Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic

by Darren Main

  Chapter Eight

  Pranayama • The Breath of Life

  Man and woman, beast and bird live by breath. Breath therefore is called the true sign of life.

  —Taittiriya Upanishad 2:3.1

  Whole Wheat Breathing

  Just as the lion, tiger and elephant is tamed step by step, so is the breath controlled.

  —Hatha Yoga Pradipika 2:15

  When I teach my Introduction to Yoga workshop, the first topic I cover is how to breathe. It is the most essential part of hatha yoga, and the gateway into the higher limbs that we will be covering in upcoming chapters. When we do yoga poses without conscious breathing, they are little more than stretches. The stretches themselves have benefits, but their true potential cannot be fully realized without the breath. When we combine the asanas (poses) with deep, mindful breathing, they become a powerful tool for cutting through our mental, physical and emotional blocks.

  Pranayama is the fourth limb of yoga that Patanjali outlined in his Yoga Sutra. There are many pranayama techniques that can be practiced, ranging from simple to very advanced, but they all have a similar effect on our psychology and our sense of Self. These breathing techniques are the doorway into a heightened sense of awareness and a deeper sense of the deep unconscious mind.

  The Bible used by Jews and Christians also emphasizes the fundamental principle of breath, for when God created Adam, He breathed the “breath of life” into his lungs. Interestingly, the Hebrew words for “Spirit” and for “breath” are the same. [The Hebrew word for breath and Spirit is neshamah.]

  Although breathing seems simple enough, most have not learned to do it well. I often compare the breath to bread. White bread will fill us up and can easily drive away our hunger pains, but it is not really nourishing. It may keep us alive and help us to survive, but it can’t really promote good health. In fact a steady diet of white bread will diminish health and dramatically affect our longevity. Whole wheat bread on the other hand does more than simply convince us that we are full. It provides us with nutrients that help our bodies to heal and grow. White bread may enable us to survive and deaden our hunger pains, but whole wheat bread allows us to thrive.

  Most of us have learned to breathe in a white bread sort of way. The breath tends to be shallow and fast. This breath is like white bread in that it will keep us alive and it may even keep us from feeling as if we are suffocating, but that’s all it will do. Breathing in this way keeps us in survival mode, and until we change the breath, it will be very hard to grow and evolve, because we will be like a skipping record that repeats the same note over and over.

  Pranayama is the practice of breathing in a whole wheat fashion. When we do this, we not only give the body much needed oxygen, but we also fill our chakras and nadis with prana. [See Chapter 3.] We shift both the mind and body into evolution mode rather than staying stuck in survival, and we create a stable foundation upon which we can move into the higher limbs of yoga.

  Let’s turn our attention to the breath then, and explore the practice of pranayama. I want to demonstrate how the pranayama works, so in this chapter I will be focusing on only a few of the basic breathing techniques. The more advanced techniques are best learned from an experienced yoga teacher. Yet even the most basic breathing exercises have a profound effect on our spiritual growth, so be sure to practice them with mindfulness.

  The Physiology of Breathing

  As long as the breath is in the body, there is life. Death is the departure of the breath. Therefore one should restrain the breath.

  —Hatha Yoga Pradipika 2:3

  Several years ago I took a vacation to the Hawaiian island of Maui. My goal was to spend as much time as I could on the beach, doing yoga, swimming and getting a tan. I found a great stretch of white sand called Little Makena beach, and there I parked my beach chair to enjoy the sun and surf.

  While I was there I found a new love for snorkeling. Snorkeling at Little Makena Beach made me feel a lot like that little plastic scuba diver that you see in fish tanks because I found myself among numerous colorful fish and exotic coral formations. It almost seemed unreal. One of the most amazing things about snorkeling at this location was the family of giant sea turtles that lived there. At first I didn’t know how to respond to these beautiful creatures. They were large and slow, but graceful and free. They seemed so centered and quiet.

  As I swam at the surface, breathing through my snorkel, I felt like a casual observer. I was reminded of a documentary that I had seen about animals with very long life cycles, and the giant sea turtles were right at the top. According to this documentary, there was a correlation between the rate of respiration and an animal’s life expectancy. It seemed that the slower and deeper various animals breathed, the longer they were likely to live.

  Dogs, for example, breathe fast and heavy and only live about twelve years. Rabbits and rodents breathe even more frequently and have an even shorter life span, whereas animals like the sea turtles breathe very deep and very slow and can live for over a hundred years.

  Watching these very old creatures move so fluidly and freely, I was inspired to deepen my breathing through the snorkel. I started practicing durga pranayama. In this breath, you fill and empty the lungs completely. The breath is intentionally slow and full, allowing the entire capacity of the lungs to be realized. As I did this, the colors of the fish and coral seemed to get more vivid, and my already relaxed experience became even more lucent.

