One of the best ways to use your cleansing breath is to allow it to wipe away negative patterns of thinking and behaving. You can do this by visualizing your apana energy flowing freely through your spine as you practise a breathing exercise. Visualization is much more than wishful thinking or daydreaming – it allows you to create positive images in your mind. The stronger those positive mental impressions are, the more they help to rid your mind of past trauma and open up mental “space” to allow change and positivity to evolve.
The Spinal Breathing exercise, opposite, cleanses your mind, emotions and nervous system. It is thought to increase the amount of energy flowing through your body and can assist you in reaching a deep state of meditation. When practising this breathing exercise, you may choose to focus your attention on one of the seven subtle energy centres, or chakras, sited along your spine: around the base of your spine, your lower abdomen, solar plexus, heart, throat, forehead and the crown of your head (see page 25). Alternatively, you can simply allow the flow of apana energy you visualize to form itself into random shapes, such as a spiral or a figure of eight.
Certain houseplants, especially quick-growing varieties with large leaf surfaces, enhance the quality of the indoor air you breathe by producing oxygen, filtering out environmental toxins and humidifying the atmosphere. Cultivate a minimum of two plants per 30 square metres (100 square feet) of room space. A spider plant is particularly useful, or try pot chrysanthemum, dracaena, dwarf date palm, Boston fern, golden pathos, nephthytis, English ivy, aloe vera, philodendron, pothos, rubber plant or weeping fig. Unless you sleep with an open window, remove plants from your bedroom at night, when they absorb oxygen.
Start by choosing a comfortable sitting position (see pages 35–7). If you practise meditation, then do this exercise just before meditating. Remain seated when you finish and begin your meditation immediately.
1 Sit with your spine straight, balancing your weight evenly on both sides of your body. Gently seal your lips and take a few deep breaths through your nose, until your mind and body feel more peaceful.
2 Close your eyes and begin to mentally observe your breathing. Focus all your awareness inside your body. Visualize your body as empty – imagine that all you have inside your skin is weightless, transparent air. The only physical part of your body is its largest organ, your skin.
3 Now imagine that you are not only breathing through your nostrils – visualize each pore of your skin drawing in air, too. As you inhale through all your pores, visualize your inner space expanding outward. Feel a sensation of gentle expansion, as if you were a balloon. Then, as you exhale, feel your inner space contracting to push out everything you no longer need. Visualize the millions of tiny pores in your skin simultaneously expelling all your toxins and negativity.
4 Within your empty inner space, become aware of a thin, white tube-like thread running from the top of your head to the base of your spine. Trace the course of this tube with your breath. As you inhale, imagine a light moving up the tube. On each exhalation, watch a current of light moving down it. This downward-moving radiance is apana, your cleansing breath.
5 Now focus mainly on your out-breath. With each exhalation, watch the downward-moving light increasing the space it occupies. Permit this torrent of light to carry away all negativity – physical as well as emotional – downward and out from your body. Visualize the toxins exiting through all your pores. Continue practising for 5 minutes, and then relax and gently open your eyes. Repeat every day, gradually increasing the length of your practice as you become more experienced.