Here’s what you need to do. Breathe in as slowly and deeply as possible, stretching out your tongue and drawing in air as if through a straw, as if you are drinking divine nectar, and exhale through your nose, also slowly and deeply.
In just three minutes you can feel that your condition has changed. This type of breathing can be practiced without a time limit, but not less than three minutes.
In yoga, we can find not only slow breathing, but a huge arsenal of breathing practices, each with its own special purpose. The Scripture says about one of them: “Heaven will serve you if you regularly practice this type of breath twice a day, morning and evening, for only three minutes.” This type of breathing is called “Sitali Pranayama,” or “cooling breath.”
Breathing for yogis has always been the main instrument for regulating consciousness, the most effective and effective means for healing the mind and body. Only now, modern medicine finds evidence of this – for example, the simplest slow and deep breathing, according to doctors, helps reduce irritability, eliminate fears, pain and even depression.
Breathing can also help strengthen the immune system, the ability to concentrate and activate the release of “hormones of happiness” – serotonin and oxytocin. Research in this area confirms that deep slow breathing activates the parasympathetic system, which puts the body and mind in a mode of self-healing.
There are also several types of breathing using different nostrils. If you want to relax – close the right nostril, breathe slowly and deeply through the left; this type of breathing can be used as a remedy for insomnia. If you, on the contrary, want to cheer up, then close the left nostril and, actively moving your stomach, focusing on exhaling, breathe powerfully and quickly through the right – this type of breathing will give you strength.
There is also a recipe for breathing that helps with anxiety – it makes the mind more manageable and helps integrate difficult life situations. Close the right nostril with the thumb of the right hand and inhale deeply and slowly through the left one, then close the left nostril with the little finger of the right hand and exhale completely through the right. Inhale only the left, exhale only the right, perform at least three minutes.
All these techniques are time-tested and are always at your disposal. Even if you just become more attentive to breathing, that is, you will breathe slowly, feeling how air flows through the nostrils into the lungs, this can forever change your destiny, make you independent and truly happy.
