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| How is Pranayama useful for health and achieving spiritual well-being |
How is Pranayama useful for health and achieving spiritual well-being
Pranayama is part
of yoga and is a controlled or regulated or systematic and rhythmic breathing
exercise to not only improve the respiratory system, heart function, brain
intelligence, digestive system, fertility, etc. but it is also a practice to
achieve spiritual well-being.
PRANAYAMA is a
grouping of two words, "Prana" and "Yama". PRANA stands for
energy (breathing) and YAMA stands for control, i.e. control of energy or
breathing. The other meaning of PRANA means life, because if there is no
breath, there is no life. This means that if we control the breathing, we can
control our life. Now life is also our physical and mental health, what does
that mean? It’s clear that Pranayama can be used to control our physical and
mental health.
Now, how can Pranayama control our physical and mental
health? well, we all know that to maintain our physical health we do
physical exercise, in physical exercise we basically do repeated movements of
our body part in a controlled and systematic way. Pranayama also
works on the same principle, suppose you have breathing problems or want to
improve your lung function or make it stronger, then take a rhythmic breath,
vibrate the stomach and other internal organs repeatedly so that they become
stronger. All of this can be done by practicing different types of pranayama,
it is more effective than your other physical training because it directly
stimulates your lungs, brain, heart and other internal organs.
Exercise helps maintain your physical appearance by building
muscle or increasing strength, while pranayama is exercise to stimulate your
internal organs including lungs, heart, stomach, liver, pancreas, etc. the
intestines, gall bladder, kidneys, uterus, ureter, spleen, ovaries and
especially brain. Pranayama can control the secretions of harmonies which are
responsible for different functions of the body.
You do various physical exercises to keep your body well
maintained, but what about exercise for your brain, do you have physical
exercise for the brain. If so, how much time do you spend on it.
Pranayama is a mixture of physical and mental exercises
through the practice of rhythmic controlled breathing. It is not only used to
prevent disease or other health disorder, but it can also treat disease and it
has been scientifically proven.
What is the main objective of Pranayama?
Our lungs are underutilized and therefore the main goal of
pranayama is to increase the efficiency of the lungs to absorb more oxygen into
the blood with minimal breathing so that our body cells can get more oxygen rich
blood to balance the energy of the metabolism and expel more CO2 to maintain
healthy pH because the acidic body is home to many of the deadliest diseases
such as heart attacks and cancer.
The secondary goal of pranayama is to treat illnesses, improve
digestion (digestion is the main cause of most illnesses) and achieve spiritual
well-being.
The ultimate goal is to achieve a long healthy
life (physical + mental).
Why Pranayama, when physical exercise also helps increase respiratory rate to get more oxygen?
Pranayama can help control aging, live long lives by lowering
the rate of breathing and improving the efficiency of the lungs to exchange O2
and CO2.
When we exercise, the body needs more oxygen to generate more
energy, and then naturally our breathing rate increases to meet the needs of
the metabolism. With the increase in metabolism, the respiratory rate
increases, then we inhale more air in a rapid respiratory cycle and meet the
oxygen requirement. So the fundamental difference is that we take rapid breathing
while doing physical exercise i.e. increasing the breathing cycles where like
in Pranayama we control the breathing by taking a deep breathing, utilize lugs
fully and allowing the lungs to absorb
more oxygen i.e. supplying required oxygen with less breathing cycle.
How is Pranayama useful for health?
Our body is made up by three main elements i.e. Hydrogen (H2),
Carbon (C) and oxygen (O2). The lung is responsible for managing energy balance
by mixing oxygen in blood and removing carbon dioxide from our body. The cells
of our body need oxygen for metabolism (to burn carbohydrates and proteins) for
energy and the by-product of this reaction is CO2 which is waste.
To understand the usefulness of Pranayama, we need to
understand the function of the lungs. Let's try to understand the function of
the lung in brief;
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| Function of lungs and anatomy |
As shown in a diagram above, the lungs are paired, and the
trachea conducts inhaled air, divided into two bronchi, then into number of
bronchioles and ultimately ends up in clusters of microscopic alveoli. The
alveoli are where oxygen from the air is absorbed into the blood and carbon
dioxide (metabolic waste) is separated from the blood and exhaled. Alveoli are
clumps of tissue containing a thin layer of interstitium with a blood vessel
allowing oxygen to absorb into the blood and remove CO2 from the blood. There
are approximately 600 million alveoli in human lungs.
A healthy person breathes about 12 to 18 times per minute, it
takes about two seconds for inhalation and three seconds for exhalation of our
breathing rate and about three tenths of a litre of oxygen is transferred from
the alveoli to the blood every minute, even when the person is at rest. The breathing
rate also depends on our age and it is more in younger and less in old age.
