PRANA, the life force, the Breath
By: Hope Zvara RYT500, CPT, owner of Copper Tree Wellness Studio

            I never valued the breath or even that I had one, until after my first yoga class.  The average human breathes 21 thousand 600 times a day.  How many times you are even aware that the breath exists or that without it you would not be in existence? You can survive without food and water, but you cannot survive with out the breath, your life force or as translated to Sanskrit (the yogic language) Prana. 
The breath is no new discovery, we have been breathing since the beginning of man kind.  Great yogis, sages, saints and gurus (teachers) have valued and understood the breath long before us.
            Our breath is one of the most invaluable tools we have to offer ourselves. Deep breathing stimulates the immune system, raises the metabolism, lowers stress and brings vital oxygen into the body.  A raise in oxygen can eliminate a multitude of diseases (i.e. Cancer cannot live in an oxygenated environment) not to mention asthmas, anxiety, panic attacks, rapid heart beat, headache.
            When Prana is lost, the body is no longer; without Prana nothing is alive, nothing exists.  Prana is the link between the mind and the body, Prana is the spirit and without this there is no mind-body-spirit connection or soul existence. 
            Coming from many eastern practices alike it is thought that when one takes a breath, when you breathe in you are breathing in GOD and when you breathe out you are breathing out the ego.  So the idea that one is cleansing his/her self of impurities is also a cleansing of the ego state to a state of bliss and contentment. 
            Our breath makes a natural mantra “ham-sah”, inhalation “ham”, exhalation “sah”.  This mantra is just a realization of the sound of the breath, and in yoga this awareness allows one to keep a focus or allow oneself to guide the mind in one direction.  With the breath there is only one way in and one way out, and the mind has the ability  to stretch a million directions at once; so if we are to focus our mind on the flow of the breath then we allow ourselves to calm and focus our mind.  In yoga or meditation this is the point where a student may find the can finally begin to let go. 

AT HOME PRACTICE:
            In a comfortable position (standing, sitting, lying down) bring your awareness to the breath.  If you like place the right hand below the navel point and the left hand above the navel at the low ribs.  As you inhale listen for the mantra “ham” (sounds like hum), on the exhalation listen for the natural mantra “sah” (long a), if you are unable to hear your own mantra silently repeat the mantra to yourself.  Inhale for five counts, retain the breath for three counts and exhale for seven, always drawing the exhalation longer than the inhalation.  This practice is merely helping you to become aware of the breath, turning your breath into a moving meditation, an unconscious act into a conscious state of living.  This practice (with or without the retention of breath) can be done any time anywhere, the simple art of the breath is no old news but in today’s society old news can be life changing.