Chapter 1
The Ins and Outs of Yoga and Breathing
In This Chapter
Yoga is a complex discipline of fitness training, breathing, and meditation practices. However, most Westerners come to Yoga for the fitness aspect, and that’s what we focus on throughout this book. In the interest of enlightenment, so to speak, we begin this chapter by giving you a quick overview of Yoga as a whole. If you decide to explore these other aspects, we encourage you to pick up the most recent edition of Yoga For Dummies (Wiley), in which we cover these topics in greater depth.
A main component of Yoga is proper breathing. The masters of Yoga discovered the usefulness of the breath thousands of years ago and in Hatha Yoga have perfected a system for the conscious control of breathing; in this chapter, we share their secrets with you. In the ancient Sanskrit language, the word for breath is the same as the word for life — prana (pronounced prah-nah) — which gives you a good clue about how important Yoga gurus think breathing is for your well-being. Practicing Yoga without prana is like putting an empty pot on the stove and hoping for a delicious meal. In this chapter, we show you how to use conscious breathing in conjunction with the Yoga postures.
A Brief Introduction to Yoga
Yoga arises from a tradition that’s been around for 5,000 years. Yoga includes physical exercises that look like gymnastics. These postural exercises help you become or stay fit and trim, control your weight, and reduce your stress level. Yoga also offers a whole range of meditation practices, including breathing techniques that exercise your lungs and calm your nervous system or charge your brain and the rest of your body with delicious energy.
You can also use Yoga as an efficient system of healthcare that has proven its usefulness in both restoring and maintaining health. Yoga continues to gain acceptance within the medical establishment; more and more physicians are recommending Yoga to their patients not only for stress reduction but also as a safe and sane method of exercise and physical therapy (notably, for the back and knees).
But Yoga is more than even a system of preventative or restorative healthcare. Yoga looks at health from a broad, holistic perspective that’s only now being rediscovered by avant-garde medicine. This perspective appreciates the enormous influence of the mind — your psychological attitudes — on physical health.
Although Yoga can be practiced through several different approaches, we focus on Yoga as fitness training — a form of Yoga known as Hatha Yoga — which is the most popular way that Westerners practice Yoga. Yoga as fitness training is concerned primarily with the physical body’s flexibility, resilience, and strength. Fitness is how most newcomers to Yoga encounter this great tradition.
Many who practice Yoga strive to cultivate personal awareness and relaxation through the movements:
Conscious breathing is often added to awareness and relaxation as a third foundational practice. Normally, breathing happens automatically. In Yoga, you bring awareness to this act, which then makes it a powerful tool for training your body and your mind. The rest of this chapter focuses on yogic breathing.
Breathing Your Way to Good Health
Think of your breath as your most intimate friend. Your breath is with you from the moment you’re born until you die. In a given day, you take between 20,000 and 30,000 breaths. Most likely, barring any respiratory problems, you’re barely aware of your breathing. Although the automatic nature of breathing is part of the body’s machinery that keeps you alive, having breathing occur automatically isn’t necessarily to your advantage; automatic doesn’t always mean optimal. In fact, most people’s breathing habits are quite poor and greatly to their disadvantage. Poor breathing is known to cause and increase stress. Stress, in turn, shortens your breath and increases your level of anxiety.
You can help alleviate stress through the simple practice of yogic breathing. Among other things, breathing loads your blood with oxygen, which, by nourishing and repairing your body’s cells, maintains your health at the most desir...