Day 4 - Let Your Body Breathe

Daily Reflection
This week we will be talking about the breath. The breath or prana (life energy) plays an essential role in our lives. While we normally don't think much about our breathing and it happens automatically, in yoga, we learn to work with the breath in many ways. The practice of pranayama or controlling the breath (or life force) is vital because it helps us to live better and more harmoniously. It improves our healthy, our vitality, our creativity and our thinking. Although breathing is one of the simplest things we can do, we have often lost touch with our own breath so this week will be all about rediscovering our breath and the relationship we have to it.

So by day 4, you should have at least a beginning understanding of the way the breath works in your body. You most likely have discovered some places that the breath gets stuck or you may have found you are a shallow breather. You may also have found that you tend to hold your breath sometimes.

The goal is to let your whole body breath - to feel the breath everywhere. We can use different pranayama techniques, like the one we tried yesterday to learn to gain greater control of the breath.

In your journal write down where you think you need to gain a greater control over the breath and why. How do you think this will help you?

Swami K

Slowing Down

Daily Reflection
Students often ask me how to slow down. They are very busy and overwhelmed with the amount of tasks they have to get through each day. I generally suggest they try two things:

1. Set aside 5 minutes for your meditation practice first thing in the morning
2. Slow down your breathing

The reason to set aside a little time in the morning for meditation is because it will set the pace of your day. If you start your day from a place of feeling centered, it is easier to stay centered the entire day.

Slowing down your breathing periodically, throughout the day, can bring you back to this original feeling of meditation that you experience in the morning and slowing down your breathing will also slow your thoughts. It is often our thoughts that make us feel busy and overwhelmed.

In your journal today record how these two techniques worked for you. Were you more centered and focused? Did your day feel easier? Slower? More satisfying?


Swami K