Most people think of breathing as the process of taking air into the lungs and letting it out again, but these are only the first and final stages of the process. After prana, your vitalizing breath, has filled your lungs with air, the second of the five forms of subtle energy flowing through your body, samana, begins its work – extracting oxygen to transport to your cells. This is similar to the work your digestive system does when it breaks down food into its constituent nutrients. Indeed, yoga philosophers say that samana (“centring” or “balancing” energy) nourishes your body by controlling both gaseous exchange in your lungs and the digestive process in your stomach.
The region of the body most affected by samana energy
In the following pages, you will find out how samana also feeds your mind by helping you to digest ideas, interpret feelings and make sense of arguments. By boosting your samana energy using the breathing exercises in this chapter, you not only maximize the oxygen and nutrients in your system, you transform the way you engage with ideas and feelings to nourish your intellectual and emotional life, too.