth. And that sensory ion is called praana, which is carried by the air, called pawan. That's your basis. You can live with food or without food. You can live with or without emotion. You can live without everything else but you cannot live without the praana."
"Praana comes through the air. Some people think it is oxygen. That is not true. Oxygen is always there. Slow, rhythmic breathing will help regulate the flow of oxygen and CO2, slow the heart rate - easing anxiety - and ensure your circulation is carrying the optimum amount of nutrients around the body.
Regulating your breathing will also help boost your performance during aerobic exercise as your muscles will be fully replenished with the right amounts of energy-giving oxygen
Practice breathing in and out and keep your hand on your stomach. Take a deep breath and count to five. Then exhale and see as your stomach drops and your chest stays still.
Keep doing these exercises so that you can learn to breathe this way all the time. This type of breathing will eventually become natural for you, and you will feel less stress, less tension and more happiness in your daily life.
"If you can command the breath of life and consciously breathe, you can be in command of your life and environments will relate to you as per your wish."
To get the full beneflts from Conscious Breathing
it is essential that we meditate on our breathing as we practice. We may keep other things in our awareness as well, but we always keep track of what our breath is doing. Listen to the sound of your breath, paying attention to its tone, rhythm, speed, and tension (harshness or smoothness). Visualize the breath entering the body, filling the lungs, and then leaving the body, emptying the lungs. Visualize the thoracic diaphragm moving down on the inhalation and back up on the exhalation. Feel the breath through the expansion and contraction of the ribcage. Feel the breath as it comes in the nostrils, passes down the throat, enters the lungs and then reverses its journey. Feel the temperature in the nostrils, the breath is cooler on entry, and warmer on exit.
Become aware of what you are doing, breathing long, slow and deep, and taking it out as much as you can.
Excerpts from the book: Praana, Praanee, Praanayam
Which is a collection of Yogi Bhajan's quotes and kriyas gathered from lectures throughout his 35-year teaching career in the West. Yogi Bhajan is a Master of pranic energy and these quotes and kriyas can help you to understand and experience who you truly are in the universe of praana.
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