Anupam- The Dreamer

A tribute on the International Yoga Day- 21^st June

Controlling life through breath is an ancient Indian practise- that’s why breath is called “प्राण वायु”. Indeed, it is life-giving, because without this no living being could last for more than a few minutes. It is so essential that it is subconsciously built in our mechanism by the Creator, so that even when we are in sleep it continues unabated in a regular rhythm. Although subconscious inhaling-in and exhaling-out of the air follows a particular rhythm, it could also be controlled consciously through various physical and mental exercises to make it deeper, more controlled and as an energy source to sustain different activities in life like pranayama, running and swimming. Let’s analyse them one by one.

Pranayam or its various forms practiced across the world is an age-old practise to calm the mind and body. This practise originated in India and continues to guide humanity towards the path of good physical and mental health. As the world celebrates International Yoga Day tomorrow on 21^st June, this is to remind ourselves of the immense benefits that even a few minutes of regular pranayama, meditation and physical exercise (different Yoga asanas) can have on the whole of humanity. Pranayam involves cyclical pattern of breathing in through the nose, holding the breath for a few seconds and then breathing out through the nose. There are different types like Anulom Vilom, Kapalbhati, Bramari etc. The greatest advantage of pranayama and yoga is that it can be done by person of any age group, body shape, gender and race. It can be practiced anywhere- inside home, on the ground, in the open public spaces, community halls etc. It is absolutely FREE of cost. It has virtually no side-effects if practiced properly. And it does not require any equipment to practise it- unlike running and swimming which we will discuss shortly. So, pranayama provides a great opportunity to cure the body and mind just by controlling the manner the breath is taken in and out of the body.

Now, let’s take running. Here also, breath control is one of the foremost things that you have to develop for long-distance running. The difference between running and pranayama is that here you have to breathe in through the nose and breathe out through the mouth! As running/jogging is a rigorous activity vis-à-vis pranayama, therefore it becomes imperative that you have to breathe out through the mouth for sustaining long distances. If you don’t do that, you will soon run out of breath and will have to abort your mission midway 😀

Now, we come to one of the best exercises i.e. swimming. Here, I don’t have to tell you how important the breathing cycle is, because it is only this thing that will decide whether you can swim or not! If humans had gills like the fishes, every Tom Dick and Harry could swim. But alas, we have lungs and that too with a limited capacity to hold the air, so we have to learn the breathing pattern. It takes significant amount of time before you can swim confidently without drowning! The peculiar difference between swimming vis-à-vis running and pranayama is that here the pattern is reverse- here you have to breathe in through the mouth and breathe out through the nose! This sounds interesting! It is exact reverse of the running cycle. As it is said that it takes 21 days to build any new habit (though there are reasons to doubt this, nevertheless), so it takes time to learn different patterns in different exercises. Just one mistake in the breathing cycle during swimming, and zooop, you find yourself grasping air for saving your life.

Apart from these three exercises which involve peculiar breathing patterns, I am sure that there would be many more which involves different breathing patterns which I am yet to explore. One I could think of is 100m sprint, where the athletes breathe in and out through mouth mostly as they need more air for a faster respiration and sudden energy burst.

Such a great mystery, a simple breath is!!!! Isn’t it????