Rating: 4.0 / 5
Price: $5.49
- ISBN13: 9781578633012
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Pranayama, the practice of breath control, is detailed here in an easy-to-understand and even easier-to-practise format. Professional yoga instructor Scott Shaw introduces 16 breathing exercises and shows you how to get the best benefit from each of the forms by training, refining and witnessing your breath. Try one of the calming breaths, Nadi Sudi or the Nerve Purifying Breath. Have a long day ahead with no breaks until after dinner? Allow Ujayi or the Hissing Breath to work its miracles. Here you will learn how to breathe while moving, standing and leaning and how these variations can affect your breathing practice. Use the instruction offered in “The Little Book of Yoga Breathing” to feel more focused and energized…. More >>
The Little Book of Yoga Breathing: Pranayama Made Easy. . .
Related posts:
- Yoga Breathing: Practice and Benefits
- Yoga Breathing: Practice and Benefits
- Yoga Breathing And Breathing Exercise
- BASIC TECHNIQUES OF YOGA BREATHING
- Learn About Yoga Breathing – What You Should Not Do!
- What is the big difference between Yoga breathing and Zen Meditation?
- The Runner’s Yoga Book: A Balanced Approach to Fitness
- Yoga breathing?
- Complete Yoga Book
- Please guide me How to buy a yoga book from india ?. Now I am in Dubai(UAE)?
This is a great little book for those wanting to learn more about the different types of breathing associated with yoga. The author provides simple, straightforward instruction on various yogic breathing styles, including Ujjayi and Alternate Nostril Breathing. He also talks about how to incorporate breathing into both your yoga practice and your daily life. An excellent reference book, especially for those who feel intimidated by the classic pranayama (breathing) texts.
Rating: 5 / 5
I am a personal growth coach who is educated in biology, biochemistry, biofeedback and psychology. I give workshops on stress management, coach executives on this topic and also do workhshops that combine these techniques with biofeedback. This gives you some background on me and my perspective that I’m writing this review from.
As someone who works with these techniques and sees the results via biofeedback with myself and others, I highly recommend this very inexpensive book as a brief overview and introduction to the topic. The author covers a lot of ground in a small space and the instructions are clear and simple.
If you practice these exercises as they are explained, they will cause effects in your physiology. Regulation of the breath is very tied to the nervous system and to heart rate variability which correlates with resilience. If you buy this book and get serious about a practice, I would pick up some additional material to augment this text such as the SCIENCE OF BREATH and THE LIGHT ON PRANAYAMA. The first of these is a more Western explanation by a respected yoga institute and the second is a classic text with a lot of detail.
I also highly recommend getting a home biofeedback program such as FreezeFramer or Healing Rhythms. You can read the descriptions of each and determine what is best for your needs. However, this additional step will really heighten your awareness and help you to develop more control over your internal states.
Rating: 5 / 5
Instead of wasting money on Iyengar’s books, this is safer, simple way of doing PRANAYAMA. This book is worth it’s weight in gold.
Alternet Nostril Breathing is the best for weight loss, however Ujjaini works, too, but little slowly.
Following are two techniques:
Alternate Nostril Breathing
(Anulom Vilom Pranayama with no breath retention) This pranayama (control breathing) is done with alternate breathing from the left and right nostrils for cleansing of Nadis. (energy meridians). Seated in a convenient posture, start off with slow inhalation from the left nostril first by closing the right nostril with the middle of right hand thumb ,and after fully filling the lungs, (not the belly breathing) breathe out slowly from the right nostril by closing the left nostril with the two ( left hand middle and ring) fingers. Now breathe in from the right nostril by closing the left nostril in the above manner and exhale from the left nostril by closing the right nostril with the right thumb. It completes one cycle. Do this for three minutes for two months then gradually increase to 5 minutes.
Do it two hour after eating or drinking. (Do it on empty-stomach) Do not eat for 15 minute after you are done. Better to lie down for five minutes after you are done. If you limit practice to maximum of five minutes, it will be the best.
The very first sign you will experience is lightness in the body and clearer thinking.
The practice of this breathing for a period of three to four months can open up thirty to forty percent of the heart arteries’ blockages. This pranayama alleviates all the diseases of the body, leads to the state of joy, enthusiasm for living , fearlessness, peace of mind and deep meditation.
