Take a moment, pause. Soften your skin, relax your jaw. Breathe in deep, and out long. Breath from your belly to your collar bones with each inhale, and soften any tension in your body as you exhale. Delight in the connection between your breath and your nervous system/your mental well-being.
Pranayama (the yoga science of breathing) is generally thought of as the control over the breath. By consciously changing the length, depth, force, and frequency of the breath, we are able to very effectively influence the autonomic nervous system. Thus, we then can influence control over physical processes like our digestion, our circulatory system, our heartbeat, and our mental state.
“But, if we think of the breath as a manifestation of the universal life force, we would be silly to believe we have “control” over this. For example, if you try to kill yourself by holding your breath, you will eventually pass out, and your breathing will start automatically. We are not ultimately “in control” here.“* So this translates our understanding of pranayama into something much sweeter than controlling the breath.
A Tantric Translation of Pranayama
Refine the breath, or participate with the breath, so as to align with a bigger energy. THIS is pranayama in it’s own greatness. A true gift available to every living being on the planet.
“Our freedom is to align with her power (the goddess form of our breath), not control it. Breathing, therefore, should be appreciated as a divine and sacred gift.”*
Breathe in, breathe out. Namaste’!
Whispers of the Beloved, RUMI p.99
To place you in my heart
May turn you into thought.
I will not do that!
To hold you with my eyes
May turn you into thorn.
I will not do that!
I will set You on my breath
So you will become my live.
RUMI