Pranayam Counting Art Of Living

[Mario Roby]

Evernotice how soothing a simple sigh can be at the end of a long day? There are a variety of breathing techniques that are known to reduce stress, aid in digestion, improve sleep, and cool you down. Here are instructions on four pranayama exercises worth practicing and the most beneficial times to do them.

How to do it: Start by sitting in a comfortable seat with a tall, straight spine, and exhale completely. Inhale briefly through both nostrils, then sharply exhale (again out of your nose) while pulling your navel in toward your spine. The exhalation is short and quick, but very active, while the inhalation is short and passive. Again, pull your navel in as you exhale and soften it on the inhalation. Do one round of 30 (counting your exhalations) and rest for a minute with some deep breaths in between. Repeat. If this seems strenuous, start with 15 and gradually work your way up.

How to do it: Find a place where you can sit comfortably with a straight spine. Take a steady breath in through both nostrils. Inhale until you reach your lung capacity; maintain a tall spine. Hold your breath for a second, then constrict some of the breath at the back of your throat, as if you were about to whisper a secret, and exhale slowly through both nostrils. This exhalation will sound like an ocean wave or gentle rush of air. You should feel the air on the roof of your mouth as you exhale. Repeat up to 20 times.

Breathing is one of the most natural things we do as humans. It is a gift and a very powerful tool that can enable us to create more ease and balance in our lives. Taking time to focus on the breath allows us to pause from daily stresses, physical symptoms, and emotions that have taken over the mind. It is in that moment where we focus on the breath that we can return to a neutral state of being, gain clarity, feel rejuvenated, and enhance an overall sense of well-being. These are just a few wonderful reasons to invite a pranayama practice into your daily routine.

I first discovered yoga in my 20s. I attended a weekly class but struggled to find a personal connection to the practice. In 2018 I began teacher training for yoga on weekends while working full-time. I was not interested in teaching yoga. Rather, I wanted to incorporate it into my life. I now have a personal practice and have led yoga classes and meditations in corporate settings, studios, recovery centers, on the beach and online.

Yoga is more than just handstands and fancy pants. It is the single most effective healing modality I have found! Yogic postures are a helpful tool for healing and stress relief. Yoga is a way of living that was outlined thousands of years ago. It presents tools such as breathwork, meditation, mindfulness and service to others.

When I decided to leave my consulting job in 2019, I started taking exams again to advance my career. I was concerned about sitting, as it weighed heavily on my mental and physical well-being in the past. However, I was now aware that frequent breaks to breathe, meditate and move would make me more productive. Mindfulness and meditation eventually led me to investigate new study techniques. I highly recommend this book for anyone actively studying: Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown.

For many people, incorporating yoga into their lives takes time, patience and ahimsa (a Sanskrit word meaning compassion). One way to begin practicing yoga and feeling the benefits right away is through pranayama. Pranayama is a Sanskrit word meaning life force and loosely translates to breathwork. Our breath is an effective and accessible stress reliever. Here are three pranayama exercises that you can try right now:

When stressed, people tend to take shallow breaths which causes the air sacs in our lungs to collapse and increases the CO2 levels in our blood. This in turn causes more stress! By inhaling fully and then introducing additional oxygen, the pockets in our lungs are forced to reinflate. This engages our parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest mode).

Another way to begin practicing yoga is to incorporate chair yoga into your workday. You can find short, simple chair yoga flows on YouTube. You are practicing chair yoga without even knowing it when you stretch your arms overhead or rotate your neck while at your desk. Chair yoga helped me become more mindful. I used to think a headache was a cue to pop an Advil, but now I see it as a notification to stretch, rest and drink water.

Yoga has helped me overcome personal obstacles: the fear of not being good enough; physical pain, anxiety, stressors at work; and the stress of exams, to name a few. As a result, I am passionate about sharing how yoga can help others too. I have led colleagues in virtual and in-person yoga, meditation and chair yoga de-stress sessions. I was also blessed to start an employee-led wellness committee. I hope to continue this work with my new company and within the CAS.