Benefits:
-Hair will regrow within two months of practice.
-Body will go to it’s ideal weight by itself.
-Face becomes bright and luminous.
-Lost vision will return.
-Removes fear/anxiety of any kind.
- Aligns both hemisphere of the brain for full brain functionality
- Creates a deeper sense of well-being and harmony
- Helps alleviate migraines and headaches and frazzled states of being
- Works great in situations where you find yourself anxious, board and need grounding
-Blockages in the arteries of the heart are removed and the arteries become clean, making circulation unimpeded.
Ujjayi Pranayama
1. You can do this sitting, standing or walking anywhere anytime.
2. Inhale slowly through both nostrils, keeping the throat slightly constricted so as to make a gentle sound that will help you to feel the breath in the throat. The sound will remind you of ocean waves washing up the beach. Concentrate on the feeling of the breath moving in and out through the throat.
3. During inhalation do not allow abdomen to bulge out, let the chest expand.
4. After completing inhalation slowly exhale. (Either by both nostrils or by left nostril) During exhalation chest should go inside and abdomen should remain steady.
Remember :-
1. While doing Ujjiayi air should touch the throat.
2. Breath must be mentally locked in chest area. (Do not do belly breathing)
3. After practicing it for few days, knowing your limitations, keep the ratio between inhalation and exhalation 1 : 2.
4. In easy Ujjiayi Pranayama, inhalation and exhalation can be practiced by both the nostrils.
Benefits:
This simple practice has a subtle influence on the whole body. It calms the mind and has a soothing effect on the nervous system. Ujjayi is very useful for people with high blood pressure as it slows down the heartbeat. It has subtle effects on the flow of life force in the astral (energy) body and helps you to be aware of its movement within the sushumna (astral spine).
Rating: 5 / 5
This little book is an excellent guide for yoga breathing. You don’t have to dig through long texts (although interesting as well) about eastern life philosophy and can get straight to work. Several breathing techniques are explained in a couple of pages each and categorized per purpose, e.g. concentration, energy etc. definitely recommendable, especially when you’re `a starter’ and just want to experience some techniques.
Rating: 5 / 5
The concept for this book is great – a tiny pocket-sized book with just enough information on pranayama to assist a regular yoga practice. Ideal for a quick reference before all the prananyama exercises are memorized. Although small in size, this book is more likely to harm than help.
Aside from the fact that this book defines prana (life force energy) as “life-giving oxygen”, the greatest downside of this book is the enormous amount of incorrect translations and improper naming. Some of these errors are with the most well-known pranayama terms/techniques:
Kumbhaka = breath retention (everyone else) / “pure breath” (author). Kumbhaka is the period between inhalation and exhalation when the breath is held. However the author calls a breathing exercise by this name – the forceful inhalation and exhalation through one nostril.
Ujjayi = victorious breath or ocean breath (everyone else) / “hissing breath” (author). The throat is constricted, allowing a small passage of air that creates a snoring sound. However the author teaches to singular nostril breathing with breath retention between and no mention of throat constriction.
The author closes this book with “pranayama standing and pranayma walking”. These seem to be inventions of the author. In my training, all pranayama is done sitting down – for health, concentration and safety reasons. The author also includes two body tension exercises that include the pushing of hands up and in front. These look foreign to pranayama and yoga. Perhaps coming from the author’s roots in martial arts.
Pranayama is a very detailed and delicate physical and spiritual practice. Much knowledge is required BEFORE a person begins. Changing one’s breathing without proper knowledge can have negative health results. The content in this book, although small, is plagued with errors and improper techniques. In addition, important information in not included. A book this small could not possibly hold the information necessary to begin a pranayama practice. If this book were designed as a quick reference guide to refresh someone’s memory – that would be great. However to try to teach pranayama is less than 50 miniature pages is just not possible.
If a person is serious about learning yoga, I cannot stress enough the need to find a real teacher. If a person desires a genuine knowledge of pranayama, I recommend books by actual yogis – BKS Iynegar or Swami Satyananda Saraswati.
In the words of Swami Vivikananda: “PRANAYAMA is not, as many think, something about the breath; breath, indeed, has very little to do with it, if anything. Breathing is only one of the many exercises through which we get to the real Pranayama.”
Rating: 1 / 5