What yoga and pranayama teach us

What Yoga and Pranayama Teach us
Pranayama is the 4th limb in ashtanga yoga defined by sage Patanjali. The word pranayama literally means the ability to expand or stretch our life force (prana) by controlling our breath. Breath is a gross manifestation of prana or prana is a subtle form of breath visa verse.

Pranayama is divided into the words ‘prana’ + ‘ayama’. The word ‘Prana’ means a universal life force that is responsible for keeping us alive. When prana leaves a person’s body, the person is dead; but as long as prana is inside a person’s body, we consider the person alive. The word ‘ayama’ means expansion /stretch/ elongate. The word pranayama means expansion of life force(prana) or to stretch life force by controlling the breath.

We say that breathing is a physical part of thinking and thinking is a psychological part of breathing which means that it is a vital bridge between body and mind. By controlling the breath one can control the mind as well. When a person is angry or agitated his/her breath is fast, shallow, unsteady or disturbed; but when a person is calm and relaxed, his/her breath gets slow, deep and rhythmic. Whenever we are upset over something we often say:

“ take a deep breath”, because it’s our body’s natural need to maintain the balance by taking deep breaths in those moments.

What yoga and pranayama teach us is that not only our emotions control the quality of our breath but we can control the mind and our emotions by controlling our breath as well. So mastering the art of breathing is important for self-healing and survival.

Yoga and pranayama have taught me a lot. I've taught myself to get up earlier than I would like to. I've taught myself to pursue the long-term benefits of meditating, instead of giving in to my desire to lie down again. I'm more comfortable with sitting still for long periods of time.

I'm part of a family now, and that makes it difficult for me to do all the activities I did before marriage. For example, I don't read as much as I used to. But yoga helps me manage my time better so that I can set aside an hour or two for reading every day, before going to bed.

Yoga is not about doing difficult physical postures; it's about doing them with your mind fully in the moment, aware of how you're feeling and what you're thinking and how each posture affects your body. It's a kind of meditation, but in movement rather than stillness. When you practice yoga regularly, you become really good at being present in the moment—so good that when you're not practicing yoga anymore, you bring that presence into other parts of your life.

Start learning yoga from experts we are at Arhanta yoga, offers yoga teacher training online at an affordable price do visit our website and know more details.