Wake up and breathe out your fatigue…

This is a formal breathing technique from Pranayama- called the “Bellows Breath” or the “Stimulating Breath”. It’s purpose is to raise the energy of the nervous system- and to increase alertness.

For this exercise, we will again sit in a comfortable, stable, and solid position maintaining good posture throughout the exercise. When ready, we will also be mindful of our tongue’s placement in the mouth- for what is called the “yogic” position. Touch the tip of the tongue to the backs of the upper front teeth, and then slide it up just a bit until it’s on that ridge of hard tissue between the teeth and the palette- touch it lightly. In brief, and according to yoga tradition, this completes a special circuit in the body with the placement of tongue here- and helps to keep energy within the body. We will keep the tongue in this position for the duration of this exercise.

When ready- the eyes can remain open with a slight downward gaze, or closed. The technique here will be to breathe in and out rapidly through the nose keeping the mouth lightly closed. Inhalation and exhalation should be of equal length and as short as possible. With practice, you may be able to get as many as three (3) cycles in per second, if comfortable. This produces a rapid movement of the diaphragm which simulates the movement of a bellows- and it’s a fairly noisy breath to make. This is real exercise, and the muscles especially at the base of the neck may become tired from doing this practice. The body temperature may also increase from this exercise, and you may feel sensations of warmth.

At first, this exercise should be approached gently. Try for about 15 seconds… and then breathe normally. Each time we do the exercise, we can increase by another 5 seconds or so.  Eventually, we should work up to about 1 minute of this rapid “in” and “out” breathing through the nose.  When ready, and as best you can, let’s do this exercise for 15 seconds. When finished, breathe normally- don’t try to influence the breath. Do you notice or feel any changes in the body after doing this exercise.

Continue to practice- doing a little longer each time, as is comfortable– and notice after finishing each time how the body feels- see what changes you can detect.

This is a great exercise to wake yourself up if you’re feeling sleepy, drowsy or fatigued- it’s a great tool to dissipate metal fatigue and focus attention when done regularly.

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