IN PRACTICE:

Breath of Life

In its most complete sense, active mastery means handling the whole of life. It is a process of integration, for ordinarily many aspects of the mind are quite separate from and out of tune with the body, and both are separate from spirit. Sitting quietly and being aware of yourself, you will notice that your perception is taken up with mental “noise” (random thoughts, emotions, memories) and occasional physical sensations that may or may not have anything to do with what is going on in your mind. Usually the perception of spirit is completely lost or ignored; even in moments of silent witnessing, those welcome pauses when one is detached from the common turmoil of mental events, most of us do not recognize that we are contacting our essential selves.

Bringing all these ingredients back into unity isn’t possible on either the mental level or the physical level alone. Paying attention to one automatically tends to exclude the other. Unity can be accomplished at very deep levels of awareness through meditation, when the duality of mind and body is transcended, but meditation is restricted to the special time set aside for it. How do we integrate the remaining hours of our active daily lives?

Thousands of years ago the ancient Indian sages gave an answer in the form of Prana, the subtlest form of biological energy. Prana is present in every mental and physical event; it flows directly from spirit, or pure awareness, to bring intelligence and consciousness to every aspect of life. You sometimes see Prana defined as “life force” or “life energy,” but what is more important than a definition is to get experiential knowledge of it. If you can experience Prana, you can begin to nurture and preserve it. The critical importance of life energy has been recognized in many cultural traditions; the Chinese know it as Chi and control its flow through acupuncture, meditation, and specialized exercises such as tai chi. Other names for the breath of life appear in Sufism, mystic Christianity, and the teachings of ancient Egypt. What is universally agreed on is that the more Prana you have, the more vital your mental and bodily processes. Balanced Prana gives rise to the following qualities:

RESULTS OF BALANCED PRANA

Mental alertness	Proper formation of tissues
Responsive nervous system; good motor coordination	Sound sleep
Balanced bodily rhythms (hunger, thirst, sleep, digestion, elimination, etc.)	Strong disease immunity
Enthusiasm	Physical vitality
Spiritual realization	Sense of exhilaration

These are the natural qualities of human life when it is balanced and whole. Depleted Prana is directly linked to aging and death. Nothing can remain alive when Prana is absent, because Prana is intelligence and consciousness, the two vital ingredients that animate physical matter. The experience of Prana can be had in many ways: When you are flushed with sudden energy, feel the inrush of sudden alertness and clarity, or simply perceive that you are “in the flow,” your attention has been drawn to Prana. Some people sense it as a streaming or buzzing energy in their bodies. These sensations tend to get passed off as something else (ringing in the ear, tingling nerves, increased circulation of blood), but that is only a reflection of how we were taught to perceive our bodies.

In India the body is perceived first as a product of consciousness and only secondarily as a material object. Conserving Prana is considered extremely important, and the ancient teachings give the following basic rules to ensure balanced and vital Prana in the body at all ages:

Diet. Eat fresh produce, preferably home grown. The highest Prana is in food eaten straight from the garden. Stale food rapidly loses its Prana; in fact, anything stale, musty, or moldly indicates the absence of life energy and should be avoided. Processed food is also very low in Prana. Drinking water should be pure; the best is spring water or mountain water from melted snow. Polluted water is deficient in Prana.

Exercise. Physical activity increases Prana by bringing energy into the body, unless carried to the point of exhaustion. Exhaustion and fatigue are critical signs that Prana has been depleted. (In Western medicine we recognize this change as well; when exercise is carried beyond the body’s oxygen reserves, it has to gain energy by metabolizing its own tissues. See the discussion of catabolic and anabolic metabolism, this page–this page.)

Breathing. The body’s main source of Prana is through the breath, which on a gross level brings in oxygen and on a subtle level brings in life energy. Prana is thus literally identified with the breath of life. The ancient sages considered the quality of a person’s life to be reflected in the quality of his breathing. When breathing is refined, slow, and regular, the circulation of Prana is reaching all levels of body and mind, promoting a state of complete balance.

Behavior. Actions can damage or nourish the body’s Prana. Harsh, tense, conflicted behavior (what we today call stressed behavior) disturbs the flow of Prana. Refined behavior that comes from a sense of ease and self-acceptance promotes balanced Prana. The attitude of nonviolence (Ahimsa), sometimes called reverence for life, is at the root of life-nourishing behavior.

