Breathe – the vital life force that sustains all forms of life. It is the sacred life force that travels throughout your subtle body via different energy channels. You can feel this energy in different moods. When you are angry, breathing becomes fast and shallow. However, when you are happy, breathing is calm and slow. Put simply, breathing has a direct impact on your mood. This is what makes yoga breathing exercises for beginners worth your time and effort.
This sacred life force impacts the numerous physical and mental dimensions of your being. If you are a complete novice then enrol in yoga for a beginners class to learn the best yoga breathing techniques.
Breath is the vital energy to sustain life in any form. The prana travels through all the energy points and creates an aura around the body. Various situations in life affect breathing, and similarly, the breath can affect the physical and mental dimensions. Incorporating various yoga breathing for Beginners exercises in your daily schedule provides you with overall better health.
You can feel that when you get angry, the breathing gets faster whereas when you are relaxed, you breathe slowly. Therefore, your overall mood is affected by the way you control your breath. However, if you have never ever practised various yoga breathing for beginners exercises, you can join yoga for beginners classes to learn about it.
Benefits of Deep Yogic Breathing Exercises
Every living being’s life depends on the number of breaths they have. Breathing is the basic process that sustains your life force. Therefore, it is important that you understand the importance of deep breathing when trying to learn the ancient art of yoga.
With that said, when done properly, breathing offers your mind and body some impressive health benefits. Given below are some of them.
1. Improves Immunity
The yogic breathing exercises increase the amount of oxygen in your body and rid it of toxins like carbon dioxide. Daily practice, also increases the amount of oxygen in the cells and makes them healthier and stronger.
Healthy and working organs improve your immune system and keep your body away from numerous infections, viruses, and bacteria. At the same time, deeper breathing also helps your body absorb more vitamins and minerals.
2. Minimizes Anxiety
Do you know that even the medical community believes that deep breathing can keep you away from numerous mental health issues? Yes! Deep breathing brings your heart rate to normal and increases the supply of oxygen.
It is what gives your brain the signal to rewind and relax. Moreover, deep yogic breathing exercises balance the hormones that release endorphins in your body.
3. Improves Sleep Quality
Deep breathing exercises that are followed by complete exhalation help improve your sleep quality. In short, proper breathing detoxifies your body and sends a signal to it to calm down and relax. This is what makes deep yogic breathing quite beneficial for those suffering from insomnia.
4. Keeps Away Hypertension
There are numerous studies that show how the yogic breathing technique of Pranayama helps you relieve hypertension symptoms by keeping the heart rate normal.
5. Improves Digestive System
Combining Pranayama techniques with belly breathing activates your diaphragm. Daily practice of deep breathing causes the diaphragm to rise and fall. It is what gives the digestive organs a gentle massage.
6. Maintains Good Cardiovascular Health
Do you want to keep blood pressure at a normal level? You should practice the deep breathing yogic techniques. It greatly minimizes the risk of a stroke and also stimulates the vagus nerve.
Best Yoga Breathing Exercises for Beginners
Alternate Nostril Breathing Exercise for Beginners
Though it has numerous variations yet it is one of the easiest yoga breathing exercises for beginners. To start the practice, sit in a comfortable position. Then place the right thumb on the right nostril, keeping right middle and index fingers floating in the air between your eyebrows. Complete one cycle of inhaling and exhaling through the left nostril. Once you inhale completely through the left nostril, place the right index and middle fingers on the left nostril to block the air path and clear away the right nostril. Perform a similar pattern on the right nostril. Do 10 to 12 circles of breath and you will feel calmness rising within you.
Benefits of Alternate Nostril Breathing
- Helps in fighting stress and improving cardiovascular function
- Improves respiratory endurance and lung function
- Reduces heart rate
- Enhances overall health and well-being
- Relaxes mind and body
Ujjayi Breathing Exercise for Beginners
It is pronounced as oo – Jai can be translated as “victorious breath”. To start the practice of Ujjayi breathing, constrict your throat passage such that a humming sound comes when you breathe out. Ancient yogis knew very well how vibrations affect the mind, body, and soul of a person. Thus, practising yoga breathing exercises will help you sync the breathing with the movements of your body. It helps in relaxation and energizes the body and mind.
