What is pranayama?
Pranayama is a healthy breathing
exercise to enhance the vital energy. Pranayama is composed of two words, Prana
and ayama. Prana means vayu, the living energy flowing in the body and ayama
means control. Pranayama means controlling the process of inhalation and
exhalation. Practising pranayama regularly keeps the entire body healthy.
Guidliness for doing pranayama:
Ø Pranayama
should be practiced in empty stomach. So, early morning is the best time to do
pranayama. But it can also be practiced 3 to 4 hours after having any food.
Ø The place
where we are going to do pranayama must be clean, calm and should have ample
supply of air. It can also be open space. Doing pranayama near water body is
more effective.
Ø While
doing pranayama, we shouldn’t sit on a bare floor. We must sit on a yoga mat or
spread a blanket on the floor and sit. If you are a senior citizen and if you
can’t fold your legs and sit on the floor, you can sit in a chair and do.
Ø Sit in
lotus pose (padmasana) or vajrasana while doing pranayama. Inhalation and
exhalation should be done only through the nostrils so that air gets filtered
before entering the lungs.
Ø We must
always keep our spine erect while doing pranayama. This helps in the proper
flow of prana.
Ø We must
not do pranayama when we are too tired.
Function of lungs:
Generally we don’t utilize the
full capacity of the lungs. There are 300 million alveoli(air sacs) in each lung. The
oxygen in the air we inhale is absorbed by the alveoli in lungs and mixed with
the blood. This blood is pumped to others parts of the body by the heart. Thus
all cells in the body get oxygen. The impure blood which contains carbondioxide
is pumped by the heart to the lungs and the alveoli in lungs absorb the carbondioxide
releases the carbondioxide through exhalation.
When
our lungs are fully utilized, more oxygen is absorbed by the alveoli and hence more oxygen is supplied to different parts of the
body which results in proper functioning of the organs. Pranayama helps to
utilize the full capacity of the lungs.
Types of pranayama for daily practice:
There are different types of
pranayama described in scriptures. But all the pranayama can’t be done every day. So our yoga guru has picked up 8 pranayamas
to be practiced every day and these are the 8 pranayamas to be practiced every
day.
1. Bhastrika
pranayama
2. Kapalbhati
pranayama
3. Bahya
pranayama
4. Ujjayi
pranayama
5. Anulom
vilom Pranayam
6. Brahmri
Pranayama
7. Udgitha
pranayama
8. Pranava pranayama
Precautions for pranayama:
Ø Those who
have breathing problem must first consult their doctor before doing pranayama.
Also it is advisable to learn pranayama from a certified and experienced yoga teacher
who can guide well.
Ø People
with high bp and heart disease should not practice bhastrika pranayama and
kapal bhati pranayama vigorously. It must be practiced slowly.
Ø Bhastrika
pranayama should be done slowly during summer season because it increases the
body temperature.
Ø Bhastrika
pranayama, kapalbhati pranayama and ujjayi paranayama must not be practiced during
pregnancy and menstruation.
Ø If you
are beginner, please don’t start doing pranayama just by following the youtube.
It is advised to go to nearby certified yoga teacher and start the yoga
practice.
Hope you like it.😍😍😍
Be Healthy, Happy
and Long-lived😊😊😊
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