By Dr Rita Khanna
Prana Vayu
The breath is the key action for Prana & can be experienced strongly as it moves within the head in practices of Pranayama and Meditation. It circulates in the area around the heart and throat. It gathers at the navel and from there is distributed throughout the body. The Prana Vayu is the energy of the Anahata / Heart Chakra. It governs the intake of energy via food, drink, breath, impressions, emotions, thoughts and consciousness. Its element is air. It maintains the life system by filtering & warming up the air taken in through the nose. When Prana is sufficient, no disease can affect us. It brings right receptivity, love & compassion. When Prana is not sufficient, we start feeling weaknesses, stiffness & negativity in the body & mind. Diseases like asthma, anxiety, insomnia, headache, high or low BP and ringing of the ears can affect us. The awareness of Prana-Vayu creates a focus to lift, lengthen and open the upper body
Udana Vayu is in the opposite direction of Prana Vayu. It operates the region from the throat to the brain. It controls the entry points of food, air & governs the output of energy via our expression through speech, physical effort, emotional enthusiasm and mental judgment.
Its element is Ether / Sky. It is related to Vishudi / Throat Chakra. When UdanaVayu is in balance, it brings right aspiration in life, right values combination skills, gratitude, spiritual, philosophical, religious & chaste life. But when in an imbalanced state, it leads to person being overly proud, arrogant, sad, irritating & shouting. Diseases like belching, vomiting, sore throat, sinus, headache, earache, epilepsy & speech problems like stammering can affect us.
At death, it rises up from the body and directs us towards various subtle worlds according to the power of our will and karma that move through it. The awareness of Udana Vayu, creates a focus to maintain a long spine and a correct posture.
Vyana Vayu
Vyana Vayu circulates along the whole body distributing the energy from food & breath through lymphatic & nervous system. It controls all physical movements including the flow of breath, senses, emotions, thoughts, elimination of toxins and coordination between mind & body. It transports the absorbed Prana to the places where it can work and express itself. Its element is Water. It is related to Swadhisthana / Hara Chakra. When VyanaVayu is in balance, it brings mental peace, creativity, perfection, punctuality, luxury, wealth, patience, inner power, humbleness, knowledge, right action and action in harmony with our values, aspirations, including the free expansion of thought, emotion, perception and consciousness. But when in an imbalanced state, it leads to depression, frustration, disappointment, defeat, superstition, doubting, lack of coordination between mind and body and difficulty in movement particularly while walking.
Diseases like menstrual problem s, gyne, menopause, leucorrhoea, prostrate glands, urinary, colitis, excess water accumulation in stomach, depression, frustration & snoring can affect us.
The awareness of Vyana-Vayu creates a focus of strength and fluid movement of body.
In short, Prana and Udana work opposite to Apana as the forces of energization versus those of elimination. Similarly, Vyana and Samana are opposites as expansion and contraction. This is much like the working of a machine. Prana brings in the fuel, Samana converts this fuel to energy, Vyana circulates the energy to the various work sites. Apana releases the waste materials or by products of the conversion process. Udana governs the positive energy created in the process and determines the work that the machine is able to do.
Thursday 30 April 2009
Breathing Theraphy
(from a forwarded email)
Our noses have left and right nostrils. Are these nostrils having the same function for inhaling (breathe in) and exhaling (breathe out)?
Actually it's not the same and we can feel the difference. Accordingly, the right side represents the sun and the left side represents the moon.
When having headache, try to close your right nostril and use your left nostril to do breathing for about 5 minutes. The headache will be gone.
If you feel too tired, do it the opposite way. Close your left nostril and breathe through your right nostril. After a while, you will feel refresh again.
Because the right side belongs to heat, so it gets hot easily.. The left side gets cold easily.
Women breathe mainly with their left nostril, so they get calm down easily.
Men breathe mostly with their right nostril, so they get angry easily.
When we wake up, do we notice which nostril breathes faster? Is it the left side or the right side?
If the left nostril breathes faster, you will feel very tired. Close your left nostril and use your right nostril for breathing and you will get refresh quickly. You can teach your kids about it. The effect of breathing therapy is much better for adults.
I used to have painful headache. When consulted a doctor, he told me jokingly, "You will be all right if you get married!" The doctor did not bullshit me as he had his theory and supported with testimony.
During that time, I used to have headache every night and I was not able to study. I took medicine but I was not cured.
One night as I sat down to mediate, I closed my right nostril and breathed with my left nostril. In less than a week, it seemed that my headache problem had left me! I continued doing it for about a month and since then there was no recurrence of headache in me.
This is my own experience. I used to tell others who also suffer headache to try this method as it was effective for me. It also works for those who have tried as well. This is a natural therapy, unlike taking medicines for a long time may have side effect. So, why don't you try it out?
