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Breathing Exercises to Focus & Invigorate

September 22, 2022 2 min read

How has your energy been lately? Are you nodding off when you should be alert and present? Have you increased your caffeine intake just so that you can get through your daily tasks? If you answered yes, use the following breathwork exercises as a pick-me-up.

Breath of Fire Steps

This technique is particularly effective because it activates your core, purifies your mind and energizes your entire body.

Practicing this breathing exercise also helps improve the efficiency of your natural breathing cycle. How? By correcting a bad habit many of us have: sucking in the belly and lifting the chest while inhaling plus rounding the back and pushing the belly out in the exhalation. Instead, we want to limit the chest from lifting and expand the belly as we inhale.

Start sitting somewhere comfortable with your back straight.
Place the palm of a hand against your belly. Make sure that the hand is moving as you breathe in and breathe out, without lifting or collapsing your chest.
Inhale deeply through your nose and expand your belly.
Exhale sharply through your nose, as if you were blowing it, simultaneously sucking your belly in.
Try it a few times slowly and, as you get the hang of it, increase the pace, making the inhalations and exhalations the same length.
Eventually, you want to sound like a dog panting (yes, really!), but it takes practice.

Four-Part Breathing with Sa Ta Na Ma

Next time you need a productivity boost, use this combination of mantra meditation and breathwork.

Start sitting comfortably with your back straight and your hands in Gyan mudra.
Exhale deeply through your nose.
Divide your next inhalation into four parts. First fill up your lower belly, then your upper belly, then your lower lungs and finish with your upper lungs.
Hold the breath for 4 to 10 seconds.
Divide your exhale into four parts, starting from the upper lungs and finishing with the lower belly.
You can add “Sa Ta Na Ma,” one syllable per breath, to improve your focus.

What does Sa Ta Na Ma mean in Sanskrit?

These sacred letters in the Sanskrit alphabet come from the mantra Sat Nam, roughly translating to “true essence”.

Sa: birth; beginning of the cosmos
Ta: life and how it manifests; creativity
Na: death and transformation
Ma: rebirth and regeneration

This mantra is believed to help balance the Third Eye chakra, the seat of emotional inteligence and our connection with the Divine. While there are different interepreations of the meaning of these letters, experience the clarifying benefits yourself.

Language

Breathing Exercises to Focus & Invigorate

Breath of Fire Steps

Four-Part Breathing with Sa Ta Na Ma

What does Sa Ta Na Ma mean in Sanskrit?

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