Hi all.
Today I was doing some asanas and trying to slow my breathing. It was very difficult to stay in some of the poses and still breath smoothly. What I am wondering is - should I be trying to slow the breath when straining or is it better to just breathe normally until I am stronger. I realize that I could also do some kind of supported pose, but I do like the effect I get from having to work hard - just not sure about the breathing
A.
Hm…
For me the question is not that easy. The rule should be, if you cannot breath easily and evenly through your nose, you are working too hard and should back off.
In practice I want to breath through the nose all of the time and back off once I would need to open my mouth or hold my breath. Nevertheless, I sometimes “allow” myself an extra breather here and there in the asana sequences. My goal is to keep the breathing calm and even. It is getting better with practice 
Normal breathing during daily activities has become unconsciously effortless, simply because we?ve done it every few seconds for a lengthy period of time, if one practices proper breathing during asana the same will happen.
The begged question is “why were you trying to slow the breath” followed closely by “what poses are ‘some asanas’ and are they appropriate for your level of practice”???
h t t p://www.livestream.com/mahayoga/video?clipId=pla_670e0e49-64e3-4d9b-ba2e-d50724312353&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb
Based on my own basic and self taught practice, I believe that the correct way to practice asana is to coordinate the breath with movement in asana. Normally, when I first start out, I breath slowly and my movements are slow. I’m going through a warm up phase. As my asanas become more vigorous, my rate of breathing increases and the speed of movement must also increase in order to keep breath and movement coordinated. If I find myself a little out of breath, then I will use a cooling breath while in a resting pose. I believe that the coordination of movement and breath is called vinyasa.
Friends,
Why we struggle and put efforts consciously to make Asanas perfect. If we surrender ourself to Air; breathing in and out every moment. You will observe that this Air has got tremendous potential to purify at physical, mental and astral, spiritual level.
1.Close eyes with deep devotion for Diety/Guru
2Relax backbone to maximum as if no body is there ( for a moment)
3.observe the air ( automatically) flowing through nostrils.
4Observe the wave like sensation moving upwards towards head or crown chakra.
5.Thoughts may come and go Or may not come at all.
Mother Air will make any Asanas,mudra, bandh etc. essential to purify you.
Hope 3 to 18 minutes of practice everyday will bring astonishing experience in your sadhana / meditation.
GOD is omnipresent and omniscient. AIR is the only factor for living being on earth which is common like MOTHER.
This introductory practice of Siddha Mahayoga is the highest state of meditation where thoughts/mind gets dissolved in mother air.
[QUOTE=widelyawake;73632]Hi all.
Today I was doing some asanas and trying to slow my breathing. It was very difficult to stay in some of the poses and still breath smoothly. What I am wondering is - should I be trying to slow the breath when straining or is it better to just breathe normally until I am stronger. I realize that I could also do some kind of supported pose, but I do like the effect I get from having to work hard - just not sure about the breathing
A.[/QUOTE]
Namaste, widelyawake,
as long as you stay aware of your breath it is ok…i teach to stay aware of the breath, and do not hold your breath, let it flow…slowing down is not necessarily, but maintaining the same rate (as at rest or beginning of practice) is a good sign of mastery… 
[QUOTE=Asuri;73709]Based on my own basic and self taught practice, I believe that the correct way to practice asana is to coordinate the breath with movement in asana. Normally, when I first start out, I breath slowly and my movements are slow. I’m going through a warm up phase. As my asanas become more vigorous, my rate of breathing increases and the speed of movement must also increase in order to keep breath and movement coordinated. If I find myself a little out of breath, then I will use a cooling breath while in a resting pose. I believe that the coordination of movement and breath is called vinyasa.[/QUOTE]
with you on that 
Do these OPs ever actually return to the thread???
Wow, so many responses since a few days ago. Thanks for all the input.
My practice is simple but a big part of my life. Thanks Asuri about the advice on the cooling breath, I’ll try that next time. Mukumi and City Monk - thanks for the comments - sometimes I doubt myself - but I agree and think it is safer and more calming to slow the breathe - I have been to a few kundalini classes in the past where breath of fire was used which is part of the confusion. The result was not necessarily a grounded balanced feeling. Does anybody have specific comments on the use of breath of fire?
I have no comment on breath of fire, but wanted to say that sometimes my breath is affected not from the physical exertion but when I come to a pose I already think is challenging I exert more than necessary into the pose which changes my breathing. If I back out, stop thinking of it as a challenge (this is the most important part because if I cannot get to this place then going back into pose is pointles) and then slowly join back into the pose. If I go into the pose in a softer state of mind my body follows suit. Sometimes I do need to back out and that was my problem, it is much easier to see this coming from a place of self compassion for my body. But a lot of the time it is my mind that is pushing and not even my body because my body can go as far or even farther if I am in the right state of mind.
For instance, if you have a stressful day at a job where you sit all day. You can just sit and hold all of your body muscles tight. Your jaw, and arms, and core and legs. At the end of the day you will be very sore and exhausted, your breathing with suffer, you will probably get a headache, neckache etc. If you do this all the time you can get chronic problems. And all you did was sit!
This has been my most important lesson from yoga. Before I got it a teacher once told me to stop worshipping the body and start worshipping my mind. We do all sort of strange things to worship the body, push it to hard to show its strength, go easy on it to give it a break, and just give into the physical pleasure it can provide. Sometimes we even punish it in order to worship it. I am not sure how we came about doing this. I am not saying that you can not have a strong and pleasurable or relaxing and pleasurable practice. I am just that if you get it from the mind, it will be a more true practice to who you are and what you need and ussually the results are more what you want.
There are basic techniques to Pranayama. Those techniques are learned gently and gradually. Just as asana can have deleterious effects when the student fails to honor this progression, so too can be the case with Pranayama.
Students are well-advised to learn yama and niyama, align their physical body, and begin introductory pranayama; Radiant Breath, Ujjayi, Viloma II. This begins in the supine pranayama position for a only a few minutes until the student “gets” it in their cells.
The pranayama you mention is neither gradual nor gentle. It is fiery, often poorly instructed (if instructed at all), overly stimulating to the nerves, and dangerous in the malaligned body and for those with a vatta constitution.