Increase your energy and integration through yoga breathing

Our yoga teacher Toby gave an interesting homily, or talk with a meaning, this evening. He talked about the word 'yoga' being related to the word for 'yoke'. A yoke implies being joined together, the union of two ideas, causes, souls or whatever, going in the same direction. Jesus Christ had the same idea when he said, "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls."

B.K.S. Iyengar talks about yoga being the union of the individual self with the universal self. Carl Jung had the idea of a individual unconscious that connects with a collective unconscious mind through dreams, common experiences or tendencies to behave in a certain manner. These are called archetypes. Hinduism likens us to islands of ideas connected by a deep ocean.

When I commuted to London for 11 years I used to dream up inventions. It was not possible to fulfil them but slowly I saw some of them come to fruition by others who put their minds and resources into the ideas. From this experience I came to believe that there is a collective wisdom in humanity that some of us tap into. Foolishness is often an inability to listen to or act upon advice.

Toby felt that the role that yoga played for us was to unite the mind with the body. By bringing the mind and the physical practice in the body together we coud both focus and calm the mind. The force that links the two is the breath. The breath itself is under both voluntary and autonomic control. We have such a strong instinct to breathe that we do not need to think about it. However we can control the breath through pranayama or yoga breathing exercises. There is nothing strange about these exercises. They simply bring the body under the control of the mind. There is a simple exercise to let you practice in my video on the neck and the diaphragm.

Improve your neck and breathing


Most people who have asthma, IBS, acid reflux, hiatus hernia, gall bladder pain, or heart conditions have a shallow breathing technique. By steady practice you not only help your digestion but improve the oxygen levels in your muscles. I often see long distance cyclists who improve their stamina by breathing more deeply. Our other yoga teacher Andreas Wren puts it very clearly when he says that the first move we every make is an in-breath and the last move we ever make is an out-breath. Its what we make of our life in between that matters.