Practice the correct ways of breathing (breathe in & breathe out) and your body will be in a very relaxing condition.
Our noses have left and right nostrils. Are these nostrils having the same function for inhaling (breathe in) and exhaling (breathe out)?
Actually it's not the same and we can feel the difference. Accordingly, the right side represents the sun and the left side represents the moon.
When having headache, try to close your right nostril and use your left nostril to do breathing for about 5 minutes. The headache will be gone.
If you feel too tired, do it the opposite way. Close your left nostril and breathe through your right nostril. After a while, you will feel refresh again.
Because the right side belongs to heat, so it gets hot easily.. The left side gets cold easily.
Women breathe mainly with their left nostril, so they get calm down easily.
Men breathe mostly with their right nostril, so they get angry easily.
When we wake up, do we notice which nostril breathes faster? Is it the left side or the right side?
If the left nostril breathes faster, you will feel very tired. Close your left nostril and use your right nostril for breathing and you will get refresh quickly. You can teach your kids about it. The effect of breathing therapy is much better for adults.
I used to have painful headache. When consulted a doctor, he told me jokingly, "You will be all right if you get married!" The doctor did not bullshit me as he had his theory and supported with testimony.
During that time, I used to have headache every night and I was not able to study. I took medicine but I was not cured.
One night as I sat down to mediate, I closed my right nostril and breathed with my left nostril. In less than a week, it seemed that my headache problem had left me! I continued doing it for about a month and since then there was no recurrence of headache in me.
This is my own experience. I used to tell others who also suffer headache to try this method as it was effective for me. It also works for those who have tried as well. This is a natural therapy, unlike taking medicines for a long time may have side effect. So, why don't you try it out?
Practice the correct ways of breathing (breathe in & breathe out) and your body will be in a very relaxing condition.
Thursday 23 April 2009
Global Recession- views from my dad
I asked my dad a few months ago regarding the current economic situation. I was wondering how the economy would recover as I would consider this as my first time in my life to face a recession.
They say in life you would at least encounter one recession in the economy.
Well, my dad gave me a shocking answer:
"In order for the economy to recover, there would be a war." And he spoke so calmly about it.
"Huh,WAR???"
I was astonished... I thought I heard wrongly.
"How come it would need a war?"
"Well, the last time, the economy was that bad was during the depression, and the economy recovered after the world war 2", he said, reflecting on the history of things that happened.
You see, my dad is always good with History, and he can tell you a lot of stories, REAL stories about war too. He was also good at predicting things and have wise remarks, sometimes shocking remarks like this time. Anyway, I took his words as words of wisdom and see if things would really happen that way or not.
A few weeks later, I was curious to find out if he was sure things would happen as he had mentioned, then well, he can let people know about it, and be FAMOUS when your predictions come true!
But his wise reply was "You cannot say that there will be war in order for the global recession to end, cause you will be called a WARMONGER."
Oh, there again, his remarks made me pause to think in surprise. I haven't heard of the word "warmonger" for quite awhile. And being called a "warmonger" seems like a crime.
Now, after a few months since his views about the global recession, today's news published "Global Recession worst since WW2":
"And with the tremendous number of unemployed people comes the possibility of political unrest."
Shhh... we still are in the midst of a bleak and dark economy, let us wait to see what happens.... and please don't mention about war although it may be true.
They say in life you would at least encounter one recession in the economy.
Well, my dad gave me a shocking answer:
"In order for the economy to recover, there would be a war." And he spoke so calmly about it.
"Huh,WAR???"
I was astonished... I thought I heard wrongly.
"How come it would need a war?"
"Well, the last time, the economy was that bad was during the depression, and the economy recovered after the world war 2", he said, reflecting on the history of things that happened.
You see, my dad is always good with History, and he can tell you a lot of stories, REAL stories about war too. He was also good at predicting things and have wise remarks, sometimes shocking remarks like this time. Anyway, I took his words as words of wisdom and see if things would really happen that way or not.
A few weeks later, I was curious to find out if he was sure things would happen as he had mentioned, then well, he can let people know about it, and be FAMOUS when your predictions come true!
But his wise reply was "You cannot say that there will be war in order for the global recession to end, cause you will be called a WARMONGER."
Oh, there again, his remarks made me pause to think in surprise. I haven't heard of the word "warmonger" for quite awhile. And being called a "warmonger" seems like a crime.
Now, after a few months since his views about the global recession, today's news published "Global Recession worst since WW2":
"And with the tremendous number of unemployed people comes the possibility of political unrest."
Shhh... we still are in the midst of a bleak and dark economy, let us wait to see what happens.... and please don't mention about war although it may be true.
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