“Controlling the breath, and thus claiming the nerves, is a prerequisite to controlling the mind and the body.” Swami Rama
One of the quickest ways to feel happy is through the pranayama technique called circular breathing.
You can learn how to do this at this link.
Your nervous system has two aspects:
- Sympathetic nervous system, which responds to stress
- Parasympathetic nervous system, which allows you relax.
The quickest way to balance both sides of your nervous system is to balance your inhale with the length of your exhale.
Years ago, I had a device from the Institute of HeartMath that I used to use with my clients suffering from high blood pressure. The device measured your EKG, which is the electrical rhythm of your heart.
Most people breathe in a fragmented fashion, which leads to incoherence in the EKG.
When your EKG goes into coherence, the actual rhythm looks like a beautiful sine wave with balanced frequency and amplitude.
When your heart goes into coherence, your EKG entrains your brain waves, your EEG, your brain produces your own natural antidepressants and tranquilizers and your body produces DHEA, which is the mother hormone from which all your other hormones are made.
Simply put, when your heart goes into coherence you feel happy and you reverse the aging process.
From years of using the simple HeartMath biofeedback device, I learned the fastest way to bring your heart rhythm into coherence is with circular breathing!
The average adult breathes 12 to 15 breaths per minute at rest.
As you practice circular breathing, you will notice your respiratory rate slows down. You may breathe so completely that you take as few as 6 breaths per minute. You take fewer breaths but the entire experience is longer, deeper and fuller, expanding your lung capacity and increasing the oxygen and thereby the available energy to your brain and every cell of your body.
In addition, when we are tense, the diaphragm muscles contract, cutting off our awareness of our lower body.
Slow, deep, circular breaths allow us to reconnect our mind and our body, bringing our awareness fully into the present where all joy is actually experienced.