Remember to breathe!

You’ve heard of a pill for every ill, well I am of the thought that there is a pranayama for every drama! And that there is NO reason why we shouldn’t just calve out 5 minutes a day or go as high as 45 minutes if you can (best time is first thing in the morning after your showered & dressed). I mean if we have this time for TV, Internet, Social Media and lets face it all the time we give ourselves to feel oh so busy and completely stressed, then why not give our selves just that tiny little part of the day? 

Every pranayama is different, however pranayama itself means this Prana  : Vital Life Force & Ayama : Expansion. 

With this in mind, please allow me to elaborate on some personal experiences that may benefit you. I wake up around 530am  I use a warm water Neti Pot with a bit of salt & clean out my nose, I was not such a believer in this until I succumbed to the pressure of trying it and actually it became the favourite part of my day, in the beginning I did laugh a lot and still do a bit now. This clears out my nasal passages and allows me to further focus on the breathing. Then if it is before or around dawn I will start on my right side, hold, exhale (in the evening we start on the left). For my favourite practice Nadi Shodhana the ratio is a little like this 1:2:2 or 4 seconds in. 8 seconds hold, 8 seconds exhale.

I use pranayama as a pre meditative update for my brain and my breathing, for stress when I am flying, for feeling more love towards the world in general and an overall sense of calmness, and that is really naming only a few. 

Now that is a big promise for what some look at as just a breathing technique, but really it is a whole lot more as we are feeding our Prana so that it will expand,  but please just try it and see how you go.  Start of small with just 3 seconds and then work your way up.

Do always look for contraindications for any pre-existing conditions that you have, so that you know you have picked the right one for you, and hey once you’ve checked out that you can do all of this and if it’s doing all these things and even making you move in to your yoga poses with a lot more ease, what have you got to lose? 

Anne