Benefits of Ujjayi Breathing
- Releases tension and promotes the free flow of prana
- Improves concentration and instils endurance
- Regulates body temperature
- Encourages inner stillness and peace
- Brings mental clarity and focus by stimulating Nadis
Breath of Fire Exercise for Beginners
Deeply ingrained in Kundalini yoga, a breath of fire is done by rigorous movement of the navel area while the whole body is still and relaxed. When you inhale, the navel area moves out and when you exhale, you deliberately push the navel towards the spine. It could be one of the challenging yoga breathing exercises for beginners, but once you master it, you feel like going on indefinitely.
Benefits of Breath of Fire
- Decreases stress levels and make you feel calm
- Boosts the function of brains such as attention, reaction time, and memory
- Improves respiratory health and digestion
- Strengthens abdominal muscles
- Increases your overall mindfulness
Beginner’s Tip: If you feel dizzy or light-headed while practising yoga breathing exercises, you are advised to slow down the breathing pace. Pregnant women, women who are menstruating, people with high blood pressure, or who struggle with vertigo should not try it.
Cooling Breath Exercise for Beginners
If you have frequent bouts of anger or feel very anxious every now and then, then the cooling breath is for you. Also, people who always feel warm even on a chilly day should practice this yoga breathing exercise to literally cool down themselves. Clench your teeth and breath in through the gaps in the teeth. Inhale very slowly and deeply as if you are making a hissing sound. Once fully inhaled, close your lips and let the air flow slowly through the nose. It helps with lowering the body temperature to help you with fever, hot flushes, and much more.
Benefits of Cooling Breath
- Relaxes nerves and muscles by cooling mind and body
- Helps to deal with the problem of high blood pressure
- Controls thirst and hunger, thus promoting digestion
- Treats problems related to gulma, spleen, insomnia
- Helps people get rid of sleep disorders
Bellows Breathing Exercise for Beginners
This breathing exercise consists of a very fast and vigorous series of powerful inhaling and exhaling of the breath. People facing cardiac conditions or having respiratory issues can skip this. Sit straight against a wall, inhale very sharply through the nose letting the diaphragm dropping low. It is followed by a sharp exhale and a contraction of the abdomen. This breathing exercise put stress on the abdominal area, therefore, pregnant women too should avoid this. It could be one of the best yoga breathing exercises to reboot your system in the middle of the day.
Benefits of Bellows Breathing
- Best to energize the mind and body
- Removes impurities and toxins from your body
- Helps in treating bronchitis, sinus, and various other respiratory issues
- Purifies blood, thus balancing Vata, Pitta, and Kapha
- Improves your overall health and helps in getting natural skin glow
Skull Shining Breath Exercise for Beginners
Also known as Kapalabhati pranayama, the skull shining breath is the best yoga breathing exercise known for its simple yet powerful exhalations. Kapal stands for skull and Bhati refers to shining. When an individual practices Kapalabhati pranayama, the brain gets activated and influenced in a great manner. The inhalations while doing this breathing practice are almost non-existent after which an immediate strong gush of air flows from within. Particularly good for cleaning the body’s air passageways, it does help in strengthening the abdominal muscles. Further, it enhances blood circulation.
Benefits of Skull Shining Breath
- Treats lung infections and increases their capacity
- Helps in reducing weight and glows your face
- Good for treating problems related to tonsils and thyroid
- Improves intellectual power of brain-like concentration and memory
- Tones and strengthens the lower transverse abdominal muscle
To conquer the mind, you must first learn to conquer the breath. Try these various yoga breathing exercises and witness the change within you. Practising various yoga poses for beginners along with breathing techniques helps in both bodily and mental growth.
Try these Pranayama techniques and calm your mind and body!
FAQs
What is Prana Breathing Exercises for Beginners?
‘Prana’ comes from a Sanskrit word that means life-force. Thus, prana breathing denotes practising yoga breathing exercises to control your breath. Moreover, prana breathing also means extending your breath for better and faster results.
How can I fall asleep in 10 seconds?
To fall asleep in 10 seconds, you need to relax your body and mind. For that, you can practice deep yoga breathing exercises or practice meditation. Breathing all the way in can clean your mind and help you fall asleep easily.
How many times a day should you do deep Breathing Exercises for Beginners?
As a beginner, you can practice twice a day with each session stretching over to 5 to 10 minutes. However, once you become an avid practitioner, you can increase your practice. Hence, you can practice 4 to 5 times a day.
