Yoga Breathing Exercises and Their Benefits
By Christopher Jay
Pranayama is one of the eight limbs of yoga. Pranayama is simply yoga breathing exercises. Learning these breathing exercises can enhance your yoga practice, but they can also be done alone to enhance and benefit your life when you are not on the yoga mat.
We all know that breathing is a fact of life, it is essential to life. And though we are unable to control the fact of whether we breathe or not, we can control the way we breathe. Yoga believes that the different types of breathing can affect our overall bodily health and life force and this belief is the core of the Pranayama or yoga breathing practices.
There are breathing exercises that are calming and then there are breathing exercises that are vigorous. We will first take a look at the calming yoga breathing exercises. The "three part breath" is usually a good starting yoga breathing exercise for beginners. This exercise will teach you the proper way to fill and empty your lungs completely. Another name for this yoga breathing exercise is Dirga Pranayama.
Alternate nostril breathing is a yoga breathing exercise that is used to bring balance to yourself. This breathing method will clear the energy channels within your body. An alternate name for this yoga breathing exercise is Nadi Sodhana.
The third yoga breathing exercise is the Cooling breath. This breath is a very simple breath and it is ideal for those hot summer days after you have done your yoga exercises. Another name for this yoga breathing exercise is Shitali Pranyama.
Then there are yoga breathing exercises that are meant to increase focus and energy. The first breathing exercise is the Ocean breath. This is a powerful breath that is used to help you maintain focus during your yoga exercises. This is a very invigorating for your practice. Another name for this breathing exercise is Uijayi Pranayama.
The Skull shining breath is an advanced breathing exercise and one that you will need to learn from an experienced teacher. You need to be careful with this breathing exercise as because it is possible to become lightheaded if you do not do it the right way. The name for this breathing exercise is Kapalabhati Pranayama.
Each of these yoga breathing exercises are meant to enhance your yoga practice experience and depending on the type of yoga you practice can also be essential to doing that yoga correctly. But these breathing patterns are not solely meant to be done during yoga, but can be done anytime to restore balance, focus and energy.
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