Breathing can change your life

No matter where you go, you can't get away from that familiar coating of yellow that is everywhere right now. Just in case you didn't notice, allergy season is here. 🤧😂

I never suffered from allergies until I moved to the South. Spring in Atlanta meant constant congestion, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, and coughing. As the season progressed, I would gradually get worse until I ended up with a sinus infection, bronchitis, and sometimes even walking pneumonia.

It made me dread one of the most beautiful seasons; I just wanted to hide inside.

I remember asking my pranayama teacher how I could do my practice when I was so congested. It felt impossible to breathe. He responded by asking me why I was congested in the first place. 🤔

He proceeded to explain to me that with a daily pranayama practice I wouldn't get congested. The heat that gets produced in the nasal passageways would be very healing and would help keep me congestion free. It's like preventative medicine.

Pranayama has not been proven to permanently cure allergies, but it has been proven to boost the immune system and provide clear nasal and respiratory passageways.

While I love the fact that pranayama can help me with seasonal allergies, what I love even more is a regular pranayama practice improves digestion, strengthens the cardiovascular system, deepens your sleep, increases mindfulness, improves lung function, and helps to reduce stress.

When we practice pranayama, we are learning how to use the breath to correlatively control the mind. Our breath give us a way to tap directly into our nervous system.

As Thich Nhat Hanh says, "Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again."

It's amazing to me that very simple breathing techniques can have such a profound effect on your body and mind. It is just one of the tools I use to learn how to connect to myself on a deeper level. It helps me manage stress and move from a place of stress to calm even when I am feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or challenged.

I find it fascinating that we cannot control any other involuntary process in our body except our breathing. But the real question is, when was the last time you paid attention to your breathing?

Interested in learning more about pranayama? Just respond in the comments and I'll send you a short video to get you started.