As I told you,
I practice several different kinds of yoga.
One of them is called Kundalini Yoga.
In Kundalini Yoga,
Many of the postures are the same.
Some of them are a little bit different or they have a little bit different name.
But there is this set of meditations and breathwork,
Pranayama work,
Called medical meditations.
They are designed for specific outcomes.
Kundalini Yoga is called the yoga for the householders,
Meaning the people who live everyday life and who have the stresses of everyday life and the ups and downs of everyday life.
So the posture we're going to do is called the ego eradicator.
The physical posture is going to be that our arms are up at a 45 degree angle,
Our fingers are tucked,
Our thumbs are creating an arc from one to the other over our head.
That is the arm position.
Breath of fire is the pranayama,
The breath that we're going to use.
It's also called Agnupraan.
The breath of fire is one of the foundational breath techniques used in Kundalini Yoga.
It accompanies many postures and has numerous beneficial effects.
It is important to master this breath so that it is done accurately and becomes automatic.
The breath of fire is rapid,
Rhythmic and continuous.
It is equal on the inhale and the exhale.
That's the main point of this,
Is that it's equal on the inhale and the exhale.
There is no pause between it.
So it's not like inhale,
Pause,
Exhale.
It's always practiced through the nose unless it's otherwise stated.
So we will do some in here that are through the mouth,
But this particular one is through the nose.
The benefits of breath of fire are that it releases toxins and deposits from the lungs,
Mucus linings,
Blood vessels and other cells.
It expands the lung capacity and increases vital strength.
Strengthens the nervous system to resist stress,
Repairs the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems,
Strengthens the navel chakra,
Increases physical endurance and prepares you to act effectively,
Adjusts the subtle psycho-electromagnetic field of the aura so that the blood becomes energized,
Reduces addictive impulses for drugs,
Smoking and bad foods,
Increases oxygen delivery to the brain,
Facilitating a focused,
Intelligent and neutral state of mind,
Boosts the immune system and may help prevent many diseases,
Promotes synchronization of the biorhythms and the body's systems.
So we're going to practice ego-eradicator.
You can do it anywhere from three minutes to five minutes to 21 minutes to an hour if you can do it that long.
We're going to do it for one minute.
Remember if you have to blow your nose,
You might want to do it now.
When you're doing this,
Again your arms are at 45 degree angles,
Fingers are just tucked in,
Just tucked and thumbs are pointing away from you but toward each other.
To finish,
When we finish this,
We're going to inhale our arms up,
Touch our thumbs,
Spread our fingers out and hold that breath and we're going to do that a couple of times once we've finished.
And then we'll release it down.
So arms up.
So you're not going to be able to see it in this shirt but my abdomen is going like this every time that I breathe with breath of fire.
So your abdomen should be moving.
It is very active.
Inhale arms up.
Let me start the timer.
Inhale arms up.
And begin.
You can close your eyes or you can leave them open but your focus is either on your third eye or on your crown.
If you need to stop and get a breath,
Stop and get a breath and then continue.
You got it.
Keep going.
Almost there.
And inhale.
Touch the thumbs together.
Extend the fingers.
Reach for the sky.
Hold that breath in.
And when you push it out,
Push it out really hard.
Keeping your hands where they are.
Fingers together or thumbs together.
Big inhale.
Hold at the top.
One more time.
Big inhale.
Hold at the top.
Push it out and release.
Big inhale and release.
And sit for a moment and observe how you feel.
And whenever you're ready,
Open your eyes.
And I want you to take a moment and write down how you felt after you did Breath of Fire.
So another part of your homework,
If you will,
This week is to do the Ego Eradicator for at least one minute every day this week.
So and then write down how you feel.
Jot this down in your journal.
How you feel before you do it and then how you feel after you do it.
And until I see you again,
Namaste.
