Here is a simple exercise to calm the turbulent mind: take longer breaths and watch the pause between breaths.
It may sound paradoxical to find calm amid the holidays frenzy, but here is an ancient, simple but powerful technique. You can practice it anytime anywhere and you don’t have to be a yogi to try it out.
This one is from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras I:34.
प्रच्छर्दनविधारणाभ्यां वा प्राणस्य॥३४॥
(pracchardana-vidharanabhyam va pranasya)
“There are many methods (to calm the mind). You can try to extend the breathing (prachchardana) and observe the breaks between the breaths (vidharanabhyam) to cultivate a calm and clear mind.”
In this sutra, Patanjali (over 1500 years ago) offers a practical, easy, and quick tool to calm the mind: breathing. Yogis have been saying for many millennia that “as breath is, the mind is”: “calle vattam, calle cittaam”. Now, science has proven it at the cellular level. The longer and more fluid the breath, the calmer the mind. The second part of this sutra is about pausing after expiration (vidharanabhyam).
We pause between breaths naturally regardless of whether we pay attention to it. Patanjali recommends becoming aware of these pauses. More specifically, Patanjali, an authority on yoga (which is much more than just the postures), spotlights expiration and pause after expiration.
Physiologically, when we inhale our heart rate speeds up and when we exhale it slows down. Yogis knew because they experienced it. They knew that inspiration was more energizing and exhaling was more relaxing. Patanjali suggests lengthening the breath and observing the pause after each exhale. During that break, we’re still, we don’t even breathe. This may be a unique moment nowadays since we are usually doing something or the other. Practising lengthening your breath and being aware of that pause can change our lives by changing us physiologically and chemically.
Believe it or not, doing this five minutes daily can change you in profound ways: from how you talk to others, to how you talk to yourself, to your entire attitude for the rest of the day.
Try this practice right now:
1. Sit in a comfortable position (on the floor or in a chair), relaxed but with the spine straight, which means the chest is stretched up and the iliac ridges pushed backward.
2. Breathe through your nose
3. Start to stretch out the breaths
4. Once the rhythm is smooth, become conscious of the pause after the expiration, then consciously increase it by one or two seconds (make sure it’s an effortless pause)
5. If the mind gets distracted, gently bring it back to focus on breathing. If breathing is not enough for the mind to focus, try linking breathing with one of the following:
– Mentally count the length of the inhalation and try to gradually extend it by twice the duration of the inhalation.
– Choose something that you would like to cultivate more in your life (e.g., trust, peace) and visualize that with every inspiration you bring it to yourself, and with every exhale you send it to someone else.
Prana is the life force that exists in every living being. This sutra suggests that we practice controlling the movement of this energy within us. This sutra introduces the first steps towards pranayama – extension of our prana, or breathing techniques to calm the mind.
To sum up, here are 4 stages or progressive levels of this exercise:
- Become aware of the breath
- Practice lengthening your breath
- Become aware of the pause after the expiration
- Gradually lengthen the pause after the expiration.
Let’s practice this all next week until New Year and then let me know in the comments how it goes.
