Breath Quality = Life Quality | October’s Newsletter

The Quality of your Life Depends on the Quality of your Breath 

Greetings Compadres!
Fall has finally arrived here in Gozo with cooler temperatures and rain (yay) turning our landscape from shades of brown to green.

Fall has always been my favourite season. In the Yoga Tradition it’s believed that this is the Spiritual New Year. Fall’s theme is RELEASE and BALANCE of mind, body & soul.
What better way to do that than through your BREATH!

Ah the beloved breath! We wouldn’t be here without it – how much importance do you give it considering it’s keeping you alive?

Breath Check Practice:
* What is the quality, quantity and shape of each breath you take?
* Do you naturally breathe in and out from the nose or from the mouth?
* If you feel anxious, stressed, facing a challenge and/or conflict what happens to your breath?
* Can you feel that each inhale offers stimulation and each exhale relaxation?

I recently read a book I highly recommend called
Breath: New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
He uses a practice called Sudarshan Kriya which is a breath exercise from the Kundalini Tradition hailed as THEE breath practice to bring your body, mind and soul in balance.

Research has proved that this breath exercise has helped people with mental disorders come off their medications, helped asthma sufferers to no longer rely on inhalers, cured depression, ptsd, anxiety etc. It’s powerful and simple.

The eyes remain closed the entire practice
We use a breath called Ujjai pranayama where you restrict the breath coming in and out from the nose from the back of the throat. Kind of like fogging up a mirror but with your mouth closed and on both the inhale and the exhale.

Then it’s as simple as:
Inhale from the nose and count to 4
Hold the breath in and count to 4
Exhale from the nose and count to 6
Hold the exhale out and count to 2
REPEAT for 20-30mins for full benefit then rest in meditation

Here is a link to follow so you can focus on breath and not on counting, this is from the Art of Living

If you do practice this I’d love to hear your progress and experiences.