Latest News from Linda Madani - November 2009

Take a deep breath…

For those of you who join my morning yoga classes regularly, you know that the main focus in my yoga practice is on the awareness of the breath. While practicing yoga, surrendering to the breath helps us to flow into our asana. Conscious breathing is what separates yoga from all the other forms of exercise. Naturally, proper breathing brings more oxygen to the blood and to the brain but more importantly it is the breath that controls the vital life force energy in our whole body that is called prana. Pranayama is undoubtedly a paramount aspect of the yogic science.

In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, asana and pranayama are described as a preparation for the stillness of meditation. Read below the guidance from Patanjali that has been transmitted to us through the ages:

Master asana, be aware of you breath, your lungs as you fill them, breathing deeply. Deeply sustaining your breath easily, drink in this life force

Patanjali Yoga Sutras II (49)

 

Make your breath long and deep, like the tides, a natural pause as the breath flows out, a natural pause as you draw air in. No thinking as the tide rolls in and out… your breath in the rhythm of the sea, the life force naturally surging within. Patanjali Yoga Sutras II (50)

 

For a moment, for a minute, for a spell of time… your breath may stand still as you achieve Samadhi.

Patanjali Yoga Sutras II (510

 

Pranayama is like a gentle breeze that lifts the veils blocking your inner light.

Patanjali Yoga Sutras II (52)

 

Breath, experience the life force and you will become steadfast able to concentrate. Empty mind

Patanjali Yoga Sutras II (53)

In sanskrit “pranayama” is composed of two words “prana” and “ayama”. The latter means “expansion or manifestation” while “prana” means “vital energy”, which in turn is also divided in two words pra: first unit; na: energy. The purpose of pranayama is not only to control and regulate the breath for self purification, but to experience a steady flow of prana and to connect with the divine.

The basic movements of pranayama are inhalation, exhalation and retention of the breath. While practicing pranayama we are taking in vital energy and removing impurities from our body and mind. Ultimately, it is in the breath that we find stillness. As we breathe in, there is a feeling of expansion and as we breathe out, there is a feeling of relaxation. While we concentrate on the breathing process, the body and mind experience the same sensation of expansiveness and stillness. As long as the breath is still, prana is still, and consequently the mind is still. Prana affects consciousness as well as vice-versa.

With the breath polarities merge - negative and positive, feminine and masculine, earth and sky, individual consciousness and cosmic consciousness - and when they meet in perfect balance stillness comes. The breath is a vehicle for spirit and it is with the breath that individual consciousness unites with universal consciousness. The breath is our connection between the physical and spiritual realms.

Join me every Wednesday for Pranala, Pranayama and Meditation from 17:30 – 19:00

I am happy to announce that I will be leading a retreat next april at Kumara resort in Ubud. I shall update my own website regarding this retreat shortly in the meantime you can click here.

In peace and light,

Linda

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