Ancient Yoga Breathing Promotes Health
Essential to Ayurveda is the daily practice of yoga stretching and the importance of breathing correctly. Yoga breathing helps the mind and body become one. Learning to breathe correctly helps you remain calm in your daily living, during exercise and in stressful times.
Yoga breathing is nose breathing. For centuries, this has been known to slow the heart, lower blood pressure and relieve stress. Because it is a more efficient way to get oxygen into your body, it will enhance athletic performance. To practice it, start by doing some yoga stretches. Then walk with gradually increasing speed – breathing only through your nose – until you are jogging. When you can no longer nose-breathe easily, slow down until you can again breathe comfortably through your nose.
Do this back and forth several times – jogging, walking, etc., always breathing through your nose. Finish with more yoga stretches. Practiced regularly, this calms you and gives you a greater oxygen capacity intake as well as increased health and vitality.
