Breath of Fire 101

This video will guide you into Breath of Fire, a cleansing, detoxifying and warming breath. This breath practice is great for restoring balance, increasing the lung capacity, releasing toxins and refresh your skull (interrupt the mind chatter).
Contradiction for this breath would be high blood pressure, heart conditions, epilepsy, vertigo, painful hernias (specially in the lower back), recent surgeries or pregnancy.

Transcript

Welcome to this video where I will guide you into the practice of Breath of Fire. Breath of Fire is a technique, A breathing technique, That's used a lot in Kundalini Yoga. So given its name, It's a breath that's very good to give us heat, To activate the digestive system, The heat inside of the body. And it's also a great breath to eliminate toxins. In the Hatha tradition, It's also called kapalawati. And kapalawati means cleaning or brushing the front of the skull. So it's a very cleansing breath also for the mind. This to do literally whenever you feel like you need it because it will give you what the body means One contradiction would be when you are pregnant or when you are bleeding with the moon. In this case of when you are bleeding, You can choose. Either you do it or not. Some moons, Some bleedings, I feel like doing it. Others, No. So I leave it to your intuition and your own knowing of your body. We will begin just by centering for a moment. Centering, You can close your eyes, Bringing the weight of the body down into the hips and towards your back, Bringing the hands to the thighs. Or to your body if that feels better. Just bring in this moment of connection with yourself. Observing and sensing how your body mind feel in this moment Taking a moment to honor the presence of yourself in this life. Giving gratitude to your breath, Your heart. Take a deep exhale. We're going to open our eyes and we will begin with this breath practice. We'll do two steps or two variations. So breath of fire, You want to focus on your exhales. Pumping the belly back so every time you exhale you bring the belly button to the back imagine a dog that's panting This is the kind of breath we want to do through the nose. But on this first stage, We're going to do it like a dog panting through the mouth. So bring your hands to the lower belly. You can choose to close your eyes. If you choose to close your eyes, Bring the gaze to the space between your eyebrows. Take a deep inhale to the nose. Exhale sigh the breath out the mouth one more breath just like this inhale through the nose exhale out the mouth stick the tongue out And let's start panting like a dog. Keep going, Keep panting as I speak. Focus on the movements of your breath. Every time you exhale, The belly button goes back. Relax the jaw, Relax the muscles of the face. We're going to be here for around one more minute. So the tongue, The mouth will get dried. This is normal. Close your mouth, Create saliva, Swallow a little bit and let's keep going. You We're here for around 30 more seconds. Keep the tongue out. And the most important thing is this connection, Body-mind-breath connection. Every time you exhale, The belly button goes back. With the tongue out, It's really easy. But if you need to take a slower pace, Go ahead. 10 more seconds. Keep with the breath. Deep inhale to the nose. Hold the breath in, Contract the genitals, Lower belly, Sucking them up, Inner gaze to the space between your eyebrows. And as you exhale, Release the bandha, The lock of Jennifer's lower belly and exhale the breath. You can also release the hands to your thighs or your knees. Just observe. Sense feel the effects of this breath in your body One more deep breath in. Exhale, Side out. Opening our eyes okay so we're going to go to the second step doing the same breath only through the nose in and out the nose so bring again the hands to the lower belly or if you feel very comfortable with this breath you can just bring the hands to your thighs wherever you feel you want your hands to be take them there and we're going to focus in the same thing of pumping our exhales belly button to the back so get settled in the feel your feet touching the ground or your hips on the ground. Bring your energy to your hips, To the back. Take two breaths, Inhaling to the nose, Exhaling to the nose. One more breath inhale half of your lung capacity and start pumping your exhales Stay with the breath, Keep pumping as I speak. Focus and every time you exhale, Bring in the belly button to the back. The inhale will naturally bring or extend the belly a little bit more forward. And find a rhythm that you can keep for around three minutes. It could be slower or faster than mine. Stay with the breath. Keep going. Observe any sensations, Any thoughts. You can be thinking, Oh, I love this. Oh, This is very uncomfortable. It's totally fine. Just embrace any thoughts, Any sensations and stick with the breath. We're going to be here with the breath for a minute and a half more. Keep breathing, Keep pumping your exhales, Keep the jaw relaxed And we're going to introduce, If you feel like it, The mantra Sat Naum. Sat means truth. Naum is a calling, A remembering of this truth. And you're going to coordinate mantra and breath. So in your head, In silence, In your head, You will listen to Sat Naum. Now keep going, Final seconds. If you feel like exploring with a faster pace of the breath, This is the moment we're going to be here for 20 more seconds. Take a deep inhale to the nose. Hold the breath in contract genitals lower belly sucking them up relax the shoulders inner gaze to the space between your eyebrows hold the breath in for as long as you can When the body asks you to relax the hands on your thighs or your knees, Relax the bandha. The closure of genitals lower belly and exhale the breath out Stay here observing, Sensing, Feeling the effects of this breathing, This breath practice. Take one more deep inhale. As you exhale, Start to shake. Shake the lips, Shake the whole body. You can even shake your feet on the ground. We'll do it for five more breaths. Shake, Shake, Shake everything. Hands can go up to the sides. You choose three more breaths. Two more breaths, Shake it all. One more breath. Exhale, Bring again the hands to the thighs, The knees, Stop the movement, Observe and feel. Take a deep exhale, Rub the palms of the hands together, Bring them however, Wherever you wish to your body. Two more breaths here. Giving gratitude to yourself, To this life, This breath, This present moment, To nature all around us. We're going to close by chanting the mantra Sat Nam one time. Long Sat, Short Nam. Take a deep inhale to chant. So. . . Nam. Breathe in here. Thank you so much for practicing today. I hope you felt the benefits of this practice, Which is very fundamental and foundational for Kundalini Yoga. Thank you for joining and I'll see you next time.