If you want to control your mind and emotional state, then the secret is to control your breath. This ancient Wisdom has been taught for millennia in the various schools of yoga originating in India.
The west knows little about this subtle science and is only coming across it in recent years, thanks to translations of some original Sanskrit texts. And westerners who are teaching breath work nowadays are mostly repeating the pranayama teachings from yoga texts.
Breath control is a tool to shift consciousness or to change your mental state if desired. The physical body and nervous system respond to deliberate breath manipulation. You can calm your fight-or-flight instincts by focusing on your breath and slowing it down.
And more besides that can be achieved with regular daily practice, up to a point - some say- where one can even slow down aging. That has yet to be scientifically studied; however, shifts in consciousness via breath work has indeed been scientifically studied. Medically trained wellness coaches now give workshops on the subject.
Yoga courses also teach breath control as part of yoga and meditation, all geared toward spiritual awakening, consciousness upliftment, improved health and ultimately liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Breath work or pranayama is an ancient tool to assist the aspiring seeker on the path of perfection.
You may have heard of Holotropic breathwork by PhD academic Stan Grof from a few decades ago, or more recently Wim Hof's ice water bathing, where he uses breath control to assist him in staying immune to ice cold water.
Both of these teachers are simply repeating the ancient yoga techniques used by monks and yogis for millennia. They may have adapted them slightly, but it's basically Buddhist Tumo breathing for warmth, or pranayama techniques for yoga.
There is more detail for the real seeker to be found, for example, in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras from around 2000 years ago, available in English today. You can find out more if you do some research.
Bhagavad Gita ch4:27
sarvāṇīndriya-karmāṇi
prāṇa-karmāṇi cāpare
ātma-saṁyama-yogāgnau
juhvati jñāna-dīpite
SYNONYMS
sarvāṇi—all; indriya—senses; karmāṇi—functions; prāṇa-karmāṇi—functions of the life breath; ca—also; apare—others; ātma-saṁyama—controlling the mind; yoga—linking process; agnau—in the fire of; juhvati—offers; jñāna-dīpite—because of the urge for self-realization
TRANSLATION
Those who are interested in self-realization, in terms of mind and sense control, offer the functions of all the senses, as well as the vital force [breath], as oblations into the fire of the controlled mind.
PURPORT
The yoga system conceived by Patañjali is referred to herein. In the Yoga-sūtra of Patañjali, the soul is called pratyag-ātmā and parag-ātmā. As long as the soul is attached to sense enjoyment, it is called parag-ātmā. The soul is subjected to the functions of ten kinds of air at work within the body, and this is perceived through the breathing system. The Pātañjala system of yoga instructs one on how to control the functions of the body's air in a technical manner so that ultimately all the functions of the air within become favorable for purifying the soul of material attachment. According to this yoga system, pratyag ātmā is the ultimate goal. This pratyag ātmā is a withdrawal from activities in matter. The senses interact with the sense objects, like the ear for hearing, eyes for seeing, nose for smelling, tongue for tasting, hand for touching, and all of them are thus engaged in activities outside the self. They are called the functions of the prāṇa-vāyu. The apāna-vāyu goes downwards, vyāna-vāyu acts to shrink and expand, samāna-vāyu adjusts equilibrium, udāna-vāyu goes upwards—and when one is enlightened, one engages all these in searching for self-realization.
Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A C Bhaktivedanta, original MacMillan 1972 edition, freely available at prabhupadabooks.com.
Edited and published from my mobile device onto the Hive blockchain for those untested in the science of self-realization.Image: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/rainbow-chakra-meditation-yoga-8276333/
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