There is so much emphasis given to Pranayama in Yoga and it is all about breathing techniques. What is it about breathing that makes it so significant?
As per science breathing is a supply of Oxygen that enbales burning of glucose into energy. Well yes, but there is something more. Towards the ending of the article Spirituality and Yoga we observed how helpless we are in controlling our mind. We try to sit and meditate for one minute and our mind ends up being in a scene from an action movie or in a meeting in office! How to calm your mind then?
Rate of breathing α Anxiety of the mind
Following facts are in favour of the above corelation.
1. Take a sewing needle and try passing a thread into it. Just observe how slow you are breathing.
2. Breath rate increases rapidly in a state of anger or while at sexual intercourse.
3. Monkey’s average breath rate is 50% higher than that of humans.
When mind tries to concentrate on an objective, breathing automatically slows down. We can use this particular thing to our advantage - by reversing the procedure. When it was experimented upon, a whole new science was in the offering - Pranayama, the key to mind control. Anyone who practices these simple techniques will be amazed how powerful they are. Breathing right is living right !
Though Pranayama deals with breathing there is much more that it tells about. Pranayama is a science of “Prana” - could be translated to “Lifetrons”. Though there is no scientific evidence of such a thing (and I wonder why) there are plenty of observations that we can come up with in favor of its existence. Pranayama explores lifetrons, their characteristics and tries to find out what it means to us.
All about Prana in the next article.