Breathing

Breathing

The new born first breathes then yells. Breath comes first then the word. Energetically the energy behind the word is the breath.

Cultivate the breath and value each word aloud or mentally to command the emotions.

There is a direct correspondence between our emotional state and our breath. If you slow your breath down you WILL automatically become more still, and stillness in the prana of your mind opens your sensitivity to the word. The breath is the vital link between the body and mind that gives us the ability to increase our sensitivity and compassion and decrease our ?emotional commotion?

If you breathe more than 20 breathes per minute you are ruled by your emotions. 14 ? 20 times ruled by emotions and mind.? 8 ? 14 ruled by your steady mind. Less than 8 and you are ruled by your soul, your happiness is guaranteed.

The catch is that breathing is part of our autonomic nervous system so is usually involuntary, unless we make ourselves conscious of it, so practice is needed.

Kundalini Yoga makes use of many different breathing methods; some emphasize the inhale, some holding the breath in, some emphasize the exhale and some emphasize holding the breath out. We have breath of fire, alternate nostril breathing, segmented breaths, sitali, whistle breath, lion breath, cannon breath, sitkari and vatskar to name some of them.

Beginners can be challenged initially because it automatically puts us more in touch, it sensitises us and asks us to focus. We could say that exercise focuses the body and breath focuses the mind and of course we put these two things together when we do a kriya.

The breath takes us from the gross to the subtle, the automatic to the conscious, from mine to not mine. It gives consciousness of the other, it is a way to extend and breakdown the boundaries between you and your universe.