Keeping the Breath in Mind

It helps to have a focus for your attention, anchor line to tether you to the present moment and to guide you back when the mind wanders. The breath serves this purpose exceedingly well. It can be a true ally. Bringing awareness to our breathing we remind ourselves that we are here now, so we might as well be fully awake for whatever is already happening.
- John Kabat-Zinn

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krisha, Arjuna's Charioteer and Advisor, offers this piece of wisdom to Arjuna regarding the breath:

6.6 As you gain control of your mind, with the help of your higher Self, then your mind and ego become your allies. But the uncontrolled mind behaves as an enemy.

Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God? He is the breath inside the breath.

Benefits of Pranayama

Then sit and calm the mind and senses by concentrating on one thing: thus you practice Yoga (Meditation) for self-purification. Bhagavad Gita 6:12

Pranayama is a purifying practice. It cleanses our body and awakens our mind. It helps control the waves of our mind through the regulation of prana. When we learn to regulate the prana and make it function more optimally, we unlock the gateway to the subtle realm of self-healing, mastery of the mind and spiritual unfoldment.
Benefits of Pranayama:
* Drinking in gallons of vitality and immunity
* Supercharges the blood with extra oxygen
* The whole body vibrates with new life.
* Produces lightness of the body, alertness of the mind and sound sleep
* Eliminates sinus discomfort
* Exhilarates the blood circulation and stimulates the entire body

EnJOY.

Breath and the Heart

Observe too
The place in the body,
The duration, and the count.
II.50B

"You can also send the breath, just in your mind, to a part of your body where you're not so strong yet, to give it sort of an energy boost. You just picture the energy of the breath flowing down and freeing up any part of your body that feels stuck or "choked". It really is true that picturing your back loosening up, getting better again, can actually help it happen, as you do your poses. This is one big secret of how yoga really works."

"Now the master says too that you have to watch the duration of your breath - how long it takes to get a full breath in, and then a full breath out. Which is to say how fast you are breathing. It's not really important how fast or slow you breathe, but rather that your breathing is deep and rhythmic, without any gasping or panting - no broken starts and stops, no ragged edges."

"The habit of staying aware of the count, or making sure that the out-breath takes the same number of heartbeats as the in-breath, also begins to carry over into your everyday life - say, while you are working at your desk or facing a tense situation, it relaxes you and helps keep you from choking off your inner channels (nadis) in the first place."


How Yoga Works
Geshe Michael Roach & Christie McNally