{"id":10052,"date":"2019-04-25T17:43:38","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T12:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/?p=10052"},"modified":"2023-08-25T16:25:24","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T10:55:24","slug":"significance-of-prana-and-what-are-its-different-types","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/significance-of-prana-and-what-are-its-different-types\/","title":{"rendered":"Significance of Prana and what are its Different Types"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cAll\nthat exists in the three heavens rests in the control of Prana. As a mother her\nchildren, oh Prana, protect us and give us splendor and wisdom\u201d ~ Prashna\nUpanishad II.13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Life is a long cycle with many billions\nof short ones. Of a life cycle, breathing is an important aspect. Each breath\nwe breathe is a cycle. Cycling continuously through life, the breath fills the\nlungs with air. Each breath helps the body to get rid of the toxins, nourishes\nthe bloodstream with oxygen, and nurtures cellular fires of metabolism. Thus,\nbreathing forms a building block of every life activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Together, inhalation and exhalation are\nbreathing. But, they do not represent a complete picture of breathing. They are\nconnected to a vast system of energy, vitality, power&#8211; Prana. The vital energy\n(prana) helps maintain the body temperature, circulates blood to the organs,\ndigests the food eaten, eliminates waste, and thus mobilizes the entire human\nfunctions. Therefore, prana is the essence of life; it is the energy that\npermeates everything in the universe. Under the influence of prana, the body-mind\ncomes alive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prana sustains the rhythm of physical\nbreathing. The great sages of Upanishads say that with attention to breath,\nespecially through yoga, we connect with the prana. Prana allows the body to\nmove in yoga postures and mind to focus. With the practice of yoga, a\npractitioner can enhance the direction of prana, which leads the mind into a\nluminous state of the Being. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Yoga, prana is categorized into\ndifferent vayus. Vayu means \u201cwind.\u201d Each prana vayu moves through the body in\ndifferent ways. The tradition states that optimally functioning prana help\npeople realize their greatest potential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Five Main Prana Vayus. <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1.\nApana Vayu: <\/strong>This Vayu moves downward and outward in\nour body (elimination). Everything that we take inside our body, the food and\nbreath must go out. Also, apana vayu is linked with the female menstrual cycle\nand childbirth. Regular and healthy elimination indicates that the vayu is\nbalanced. Excess elimination of any type is a sign of weak apana vayu. On the psychological\nlevel, apana vayu applies to the ability of the mind to let go of the\ntroublesome thoughts and memories. When vayu is healthy, a person is able to\novercome the negativity with hope and positivity. A blocked vayu gives rise to\nfeelings of instability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>How to Breathe: Inhale through the nose, move it\nto the base of the spine. Exhale and feel the breath move downward to the legs\nand feet. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Asanas: Practice standing yoga poses, seated\nforward folds, and seated twists to maintain robust elimination process. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2.\nSamana Vayu:&nbsp; <\/strong>The second prana is samana vayu that rules the\nprocess of digestion.&nbsp; Whatever we\nconsume passes through the stages of digestion, assimilation, and elimination.\nProblems with digestion occur because of blockage in vayu and create difficulty\nin elimination. Samana vayu\u2019s role is to digest information that is purposeful\nand eliminate that is not useful. The lack of expression and rational thinking\nis associated with blocked samana vayu. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>How To Breathe: Breathe in; let the breath move\nto the front and side torso, expanding the belly. Move the breath evenly and\ndeeper before breathing out. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Asanas: Standing, seated, and supine twists. Arm\nbalances, seated forward fold. Plank and Four-limbed staff pose for harmonizing\nSamana Vayu. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3.\nPrana Vayu: <\/strong>&nbsp;The most fundamental vayu of the five, prana\nvayu. It governs inward motion, including everything that we put into our\nbodies. This vayu relates to the action of inhaling, ingesting, and swallowing.&nbsp; The mental functions of the vayu include feeding\nthe five senses peace, positivity, and beauty. Exposure to extremely loud\nnoise, violence, hostility makes the vayu weak. Healthy prana vayu allows\npeople to cultivate silence and focus on meditation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>How to Breathe: Inhale through the nose. Feel the\nfreshest breath filling your lungs with air. As you exhale, let the prana move\nthrough the lining of the lungs. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Asasnas: Backbends, Savasana, Utkatasana,\nTadasana. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4.\nUdana Vayu:<\/strong> This vayu is related to the upward\nmovements. Physically, it determines growth. Mentally, a poised Udana vayu\nencourages an individual to surpass the limitations and achieve greater\nheights. When udana vayu is weaker, person feels stagnation in personal and\nprofessional life, becomes apathetic. Also, excess udana vayu results in pride\nand arrogance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>How to Breathe: Imagine the prana moving up from\nthe base of the spine to the chest. To exhale, let the energy continue to move\nupward through the top of the head. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Asanas: Backbends, especially the ones performed\non the belly, inversions, Virabhadrasana I. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>5.\nVyana Vayu:<\/strong> The fifth Vayu is the vyana vayu. It\nmoves from the center outwards. It represents the whole of the body. It relates\nto the circulation on all the levels. Healthy circulation is necessary for\nvitality. Therefore, this vayu supports the functions of all the other vayus.\nOn a mental level, this Vayu allows the free flow of emotions and thoughts. A\nperson with harmonized vayu is able to express freely, is outgoing and loving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>How to Breathe: The breath move from the nose to\nthe heart and to the back of the heart. The breath should move out through the\narms, torso, and legs. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Asanas: Sun Salutations, backbends, side-bending\npostures, and Savasana. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;These five vayus can help a person move\ntowards the unity of body, mind, and soul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAll that exists in the three heavens rests in the control of Prana. As a mother her children, oh Prana, protect us and give us splendor and wisdom\u201d ~ Prashna Upanishad II.13 Life is a long cycle with many billions of short ones. Of a life cycle, breathing is an important aspect. Each breath we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13495,"href":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10052\/revisions\/13495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rishikulyogshala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}