Our brain is the primary controller of the respiratory rate by
controlling the contractions of the diaphragm and other muscles in the
respiratory organs. This is done unconsciously and consciously because there
are two sperate controllers in our brain. And therefore, we can consciously
control our breathing rate by holding the breath or changing the breathing
rate.
It has been observed that despite the above automated
respiratory system in our body, our lungs are underutilized i.e. we are not
breathing optimally. When we breathe, the gas exchange (i.e. the absorption of
oxygen into the blood and the expulsion of carbon dioxide) occurs most
efficiently in the lower part of our lungs, that is i.e. the alveoli, and it
takes some time to fully absorb oxygen and fully expel CO2.
People do not breathe deeply and therefore a quarter of the
lungs are used and 75% rest remains inactive.
Therefore, deep breaths are important, they allow air to reach
the alveoli where gas exchange takes place and make the blood more oxygenated.
Also, here a point should be noted that the supply of oxygen to muscle cells
throughout the body through the blood depends not only on the efficiency of the
lungs, but also on the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood and the efficiency
of the circulation system (heart and vessels). The practice of rhythmic
breathing makes the lungs stronger, improves blood circulation, the brain and
cells get more oxygen-rich blood, which makes man healthier and prolongs life.
This is the part where pranayama works to optimize breathing
as the optimization of breathing can influence our health and well-being since
it is directly related to the level of oxygen in our body and the elimination
of acidic caron dioxide.
In Pranayama, we control our breathing in a slow and deep
manner and thus increase the level of oxygen in our blood. Pranayama not only
strengthens our stamina, but it also helps reduce our stress levels through
concentration and calmer breathing. When we practice pranayama regularly and
effectively, the lungs become stronger and the blood becomes pure.
How is Pranayama useful for achieving Spiritual well-being?
Pranayama does not simply mean inhaling and exhaling air, but
it is a technique for establishing control by holding the breath after inhaling
and exhaling. Thus, it is a disciplined breathing technique and has following four
stages;
1. Inhalation - Taking air into the
lungs (in Sanskrit, this is called "Puraka")
2. Retention of inhaled air inside
the lungs (in Sanskrit it is called "Kumbhak")
3. Exhalation - expel unwanted gas from
the lungs (in Sanskrit it is called “Recak”)
4. Hold the breath after exhaling and
before starting another cycle.
While doing above four stages of rhythmic breathing, we must
focus on the breathing, controlling our thoughts, cooling our mind, freeing the
mind from lies, ignorance and all the other painful and unpleasant experiences
of the body and mind. This thought control process keeps our mind clear, and
then we have come to the stage of meditation which is the penultimate stage of
yoga i.e. Samadhi - related with the merging of the physical body into the
cosmic. i.e. the sensation of consciousness in weightlessness.
Thus, Pranayama helps to eliminate distortions of the mind
(stress, depression, anxiety, anger, etc.) and disabilities of the physical
body by practicing disciplined deep breathing.
Our mental and physical health is associated with our
relationships, both personal and social, therefore it is very important to
maintain good health.
What are the benefits of Pranayama?
- Improve the respiratory efficiency of the lungs by using its full capacity through deep breathing and increasing the lifespan of the individual.
- Help to adjust the three Doshas viz. Vata, Pitta and Kapha in appropriate proportions and eliminated health anomalies.
- Most of the diseases caused by the digestive system problem, Pranayama helps to improve it and thus to prevent and treat diseases.
- Pranayama is a controlled breathing exercise, improves oxygenation of the blood, blood circulation, and helps deliver oxygen-rich blood to the brain to stimulate it. It helps prevent and cure diseases related to the lungs, heart and brain.
- Some pranayama also stimulate the stomach and other organs, controls harmonies and thus help control obesity, cholesterol, constipation, diabetes, acidity, asthma, respiratory allergies, food allergies. , migraine, hypertension and arterial hypotension, gastroesophageal, constipation, Gastroenteritis, ulcers, kidney stones, clear blood clots, cysts in the ovaries, uterine fibroids, regulate the menstrual cycle and d 'other reproductive disorders, etc.
- Improves the body's immune system
- Improves skin and controls hair loss
- Improves eyesight and control aging
- Helps activate the Chakra energy to awaken the Kundalini.
- Trained the mind to be focused and help relieve stress, anxiety, and depression.
- Helps to remove toxins from the body and to balance physical and mental balance.
Summary
Pranayama is a
controlled, rhythmic, deep breathing exercise that helps increase the
efficiency of the lungs to absorb more oxygen into the blood so that the cells
in our body can get more oxygen-rich blood to balance metabolic energy with
less respiratory cycle and to expel more CO2 from our body to maintain healthy
pH as the acidic body is home to many of the deadliest diseases such as heart
attack and cancer.
Pranayama not only
helps to prevent illness, but also to treat several diseases, improve digestion
(digestion is the main cause of most illnesses) and achieve spiritual
well-being.
The ultimate goal of Pranayama is to lead a long healthy life
(physical + mental).
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