In yoga, we learn a lot of Pranayama (breath-work) methods with all kinds of names and ratios, retentions/holds, alternates, nostril or not, into lungs or into abdomen, & both or not, etc. You are concentrating so much on breath count and ratios that … such methodical way frees your mind from thinking other thoughts… the idea is that single-handed focus calms your mind besides other physiological benefits. True, as one teacher would say, you can literally heal your body from the inside with each deliberate breath you take. They all and each have its place and effective in affecting a change within you. It’s science… convinced.
But for now, forget all those techniques and methods. It does not always have to be so complicated.
Let go of your need to control your breath. Sometimes just …awareness and gratitude is … enough.
Sometimes “simplicity” is all… Simply do this: Imagine a bouquet of flowers brought to you from someone you find endearing. Maybe it’s not even a bouquet but a single stem flower – a gift from nature: You visually take in the – lovely colors, its beauty, then… the scent… the aroma…Take a deep in-hale, then a deep ex-hale … continue with seamless transitions … immersed…feel more and more rooted as you get more grounded … then more centered as you find your astral spine, the sushumna, in your subtle psychic body … So let go of your need to control your breath but don’t let go of that …SMILE:)
In this simple easy practice, your breath need not be “victorious” as in Ujai breath…(the sound of Ujai is supposed to be like mantra chanting – a bit noisy – to keep you present so it has its place in certain practice) but for now, just take in that NATURAL soothing breath as you would accepting a gift of a beautiful bouquet of flowers with a BIG SMILE – it’s a quiet gentle but more a lengthy rather than deep – that saturating breath – let that breath simply saturate you…with goodness that crowds out what’s not essential:
Reminded San Mateo Flower & Garden Show is coming…
