EXHALATION, INHALATION AND RETENTION OF BREATH

Each of us naturally actually performs breath retention (stambha) not even noticing it.

Breathing practices in a yogic way cultivate the natural processes of inhalation, exhalation and breath retention fixing them in the chosen parts of the body and for the chosen period of time. It also transforms our mechanical mind making us conscious beings.

Based on my rich experience with pranayama and its techniques and quite big experience in teaching some of those techniques too I would say that the duration of inhalation, the exhalation and the retention of breath should be chosen personally. This will be especially smart for those who find themselves right at the beginning of this multileveled practice  because the quantity and nature of the waves of mind and their expressions differ in every and each person, each and every hour, each and every day.

To those who are right at the beginning of the pranayama techniques it may be a bit difficult to keep the mind concentrated on breathing but as this is just a passing phase one should not give up. The most important for the pranayama techniques is to practice them with complete awareness, big patience and with absolute ahimsa (in this case not injuring own self).

Just in that way one can get his own inner life to know and to transcend it, what ever that in each and everyone’s life may mean.

This happens completely naturally and effortless. It is also called kevala kumbhaka or spontaneous retention of breath.

This is like a high-end breathing. It is a feeling and experience/knowledge of transcendental energy.

The benefits of the breathing exercises are numerous, to mention a couple:

pranayama practices produce heat which burns the impurities within body as well mind, produce sweat and clean the body of toxins, clean the respiratory tract, strengthen the lungs, influence the energy sheaths and bring balance and harmony between them, rise the individual prana and move to the higher level, reduces anemia, rejuvenate the complete being and his mind, regulates the ratio between CO2 and oxygen and many more.

All modern breathing techniques and breathing therapies are more or less based on the old yogic techniques. Modern breathing therapies for the regulation the ration between CO2 and oxygen such as Capnometry-assisted-respiratory-training or CART or other therapies whereby the patient uses various devices (German patent protected) are used to heal the patients suffer of depression, anxiety, impulsivity, lack of attention, concentration.

As in yogic breathing exercises, the central role in modern breathing techniques and therapies has the breath retention.