isaacnewton,
“But this alternate breathing i am doing right now, sometimes i think, its bit advanced for me. I have anxiety problems and I suffer from heart palpitations and breathlessness due to that”
This may have something far more to do with the manner of your practice rather than the technique itself. If you are creating too much pressure on your system by absorbing more air than you can handle at present, then certainly the technique is going to become a source of discomfort.
Try practicing the technique with shorter breaths.
“So i think probably this alternate breathing is bit advanced at this stage.”
It is not an “advanced” technique, nor is it suitable only to particular personalities. The problem lies in you, not in the technique.
“After few months of practice of this technique, my lungs capacity will improve and my anxiety will decrease.”
You should not misinterpret these methods as being capable of dissolving the root causes of the problem. If the root causes of your anxiety were physical, that is a different matter. But if the root causes are at the level of the mind, then even if you practice these techniques for centuries - it is not going to be of much help. If one is serious about dissolving one’s anxiety, one will have to come to a direct insight as to the causes of it at the level of the mind. The pranayam techniques will just help create a certain inner atmosphere which is helpful to become more aware of the workings of your own mind, otherwise what is needed is something else entirely. You will have to learn how to become a witness to your own mind in the present. Whatever arises in your experience, remain a witness from moment to moment, without becoming identified with whatever is arising. The moment you become identified, one loses all clarity, one has become possessed by it. If hate is there, and you become identified with it, then your vision immediately becomes clouded. Even if love is there, and you become identified with it, then too your vision becomes clouded. Whatsoever is happening in the present, remain a witnessing awareness without liking or disliking, without attraction towards it or aversion from it, without attachment. Once you can keep the stream of awareness moving without grasping as to whatever is happening in your experience, then you will find that there comes a certain freedom. This is the only way to obtain direct insight into your own inner workings. To understand things as they are, you must first see things as they are. To understand your programming, you will have to let it run it’s course, but remaining a silent observer - just as though you are observing somebody else which has nothing whatsoever to do with you, or watching scenes on a movie screen.
Do not think that through mere mechanical practice of a breathing technique, that it is going to be capable of heightening your awareness. At the most - it can give you a temporary sense of relaxation. Otherwise, the root of the problem remains, that when anxiety or any other overwhelming state arises - you have become a slave to your experience.