  I felt inspired to quit my role as casual observer, and I dove down as deep as I could. I tried not to get too close to the turtles, as I didn’t want to disturb them. I came up for air a few times, but after a few dives, I became less and less dependent on the breath. On the third or fourth dive, two of the sea turtles came to investigate, and began to swim with me. They were less than three feet from me, and they seemed to want to play. I reluctantly came up for air, but went down many more times. I spent most of that afternoon playing with these awesome beings. What was amazing was how alive I felt from using my breath in such a deep and conscious way. My body and mind slipped into a state that was so relaxed and peaceful that I felt like time stood still, and I could feel a great rejuvenation that was reminiscent of a childhood nap.

  What happened to me that day was something that we strive to create each time we practice yoga. It is not something that happens by accident or even something that is difficult to achieve. In fact, it is based in large part on our nervous system and our physiology.

  A significant part of the human body is beyond our conscious control. Functions such as the heartbeat, digestion and elimination are under the control of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is what keeps track of all the little details, so we can focus on more evolved things. It keeps us from forgetting to breathe, for instance. Without the ANS, we would spend an enormous amount of energy thinking about things that we normally take for granted, such as healing a cut finger and keeping the heart beating.

  The ANS has two basic subdivisions known as the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. Both of these subdivisions are essential to our survival and our sense of well-being, but for very different reasons. When we allow the mind to be quiet, these two limbs of the ANS work in harmony. When we allow our egos to run the show, these two systems fall into a state of imbalance.

  The sympathetic nervous system is often called the “fight or flight” system. It is responsible for dealing with emergencies. For example, if a large, hungry bear were chasing you, the fight or flight aspect of the ANS would tell your adrenal glands to release adrenaline. It would also tell your heart to beat faster and your lungs to breathe more quickly. It would instruct the internal organs to constrict slightly for protection, while simultaneously sending blood from those organs to the arms and legs to help in the getaway.

  The parasympathetic nervous system is often called the “rest and digest” system. It is this branch of the ANS that tells the body how to function when there is no imme
diate danger. When this system is engaged, the breath is deep and full and the heartbeat is slow and rhythmic. The vital organs are relaxed and have plenty of blood to function at maximum efficiency. It is the parasympathetic nervous system that allows us to eat a healthy meal, digest it fully, assimilate the important nutrients, and then eliminate the unneeded portion. It is this aspect of the ANS that regulates the immune system and governs the kidneys’ blood filtering function.

  Although both aspects of the ANS are essential, many of us spend far too much time in fight or flight mode even though we don’t live in immediate physical danger. The ANS doesn’t know the difference between real physical danger and the stress created by the mind. Therefore, when our mind is overactive, our bodies live in a state of “fight or flight” rather than one of “rest and digest.” This has dire consequences for our health and well being.

  Because the ANS operates unconsciously, it is very difficult to regulate it. For example, a person’s blood pressure may be elevated because of job stress. That person may even be aware of that stress and the need for change, but because the ANS is largely an unconscious part of our wiring, it is not that simple to just say, “Okay body, lower my blood pressure.”

  Luckily, we have the breath to work with. The breath is the bodily function that is controlled by both the conscious mind and the ANS. It is also an important part of both “fight or flight” and “rest and digest.” Because we can consciously change the breath, it works as a switch that allows us to choose what aspect of our nervous system will dominate our physiology.

  Think about the last time you found yourself late for work and stuck in a traffic jam. Most of us habitually respond with a “fight or flight” response. I know that I can feel my hands gripping the wheel a bit more tightly, and adrenaline beginning to course through my veins. My shoulders begin to tighten and I find that my vocabulary takes a decidedly steep turn downward in the gutter direction. All of this is part of a “fight or flight” response. As I have mentioned, this part of the ANS is in place to help us when we are in danger. The problem, of course, is that there is no danger. The traffic jam will not improve with your elevated blood pressure, and adrenaline will serve nothing in this scenario except to weaken the immune system and make you feel like a tiger in a cage.

  The next time you find yourself in a traffic jam or some other stressful situation, try breathing deeply and slowly, the way you do in yoga class. Notice how quickly your body returns to a more healthy and rested state. By returning control to the “rest and digest” part of the ANS, we allow our bodies to find a natural state of health. This natural state of health becomes the foundation on which we can heal the mind and purify our perceptions of ourselves and the world outside.

  The Psychology of Breathing

  When the breath is unsteady, the mind is unsteady. When the breath is steady, the mind is steady and the yogi becomes steady. Therefore one should restrain the breath.

  —Hatha Yoga Pradipika 2:2

  The interesting thing about using the breath to counter the physical effects of psychological stress is that the signal travels both ways. While the initial cause of our physical stress was a mental story that was being expressed in the body, we can change our minds by changing our physiology.

