06/25/2021
Pranayama is an ancient yogic practice of controlling our breath. You purposely inhale and exhale in specific patterns. Simply put, you breathe on purpose. We began talking about breath awareness and how amazing our body is to know to breathe, but then how we can control our breath to be fast or slow, long or short, depending on the situation we are in.
Before I introduced the pom poms, we practiced Sama Vritti, which translates from Sanskrit to ‘same breath’ or I like to say even breath. We closed our eyes, lengthened our spine and began to intentionally breathe. First we inhaled for a count of 3, then exhaled for a count of 3. Then extended our count to 4, and even getting to an even, slow and steady breath count of 5, in and out through the nose.
We then played with extending our exhale so we would breathe in for a count of 3 but try to breathe out for a count of 4 or 5. The kids noticed how much calmer they felt almost instantly, and I saw the grounding taking place right before my very eyes.
We ‘played’ with pranayama for almost a half hour! The kids made a tunnel out of a paper plate and tried to see how many pom poms they could blow through the tunnel! After some time, I introduced the paper straw and that changed EVERYTHING! Ms. Shanna, now I can control my breath AND make it go where I want it to! What I thought would be 5 minutes of fun turned into almost half our class! The best part is the kids all explored their own breath in different ways and learned so much about themselves and all the while they continued to learn from each other.
Pranayama is so beneficial for people of all ages.
When practiced daily, it can help:
✨decrease stress
✨increase mindfulness
✨improve your quality of sleep
✨strengthens your lungs
It even helps your brain function better!
I can’t wait for all the fun and learning in next weeks class!
What’s your favorite breathing practice to do or to teach?
