What is Bhastrika/Khapalabati/Breath Infusion?

Transcript

h that breathing practice is called kapalabhati or bastrika in english words it can be called breath infusion during that breathing exercise the focus is on the out breath now before you practice this you may want to blow your nose and just get everything kind of cleaned out in your nose so nothing is stopping you from really really working with this breathing exercise you don't want to have anything in your nose that you're self-conscious about so just go ahead and clean out the nose and get it ready for good breathing so this breathing exercise focuses on the out breath now in between each of those out breaths we infuse oxygen into the system so we take an in-breath but the in-breath just kind of comes in automatically as the diaphragm relaxes back down when we do that abrupt breath out you feel the diaphragm come up and it squishes the lungs and it expels the breath out of the body and so in doing this we're not just breathing out but we're actually detoxifying the system by getting lots and lots of carbon dioxide carbon monoxide and nitrogen and other waste products that the respiratory system has filtered out of your body and into the lungs to be unloaded out into the world where it can then in turn feed the trees and the plants so bastrika also known as breath infusion and kapalabhati means bellows breath so you can sort of imagine the bellows that ancient tool of the fireplace that stokes the fire if you push it out it kind of collapses and then we pull it back in and the air just kind of naturally vacuums back into the lungs just to be pushed right back out again let's try it inhale exhale through the mouth [Music] so why do we do this we do this during our exercises and in certain postures because it cleans out the system when we stretch the muscles the muscles unload toxins and waste and energies into the bloodstream once they get into the bloodstream the respiratory system gathers it up and expels it through the out breath so with this repetitive over and over and over breathing we are expelling a lot of waste from the system and in our yoga practice we are focused on purification and so this is very very important to purify the body through the pranayamas through the breathing exercises we can't really purify through the use of our asanas or exercises or stretches unless we apply that breathing so say for example that you're doing just a side stretch like this now in this side stretch i have opened up these muscles in the side of my body and down through the hip through the arm now i could just hold this posture and do some simple breathing or from within this posture i can apply that breath infusion and all of those toxins that are coming out of the muscles of my body as i'm doing that stretch are sort of being vacuumed out and moved out of my body and my subtle body [Laughter] inhale to the other side i always have to do the other side and yoga we always do opposite sides in balance [Laughter] inhale back to the center and exhale through the mouth now this is a very very powerful breathing exercise that rids the body of gases and waste and infuses into the system lots of oxygen if we only do our stretches without that applied breathing it's kind of like moving your furniture around in your house but not doing any vacuuming you can move the furniture around and things will look different things will appear different but nothing has really been cleaned up right nothing has really been purified once you move the furniture you've got to apply the cleaning mechanism to get everything purified so it's the same with our body we can do a stretch but we then have to apply that cleaning mechanism to really really get those purification results that yoga promises us we can read a lot about hatha yoga the asana the pranayama pratyahara and the three higher meditation levels of yoga dharana dhyana and samadhi in the book our scriptural reference text the kundalini hatha yoga pradapika and the best translation available is the one by michael beloved so i would encourage you to get that and you can learn a lot more about the mystic practice of pranayama and how it applies to yoga so again let's do this breathing practice together okay a lot of this movement is coming from the diaphragm the diaphragm is going up and down [Laughter] i can feel the front of it the back of it and the sides of the diaphragm all going up and down [Laughter] now as i become more advanced at this breathing practice the balance between the intake and outtake of the breath will start to even out and i'll be able to take in more and more oxygen because when you very first start this breathing practice you might notice that you get a lot of oxygen in your system and you may not be used to it and it may make you a little bit light-headed but as you practice and time moves on and you get those toxins out of your body and out of your system you'll be able to take in more and more oxygen and you can balance the breath out so it can be just as forceful of an inhale as it is an exhale [Laughter] because your body will become conditioned to the higher levels of oxygen and so on a physical level we know the power of oxygen we know that the purifying qualities on the physical level of oxygen we know that cancers and diseases cannot live in an environment full of oxygen on the subtle level on in the subtle body the energy body it increases our vibration and this is so important for spiritual aspirants people who believe in reincarnation and the future incarnations of their being this makes a difference in what higher dimension you may or may not be eligible for because in the end it's all about your vibration and you can see my video called is it all about your vibration so this pranayama this kapalabhati astrika breath infusion is the king of pranayamas in yoga and we believe that it will get you to your goal faster than any other pranayama so i hope this helps if you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments or any comments or experiences that you had with bastrika so we'll end some breathing together right to the center of the head i am i exist we feel the energy and the oxygen coursing through the system we feel it everywhere in the body from the toes to the belly to the spine all the way up through the head and the eyes the scalp enjoy your quiet time enjoy your day thanks for listening