Yoga Breath

How Healthy Is Your Breathing?

Poor breathing habits are easy to spot. These tests will help determine if you can benefit from breathing exercising.

By Barbara Benagh

Upper-Chest Breathing Lie on your back, placing one hand on your upper chest and the other on your abdomen. If the hand on your chest moves as you breathe but the one on the abdomen does not, you're definitely a chest-breather. Anything more than slight movement in the chest is a sign of inefficient breathing.

Shallow Breathing Lie on your back and place your hands around your lower ribs. You should feel an effortless expansion of the lower ribs on the breath in and a slow recoil on the breath out. If your ribs remain motionless, your breathing is too shallow, even if your belly moves.

Overbreathing Lie down and take a few minutes to let your body establish its relaxed breathing rate. Then count the length of your next exhalation and compare it to the length of the following inhalation. The exhalation should be slightly longer. If not, you are an overbreather. As a second test, try to shorten your inhalation. If that causes distress you are probably an overbreather. Because it is easy to manipulate the outcome of these two tests, you may want someone else to count for you at a time when you are not paying attention to your breath.

Breath Holding Holding one's breath after inhaling may be the most common poor breathing habit. To determine if you do this, pay attention to the transition from inhalation to exhalation. A breath-holder usually feels a "catch" and may actually struggle to initiate the exhalation. This tendency is particularly noticeable during exercise. You can reduce the holding by consciously relaxing your abdomen just as an inhalation ends.

Reverse Breathing Reverse breathing happens when the diaphragm is pulled into the chest upon inhalation and drops into the abdomen on exhalation. Lie on your back and place your hands on your abdomen. The abdomen should slowly flatten as you exhale and rise gently as you inhale. If the opposite occurs you are a reverse breather. Since reverse breathing may only occur during exertion, this test is not completely reliable.

Mouth Breathing It's fairly easy to notice if you're a mouth-breather; if you're not sure, ask your friends or try to catch yourself at unguarded moments.

What is Vini Yoga?

A Journey through India's Yoga

I got a chance to experience Vini Yoga firsthand in Chennai, India. In a small 100+ degree room overlooking fern-like trees with bright orange flowers, lizards, and birds chirping i inhaled & exhaled my way to a clearer mind. As i trusted my breath to lead me to my perfect asana, I was engulfed with colorful sounds carried by the humid air like local vendors selling water,fruits, flutes, and a myriad of other things on their bicycles. The humidity makes you sweat like a sauna so that, you're left with a cleansing almost refreshing glow. There in that little room i listen to the words of my yoga guru guiding me to the state of Nirodah (balanced mind).

Where did yoga come from? Patanjali, a sage came to the earth to teach us & help ease our suffering by giving us the Yoga Sutras around 200AD. According to Patanjali, you need to protect the body in order to access the mind. By doing asanas one can access the body, then breath, followed by the mind and finally reaching the soul. He gave us asanas to access body, pranayama to access breath, and mediation to access mind.

What is Vini Yoga? Vini Yoga was taught in India and in the ancient times yoga was taught one on one. Vini Yoga means a specific connection or continuous link to something perhaps reaching a specific goal. The concept can be applied to non-yoga philosophies and should be practiced daily to move you through a deeper awareness.

How do we practice Vini Yoga?
The asanas are done slowly with focus and are broken down into steps. Each step an inhale/exhale is applied, holding the posture longer and finally repeating it several times.

Key Benefits
*Slowly moving into asana increases awareness of breath & specific muscles working
*Hold the posture longer increasing stamina & stability
*Calms the mind, moving you into inner essence of being
*Increase intensity with stay and repeat postures
*Breaths span increase cultivating pranayama breathing
*Aware of your body's dominant muscles
*Enhances deep concentration & focus
*Fosters a quieter mind preparing you for mediation practices
*Targets a specific area to strengthen it i.e. low ankle flexibility, weak knees
*Personalized to any fitness level

Rather than explore the techniques of how the asanas are done, my study in India focused on reaching one's individual capacities and purposes in their practice.

In Vini Yoga a moment is never wasted because you are conscious of every inhale, exhale, muscle contraction, muscle release, and opening of the mind.