  Let’s take that traffic jam example again. If you were responding to that traffic jam with mental stress that then led to a “fight or flight” response on a physical level, you could not only change your physiology by deepening the breath; but could also change your mind at the same time. Because the body and mind are hardwired into each other, they cannot exist in a state of contradiction. The body cannot be in a physical state of stress if the mind is at peace, and the mind cannot be in a state of mental stress if the body is in “rest and digest.” Therefore we can quite literally change our thought patterns and our psychology by changing our physiology.

  At my last Introduction to Yoga workshop, I covered the basic breathing and yoga poses. In that class there was a young woman named Ashley. She seemed quite resistant to the practice and actually declared at the start of the workshop that she was only there because her romantic partner Susan had dragged her along. I didn’t expect that she would do much with the practice, and I was even a little surprised that she stuck it out through the whole workshop. To my surprise, however, she asked me for a copy of my schedule at the conclusion of the workshop and took class with me almost every day for a week. She even came a few times on her own without Susan dragging her along. I could tell she was really enjoying her practice in spite of her initial resistance. After about a week and a half of classes, she approached me with a series of questions.

  “I know I wasn’t very friendly and warm when I first met you,” she said. “I felt like I was being dragged to some new age cult. All I ever hear about is how great yoga is and I wanted to buck the system and hate it just to be different,” she said with a wry grin.

  “So why have you continued with your practice?” I asked her.

  “I don’t know,” she replied, “but I can feel it changing me, and for the better. It’s almost scary though. I feel like my whole way of thinking is being turned upside down. Hell, some guy at the gas station told me I have a nice smile. I haven’t heard that since I was about seven. What’s happening to me?”

  Before I answered her, I asked, “Do you like the change? Or would you rather keep things the way they were?”

  “I like the change a lot, but I’m a bit nervous,” she said. “I’ve only been doing this stuff for about a week, and already I feel like a different person. Part of me is afraid that I won’t be recognized at my family reunion in July.”

  It’s the same for all of us when we start a yoga practice. The experience of doing the poses in conjunction with the breathing re-programs the computer, so to speak, and everything we experience from that point on is different.

  Finding yourself in a yoga pose is not that much different from finding yourself in a traffic jam or in a difficult relationship. When a pose is done properly, there is no danger to the physical body. Yet in spite of this, the mind tends to create drama around the pose. Most of us start judging either the pose, our bodies, the teacher or the person next to us. We often shake and tremble and wonder why we keep coming back to this awkward space.

  If this is where your practice ends, you have cheated yourself. The key is to breathe deeply into the pose, shifting the nervous system from the “flight or fight” mode to the “rest and digest” mode. This, of course, has immediate physical and mental benefits. As we have already noted, a shift on the physical level has to translate into a shift on the mental level and vice-versa.

  This is only the beginning, however. In addition to making yourself more peaceful and healthy in the moment, you are also breaking an old habit. Rather than meeting the challenge with stress and drama on a physical level, you are training your mind to respond to stressful situations in a new way. You have introduced a choice, and you no longer need to react to life in an unhealthy or uncentered way.

  Of course you may still choose to react with “fight or flight,” but you will at least have the option. In the beginning, this choice will be made in a more conscious way. Most often, when you find yourself in the middle of a situation causing you stress, and when you realize your mind and body are no longer at peace, you will breathe deeply and pull the mind back under control. The more you practice pranayama, the more natural becomes this choice for peace, and you will find that you go down the dead-end road less and less often.

  The last time I moved, I found a box of old journals. I spent an nostalgic hour or so poring through them. It was interesting to see how my early journals were filled with dramas and stress. In one, I wrote three pages about my anger and frustrations regarding the Gulf War. I could see the tension in my writing, and I remembered being so passionate about the way our government was handling the whole situation.

  Today, I am still very politically aware and I love a good protest, but I no longer let th
e events of the world rob me of my peace of mind. I see the problems that face our world and I try to be a part of the solution, but I no longer respond with anger. At first I thought that taking a more peaceful approach to life would mean letting go of the idea of being proactive, but I have learned that I can be much more effective when I maintain my center.

  Because of my pranayama practice, my mind responds differently than it once did. It happened so naturally and smoothly that I hardly noticed.

  Pranayama and the Energy Body

  Like milk and water blended together, mind and breath have the same action. Where there is breath, there is thinking. Where there is mind, there is breathing.

  —Hatha Yoga Pradipika 4:24

  Just the physical and psychological effects of pranayama make it an invaluable practice, but those benefits pale in comparison with the energetic effects of a strong pranayama practice. In fact, the primary way in which pranayama affects us is on the energetic level.

  The word pranayama is usually translated as breath control, but when the word is broken down we can see just how intimately this practice relates to our subtle body. [See Chapter 3.] The first part of the word is prana, which means “life force” and the second part, yama, literally means “extension.” Therefore pranayama is the practice of extending or amplifying one’s life force.