YOGA WITH SRI | DIRGHA PRANAYAMA DEEP YOGIC BREATHING INTRO AND WARM UP | PRANAYAMA PRACTICE ZONE

Transcript

hey everyone and namaste welcome to yoga with sri to my pranayama practice zone [Music] when someone is stressed or anxious or tense the first thing we would tell them to do is to stop and take a deep breath deep breathing is called birga pranayama in yuga usually in india when elders bless their small children they say deergha yusman bhava so deergha is a word that is often used it is a sanskrit term dilga means long meaningful purposeful and also healthy so when they say deer ushman bhava they are blessing the child with a healthy long prosperous life a life of depth so deega pranayama also means the same it is about gradually stretching and expanding the breath and understanding the depths to which your breath can take you and that much deeper and calmer the mind becomes so it is a very insightful intuitive and introspective pranayama practice what are the benefits of deerga pranayama why you should do it it's very simple deerga pranayama relaxes your muscles when we breathe deeply this dilates the blood vessels and ensures blood circulation causing the muscles to completely relax it soothes down your nervous system so a direct consequence of this is that you become calm and composed it promotes a feeling of well-being inside so it is especially useful to people suffering from depression panic attacks or anxiety uh and insomnia lack of sleep so the pranayama promotes better quality of sleep it oxygenates your blood and oxygenates your brain cells so i think overall it is like um you know just just a burst of energy it promotes a burst of energy calmness and well-being throughout the body so please give your breath a chance welcome to birga pranayama practice or the three part yogic breath it is also known by this name in the west i truly believe that a simple warm-up is always essential when doing a nice deep pranayama practice like deerga pranayama just to take our body and mind to that zone and for us to intuitively understand where to take our awareness and mental focus while doing this practice especially if you're a beginner such practices may may be a little overwhelming or out of our capability to understand in the beginning but that's just fine it is the way it is so the more regularly you keep practicing your inner intuition will automatically educate you on what you're feeling what you're undergoing what it is doing to your mind and body such as the beauty of yoga so gradually the third eye or the agnya chakra will start to understand and also educate you becoming your inner teacher so don't worry about it i'm going to walk you right through what you're supposed to do so just have your mats out and comfortably sitting in sukhasana the three zones or the three parts of the body that are utilized in dirga pranayama first the abdomen or the diaphragm region right over here around and over the belly button your diaphragm is the muscle that participates in breathing so it is right here just like a flat muscle that contracts and expands when you breathe aiding the lungs and supporting the lungs so that's zone one and the zone two is your chest region the sternum the ribcage lungs everything right here the intercostal muscles all that is a little technical so just this area and the third region is right above the lungs the upper chest collar bone neck muscles shoulder so every your entire body is actually participating in breathing we are not aware of it but that's the way it is so first creating awareness in the belly region for this we are going to lie down on our backs and come into a modified bridge pose or say so lying down comfortably on the mat with your back your spine aligning with the mat my legs are bent at the knees and soles of the feet comfortably on the mat a little away from the bottoms make sure you don't overly curve your spine just nice and relaxed neutral spine stacking the palms one over the other for just supporting the neck cushioning it under the neck so take a deep inhale as you inhale start raising your hips off the mat off of the ground as high as you can go and start to breathe close down the eyes automatically see my belly inflates and rises up when i breathe in and when i exhale belly falls back towards the spine you can do this three to five times so what happens in bridge pose is that it's it's the i think it's the easiest yoga asana for creating awareness of the diaphragm region because when you actually sit and try to die from breathing muscles that aren't supposed to participate like the back muscles start participating and it becomes a little stressful but when you lie down and actually come up to bridge pose and practice die from breathing or belly breathing it it warms up easier and it's easier for everyone to do beginners to advanced practitioners so next we're are creating awareness of the chest region for this hold yourself at the ribcage on either side of your body much like you would hold a child and start to sip in air in small gulps in small bursts like you would sip water through a straw so exhale fully relax your shoulders fill your lungs with air hold and slowly exhale through your nose emptying the lungs so when you hold yourself at the rib cage you have a better awareness of your lungs filling up with air so this is chest awareness let's do it three times let it go one more time exhale make sure you exhale slowly last inhale awesome now awareness of the upper part of the chest throat and taking the breath up to the crown of the head slowly start inhaling and tilting your head backwards as much as you're comfortable if you're not comfortable you can also cushion your neck like this with your palms and take the neck behind so yogi's choice up to you whatever makes you feel supported and relaxed so spine is straight sitting on the sitting bones relaxing the shoulders inhale exhale as you return to the center three more times so this breathing opens out your throat region it's especially beneficial for people suffering from asthma or sinus problems or people who wake up all the time with a blocked nose so if you're someone like that you can use this warm up to get you in that zone for dilka pranayama