The health benefits are immediate!

Alternate Nostril Breathing aka Nadi Sodhana

• Benefits
• 1. Cleans and rejuvenates vital channels of energy
• 2. Optimizes functionality to the left and right hemispheres of the brain, creating balance and stability
• 3. Calms the mind and the nervous system
• Cautions: Alternate nostril breathing should not be practiced if you have a cold or if your nasal passages are blocked in any way. Under no circumstances should anything be forced.

Benefits of Belly Breathing

• 1. Detoxifies inner organs, promotes blood flow and peristalsis
• 2. Increase oxygen supply to the brain helping excretion of bodily toxins
• 3. Stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system

Benefits of Breath of Fire

• 1. Generates heat and increases.
• 2. Quickly oxygenates the blood, detoxifying and removing waste more effectively.
• 3. Builds lung capacity, balancing and strengthening the Nervous System.
• Cautions: If you feel dizzy when practicing Breath of Fire, you should stop and substitute normal breathing. If you suffer from vertigo or if you are menstruating you should not practice Breath of Fire, use Belly Breathing instead. You should be careful practicing Breath of Fire if you have high blood pressure, heart disease or suffer from stroke or epilepsy. Also, if you have acid or heat related gastric issues such as ulcers you should use caution.

Benefits of Rhythmic Breathing

*Add to your walking and jogging routine!

• Benefits
• 1. Enhances endurance and strength.
• 2. Elevates oxygen levels, purifying lungs and eliminating toxins
• 3. Re-establishes the body's own natural rhythm

Benefits of Sounding Breath aka Ujjayi

Sounding Breath is also called victorious breath or ocean breath. Sounding breath is classified as a diaphragmatic breath. Unlike normal shallow breathing, diaphragmatic breathing flexes your diaphragm and not your rib cage. This deep breathing is healthier as it allows you to ingest more oxygen. Can be practiced during exercise, relaxation, meditation, and throughout the day whenever calming and/or enlivening energy is needed.

Benefits

• Relaxes and calms the body and mind.
• Revitalizes and rejuvenates the entire body.
• Rebalances the internal systems, helps the body regain it’s equilibrium and promotes longevity.
• Excellent technique for those who can’t sleep and helps treat insomnia.
• Helps lower blood pressure.
• Very soothing during menstruation.
• Helps regulate the thyroid.
• Helps eliminate snoring.
• Good for heart, asthma, tonsil, cold and cough.
• Creates concentration while develops stamina and endurance.
• Diminished pain from headaches and relief of sinus pressure.
• Strengthening the nervous and digestive systems.
• Helps in concentrate and direct your breath giving the asana you are practicing the right power and focus.
• Lowers blood pressure and decreases heart rate.
• Energizes you.
• Very beneficial in lung or respiratory diseases as asthma and tuberculosis.
• Improve your digestive capacity.
• Soothes and tones the nervous system.
• Enables to regulate the prana into the body.
• Helps in the reduction of phlegm, relieves pain in chest, and clears out throat.
• Also beneficial for individuals suffering from nausea, dullness and fatigue.
• For asthmatics, Sounding Breath is most effective for correcting and strengthening the condition of lungs and the bronchiole linings.

Sounding Breath stretches the breath, warms it before entering into the lungs and helps to build heat in the body. This technique stretches and warms the breath before it enters into the lungs. This helps in generating heat that is effective for the elimination of the toxins in the body.

In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali suggests that the breath should be both dirga (long) and suksma (smooth). The sound created by gently constricting the opening of the throat to create some resistance to the passage of air. Gently pulling the breath in on inhalation and gently pushing the breath out on exhalation against this resistance creates a soothing sound like the sound of ocean waves rolling in and out.

How to perform:

• Sitting with your spine straight, or lying down on your back, take a few deep breaths. Allow your body to be relaxed.
• With a slow and steady breath, breathe through the nostrils, gently contract the back of your throat (the glottis), creating a soft audible hissing sound. The sound is like a gentle snore as is you were in a deep, relaxed sleep. To learn how to create this sound, practice whispering the “haaa” sound with your mouth open on both the exhalation and the inhalation, or exhale out your mouth the “haaa” sound as if you were blowing fog on eye glasses to clean them. Feel the sensation of the breath in the back of your throat. Then close your mouth and breath in and out through the nostrils creating the sounding breath.
• Lengthen the breath as much as possible and focus on the sound. Repeat for 5 to 10 minutes. As you advance your breathing practice, repeat breathing technique for longer periods of time.

Special Notes:

• You may wish to hold the breath briefly at the top of the inhalation and /or at the end of the exhalation.
• Create a circular breath by connecting the inhalation to the exhalation. Allow the breath to create on continuous flow, visualizing a circle of light moving up the back of the body as you inhale and down the front of the body as you exhale, and breathe around that circle.

Both inhalation and exhalation are done through the nose. Perform while breathing through the nose but narrowing the throat by partially closing the epiglottis (it may also be compared to a light snoring sound or the sound of an ocean wave). This sound is a result of friction of the incoming or outgoing air at the base of the throat and not from friction in the nostrils.

Contradictions: Recent surgery to abdomen or chest. (NOTE: All breathing techniques are best done on an empty stomach.