Why Practice Pranayama?
Simple yoga breathing exercises can be done any time to help calm your mind or give you an energy boost. Breathing exercises in yoga are referred to as pranayama which translates to breath control. Yogis believe that the breath is not only life-giving, supplying essential oxygen to every cell in our body; but that it also carries prana, the universal vital energy. In practicing yoga, one of our intentions is to harness this power in order to fuel our bodies and minds. The breath is a bridge between the body and mind. Because prana rides the breath, breathwork is one way that we can move this energy throughout our bodies while at the same time strengthening its flow. Kabir, an Indian poet and mystic, once asked a student, “Student, tell me, what is God?” The student’s response was “He is the breath inside the breath.