Emotions. Four negative emotions—fear, anger, greed, and envy—throw Prana out of balance and are to be avoided. Positive emotions, particularly love, increase Prana. Love is considered the most basic emotion that human awareness can feel; therefore, it is the closest to the source of life. The burst of well-being you feel when you fall in love is due to the fact that you unconsciously open the channels of awareness that allow more Prana to flow. Emotions that are repressed through shame and guilt cause these channels to constrict. When Prana is kept from flowing in this way, pockets of inertia and stagnation develop, eventually promoting disease. Depression is a state of almost complete nonflow and is associated with chronic illness, premature aging, and early death.

Thus, a healthy life, as measured by the conservation of Prana, demands the following:

•  Fresh food

•  Pure water and air

•  Sunlight

•  Moderate exercise

•  Balanced, refined breath

•  Nonviolent behavior and a reverence for life

•  Loving, positive emotions; free expression of emotion

Think of the difference between a salad fresh-picked from your garden and one made from the same vegetables bought in the supermarket. Contrast a picnic in the mountains with lunch at a hamburger stand, or the taste of cool well water with water from a city tap. Freshness indicates the presence of Prana; staleness indicates its absence.

The factor least understood in our culture is balanced breath, which in India is considered the most important. The word breath implies more than the physical act of drawing air in and out of the lungs. Breath is the junction point between mind, body, and spirit. Every change of mental state is reflected in the breath and then in the body. Gross indications such as posture as well as distinct bodily sensations are directly related to one’s style of breathing.

Changes of feeling are registered immediately in the pattern of breathing. Anger produces shallow inhalation and strong, panting exhalation. Fear creates rapid, shallow, ragged breathing. Sorrow creates spasmodic, broken breathing—the kind that arises when you are sobbing. On the other hand, positive emotions such as joy induce more regular breathing as the chest cavity relaxes. In moments when the mind stops, struck with beauty or revelation, so does the breath—that’s what people are referring to when they say that looking into the Grand Canyon for the first time is breathtaking. At a subtler level, entering into the silence of deep meditation slows the breath, and what spiritual masters call “the rapture of God”—contemplating Spirit directly—is reflected in little or no breathing.

This phenomenon also works in reverse—changing the breathing pattern also causes altered emotions. As a young intern on duty in the emergency room, I was taught to calm down agitated patients just by sitting next to them and asking them to breathe slowly, deeply, and regularly along with me. As we fell into a relaxed breathing rhythm, our bodies spontaneously followed suit, and their agitated emotions were stilled. In the chart on this page are some examples from common experience of how the link between breath, body, and emotion works.

As you can see, when joy, love, and compassion are at work, breathing is at its most spontaneous and relaxed. The various systems of Yoga in India teach many kinds of highly controlled breathing exercises, known as Pranayama, to balance the breath, but their actual goal is not to produce controlled or disciplined breathing under ordinary circumstances. Rather, paying attention to the breath is a vehicle for releasing stress and allowing the body to find its own balance. Once in balance, yogic breathing is spontaneous and refined, so that the refined emotions of love and devotion can be carried throughout the body at all levels. When your cells experience the fullness of Prana, they are receiving the physical equivalent of these emotions.

The following two exercises are for balancing your breathing. They are not full-blown Pranayamas, which should be done in conjunction with meditation and Yoga postures,* but when properly done, these exercises will give you the experience of Prana as a light, sparkling, flowing sensation in your body. Usually, your muscles will become noticeably warm and relaxed. Mentally, balanced breathing is reflected in a sense of calm, lack of tension, and quietness, as the static of restless thinking gives way to silence.

Exercise 1: Body Breathing

Sit still in a chair listening to soft music, or outside listening to the wind in the treetops. As you listen, gently let your attention flow out of your ears as you easily exhale. Repeat for a minute, then do the same thing through your eyes, letting your attention go outward on the breath, slowly and gently. Repeat this through the nostrils, the mouth, then sit quietly just listening to the music with your whole body.

Now allow your attention to sink into your chest. Feel where your heart center is (at the point where the breastbone and ribs join) and breathe out through it, letting your attention go with the breath. Continue gently for another minute, then sit quietly, aware of your body. This exercise takes about two minutes but can be extended by doing another cycle or two.

This exercise consciously links respiration and the nervous system, helping to promote their smooth integration. It is a delightful exercise to conduct outdoors, sitting next to running water or under a tree when the wind is gently stirring its leaves. Feeling your awareness as it flows out on your breath gives you a powerful sense of being at harmony with Nature.