As actuaries we are constantly analyzing and reviewing the past, while projecting and sculpting the future. No wonder it can be tough for us to stay in the present! Our work can be stressful, and exams create immense anxiety. Yoga has helped me quiet my overactive mind, ignite my parasympathetic nervous system and experience a mind-body connection. It has enabled me to work and study more efficiently and live life to its fullest potential.

If we observe an animal being chased by a predator, after the long pursuit, if the animal runs free, we may notice their body physically quiver to reset their nervous system. The ability to literally "shake it off" is a natural response that some animals have to relieve stress and trauma, and rebalance their nervous system.

Although our most imminent dangers may be impending deadlines, road rage, financial insecurity or taxing schedules, our nervous system may still interpret our anxiety, stress and fear as a response to a potential life threat. The impact of this stressor over time may be detrimental to our long-term health, because we don't reset our nervous system, remaining in fight or flight. This activates our sympathetic nervous system, accelerating our adrenal glands, cortisol levels and hormonal balance, which can affect our aging process.

Breathing deeply, with a slow and steady inhalation to exhalation ratio, signals our parasympathetic nervous system to calm the body down. Long, deep breaths can also manage our stress responses to help decrease anxiety, fear, racing thoughts, a rapid heartbeat and shallow chest breathing. These responses can directly impact our physical, mental and emotional health, and longevity.

The yogic science of breathing, known as pranayama in the ancient language of Sanskrit, is a technique of breathing and breath retention that is practiced to increase the vitality, longevity and life-force of the body. Pranayama practices include the observation, control, expansion, retention and manipulation of the breath. Pranayama is a mechanism that can help increase memory, improve circulation and promote oxygenation of the blood. A recent study showed that "the physical and cognitive benefits associated with yoga and mindfulness may be due to mechanisms including pranayama and activation of the parasympathetic nervous system." This activation prompts the body to rest, rejuvenate and regenerate efficiently, allowing the system to detoxify and return to homeostasis.

For each practice, begin by sitting in a comfortable position either on a chair, a meditation cushion, or yoga mat on the floor. If you choose, you may lie down comfortably on a yoga mat or a firm surface. To stay awake, it is recommended that you do not lie down on a bed.

Ensure that when you breathe in, your abdomen (not just the chest) fills with air and expands, and that when you breathe out the abdomen contracts and becomes empty. If your system is under stress or anxiety, you may observe that when you inhale, the abdomen moves inward and when you exhale the abdomen moves outward. This is the reverse action of correct breathing and should be modified to inhale, expand the abdomen, exhale, contract the abdomen. All practices should be done on an empty stomach.

Meditation practices like mindfulness meditation or vipassana (which means to see things as they really are, or clear seeing in the ancient Buddhist language of Pāli) are both practices that include the observation of the breath. Focused attention on the breath fixates the mind to one point of concentration, and helps to ease the distraction of a wandering mind or multiple thoughts that can increase the heart rate or create anxiety and stress.

For this practice, simply begin by noticing your breath as you inhale and exhale through the nose. Do not change the rhythm, just observe its natural movement. Feel the sensation or temperature of the breath in the nostrils. Then, after 5 complete breaths, begin to inhale for a long count of 4 and exhale for a long count of 4. Sama-vritti or an equal breath ratio, engages the parasympathetic nervous system and creates a relaxation response. This simple technique relieves stress, anxiety or agitation. Once the initial ratio has been comfortably established, increase the ratio count to 6 and then 8.

Dirgha, meaning long or to lengthen from the ancient language of Sanskrit, is a pranayama that is designed to fill all three chambers of the lungs to facilitate deep oxygenation and remove toxicity from the blood. It eliminates shallow chest breathing and cultivates a deeper and longer breathing pattern which can aid in digestion, circulation and stress relief.

Place both palms on the abdomen with fingers pointing toward the navel. Steadily through the nostrils, slowly take a deep breath in, beginning to fill the abdomen with air. The abdomen should inflate like a balloon.

Then place the palms onto the upper chest, filling the chest, expanding the clavicle region, and lifting the collar bones. The lower part of the abdomen should be slightly drawn in, when the chest is full.

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