For something that is the most important thing to our survival, breathing is a function we rarely think about. The body takes care of it for us, but unlike many other functions, like the beating of the heart, we can control our breathing and regulate the pattern of it if we choose.
In ancient Sanskrit, the art of using the breath as a healing or meditative tool is called pranayama. This is usually translated to mean “mastery of the life force”. There are different forms of this, from doing alternate nostril breathing to releasing the breath in multiple short, forceful spurts, but the idea behind it is to bring more oxygen to the blood and to the brain.
Continue reading “#14 Breathing”