Livre de Radhika Shah Grouven
Mastering Pranayama: From Breathing Techniques to Kundalini Awakening
Highlights
What happens when the breath slows down
Why do you get upset when somebody tells you, that your clothes look shabby? Why do you feel good when others admire your new car? Because you identify with these sensory objects. If you are strongly identified with the objects of the world, do not expect that you will suddenly experience prana itself
What happens when the breath slows down
You need guidance and a systematic practice, which includes asanas, breathing exercises, learning meditation and purifying the conscious and unconscious mind over a long period of time. You must learn to look at your own negative qualities and to attenuate these. Few want to do this.
Dangers of Incorrect Breathing Exercises
The correction of wrong breathing releases great energy and gives you more self-confidence.
Precautionary Measures
Avoid teachers that mix practices from different traditions.
If you do not find a qualified and experienced teacher, then practice and master diaphragmatic breathing.
Why is our breathing incorrect?
Fear and anxiety are the predominant mental states. This is exactly how a person behaves when experiencing pressure and competition. If the pressure and competition is constant, the defensive posture becomes a habit. Then eventually shallow and rapid breathing also becomes normal for such a person.
Svastikasana: The Auspicious Pose
Keeping the feet interlocked may not appear to be important in the initial stages, but at a later stage it is very useful for those who aspire to practice dhyana
or “deep meditation” and awaken kundalini.
Kundalini is an ancient word, a technical word from a forgotten science. Most people call kundalini a kind of energy, but they have no direct experience of this energy. The symbol of kundalini is the serpent. This is a symbol of our dark side or the deep unconscious mind. The energy of the unconscious mind is transmuted and raised to the conscious state of awareness. This is called kundalini in the ancient science of Tantra. If you are well prepared, it is possible to bring the unconscious mind into conscious awareness. As the unconscious mind comes forward, you may get agitated; keeping the feet interlocked prevents you from unconsciously jumping out of the posture. If you are sitting in Sukhasana or Ardha Padmasana, you can unconsciously slip out of your position very easily, but if you are sitting with the feet interlocked as in Padmasana or Svastikasana you cannot.
What is the Best Posture for me?
The best pose for you is the one that is most comfortable and in which you can sit for longer periods. If you have selected a pose in which you are not comfortable, then select an easier pose
What is the Best Posture for me?
Traditionally it is said, that the sitting to movement ratio should be 1:4. This means, if you sit in a meditative posture for an hour every day, you also need to be active for four hours that day. This includes all kinds of movement and activity in the house and workplace, such as household chores, walking up and down steps, etc. To counterbalance our extreme sedentary lifestyle, it is important to consciously go for brisk walks, jogging, swimming or any other form of exercise.
Variation 2: Without Counts
Falling asleep repeatedly during practice means that the mind will learn to use the technique to fall asleep
Rechaka or 2:1 Breathing
In 2:1 Breathing, known as Rechaka, the exhalation is twice the length that of the inhalation. Breathing out a greater volume of air than you are breathing in, releases the old air from your lungs.
Breathing and One-pointedness
At how many places can you hold your attention simultaneously? Can anyone possibly focus on all these points at the same time: di
Breathing and One-pointedness
aphragm, chest, glottis and sound? We need to unlearn one aspect of modern life, that is, allowing the mind to jump between multiple points of focus.
In the yogic process, you are learning to drop the many, keeping the mind focused like a laser beam. You do not want your energy to be dissipated. If your mind is on many different objects, trying to “multitask,” then it is shifting from one thing to another constantly and rapidly. This is a divided and scattered mind. On the day you spend your time engaged in many different activities for short periods of time, you feel totally exhausted because the scattered mind dissipates your energy. To achieve something you need to be focused.
Find the focal point of a practice and try to stay with it. In Ujjayi, your focus is at the glottis. You have already established diaphragmatic breathing, so you do not need to focus the mind on the breathing apparatus anymore. Allow your attention to be at the glottis, at the top of the throat, and with time, as you become more proficient in the practice, you will experience yourself just being with the sound, “ham” and “sa.” The same is true for Bhramari
- Svarodaya, the Mystical Science of Breath
astute observers did notice the parallels between the nadis and the different nerves in the body; they also observed that the location of the chakras corresponded with important glands and ganglia.