You are laughing, right? Breathing is not an art? It is something the body does naturally. We don't need to force it. You are right. You are not to force yourself to breath but if you ever paid attention to the quality of your breath, you will understand why some people have more energy than others and why some people think more clearly while others have a foggy mind.
Watch your breath. Are you breathing right now? Yes, off course you are but is your breath coming more easily from left nostril or the right? Most likely, you will notice that one nostril is clearer than the other. This might change if you check again in a couple of hours. Your energy level changes every two hours. It reflects the health of your meridians. Meridians work within the body according to their allocated time of two hour slots. So the best thing to do is to check every two hours the quality of your breath, which nostril was actively breathing and your energy level and record it. Do this for seven days at least, preferably for 21 days.
Note the times when your energy level was high, were you breathing more from the right nostril? Right nostril breath gives energy and left nostril breath relaxes us. When we are working for a deadline, often we forget to breath for long periods or do shallow breathing. Therefore, the quality of breath declines leaving our muscles with less oxygen. Thus, tension starts to build up in the body starting from the shoulders and neck. In the long term, this affects our health.
Now that you are convinced that I have a point, let's start observing our breath and alter its course to open up the parts of the body that have been holding tension all along.
Watch your breath. Are you breathing right now? Yes, off course you are but is your breath coming more easily from left nostril or the right? Most likely, you will notice that one nostril is clearer than the other. This might change if you check again in a couple of hours. Your energy level changes every two hours. It reflects the health of your meridians. Meridians work within the body according to their allocated time of two hour slots. So the best thing to do is to check every two hours the quality of your breath, which nostril was actively breathing and your energy level and record it. Do this for seven days at least, preferably for 21 days.
Note the times when your energy level was high, were you breathing more from the right nostril? Right nostril breath gives energy and left nostril breath relaxes us. When we are working for a deadline, often we forget to breath for long periods or do shallow breathing. Therefore, the quality of breath declines leaving our muscles with less oxygen. Thus, tension starts to build up in the body starting from the shoulders and neck. In the long term, this affects our health.
Now that you are convinced that I have a point, let's start observing our breath and alter its course to open up the parts of the body that have been holding tension all along.
- Take a deep breath. Another deep breath and close your eyes.
- Loosen your lips and fully open your jawline as wide as possible before leaving the mouth lightly open.
- Notice the sensation in and around your cheekbones.
- Take another deep breath and notice which nostril is fetching more air.
- Use your right hand to close your right nostril with your thumb.
- Breath in from the left nostril, close the left nostril with the three fingers after the index finger, hold your breath
- Open the right nostril to let the air out of the right nostril.
- Breath in from the righ nostril, close it with the thumb while you hold the breath and then breath out of the left nostril
- Repeat this for at least 5 minutes or 10 breath cycles.
The above exercise will balance your left and right side of the body and give a chance to the underperforming nostril to get it's act together and start performing at equal pace.
You are already feeling better. The above exercise can be done anytime, even during your five minute break at work. Make this a habit. Instead of observing others and passing judgement on their behaviours, simply focus on your breathing and judge its quality every time you have the urge to judge other peoples' actions. The moment your mind starts to pass judgement, remind yourself about the replacement habit of observing your breath.
Once you have continued practice of the above exercise for 21 days, 5 times a day; you are ready to do this naturally. So now you are ready to notice how you breath when you read poetry or prose or your daily prayer or when you sing your favourite song or hymn. The purpose of chanting a mantra is also to regulate your breath. Make up any mantra that works for you and repeat it while observing your breath. The point is to really listen to your voice and keep breathing at the same time.
After this you can start practicing the keys of the musical scale. Chose a key to match your voice to and sing for as long as the breath will allow you to. Find peace in the magic of the voice and the breath. The sound that you are creating is vibrating throughout the universe. Feel it.
If you can, observe your breath while sketching or painting something. Notice that you regulate your breath to the stroke of your brush without effort. Once you start observing, you will know that every activity helps to regulate the breath but only when you remember to breath and pay attention to the breath.
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