Exercise 2: The Expanding Light

Stand in your stocking feet with your eyes closed, arms down at your sides, and vividly relive the sensation of your last exhilarating experience. Recapture the feeling of being happy, vibrant, and carefree. (You can use a visual image, a loving memory, a moment of triumph from the past—anything that brings the sensation of exhilaration back to you; do not worry if it is only faint, just have the intention of being with it.)

As you do this, inhale slowly through your nose and begin to spread your arms out slowly. Imagine that as you inhale, your breath is expanding from the center of your chest. It is an expanding light that makes your arms float effortlessly open, and as the light expands, your happy, exhilarated feeling expands with it. You can visualize this as a glowing blue-white ball of light if you want, or just as a sensation. Let the light grow as slowly or quickly as it wants, spreading from the center of your heart, reaching out to the tips of your fingers, up to your head, and down to your toes. You’ll also be smiling, so let that grow, too.

At the point of maximum extension, start slowly exhaling through your nose and bring your arms back down to your sides. Do this slowly, taking longer to exhale than to inhale. Take the expanded feeling/light back down into your chest, until it is small and localized in your heart again. As your arms come back down to your sides, let your head drop forward.

Now repeat the exercise on the next breath, expanding the feeling again—don’t pay attention to your physical movements, but stay with the feeling. You want to open and close it like a flower with each breath.

As you continue, you can begin to open up even more, throwing your head back, expanding your chest, and rising on tiptoe on the outward stroke. As you exhale, slump like a rag doll, bending at the knees and waist. Don’t speed up the movements, however, just proceed slowly and rhythmically. You’ll notice that this is an extremely pleasant exercise, because as you open, your body fills with breath, awareness, and enjoyment all at once—the sensation is light, warm, tingling. As you close, the body relaxes and slumps under its own weight, becoming more grounded and still. You are exploring a complete range of feeling, which allows the subtle breath to penetrate into every channel.

The Vata Connection

As we get older, there is a natural tendency for Prana to diminish; this must be countered to preserve youthfulness. In India, longevity was traditionally assigned to a branch of learning called Ayurveda, derived from two Sanskrit roots, Ayus, or “life,” and Veda, meaning “science” or “knowledge.” This ancient “science of life” is usually referred to as India’s traditional medicine, but there is a deeper spiritual basis for Ayurveda. The most famous verse from the ancient Ayurvedic texts says, Ayurveda amritanam (“Ayurveda is for immortality”). The meaning is twofold: Ayurveda is for promoting longevity without limit, and it does this from a belief that life essentially is immortal.

According to Ayurveda, the life energy, or Prana, is channeled throughout our bodies by a “wind” known as Vata. Vata is one of the three metabolic principles (doshas) that give form to every living thing, be it a mosquito, an elephant, a human being, a planet, a star, or the entire cosmos. Vata is responsible for movement of every kind. In the human body it is divided into five parts:

Prana Vata regulates the nervous system.

Udana Vata regulates cognitive skills, speech, and memory.

Samana Vata regulates digestion.

Vyana Vata regulates circulation.

Apana Vata regulates excretion.

All five aspects of Vata are controlled by the first and most important, Prana Vata, for as the name implies, this dosha brings in Prana, the life force, which is then distributed to the rest of the body. When Prana Vata is out of balance, there is general disruption throughout the system. Ayurveda holds that old age is a particularly sensitive time for such imbalances. Vata is naturally higher in old age, and if a person has not been careful to keep Prana Vata in balance, the following symptoms will result:

SYMPTOMS OF VATA IMBALANCE

Physical symptoms	Mental/behavioral symptoms
Dry or rough skin; wrinkles	Insomnia
Chronic underweight; muscle wasting	Worry, anxiety
Weak kidneys; loss of bladder control	Depression
Weak or irregular heartbeat Fatigue Constipation	Confusion, restless thoughts
Common arthritis	Intolerance to stress
Nonspecific aches and pains	Intolerance to cold
Weakened immunity (susceptibility to colds, pneumonia, and other infections)

You’ll immediately notice the close match between these disorders of imbalanced Vata and aging. As the “wind” of the body, Vata is cold, drying, and piercing. When Vata is aggravated, it is as if a withering wind begins to stir inside. Usually the first place to which aggravated Vata will travel is the joints, initiating a range of joint problems beginning with minor aches and pains (these cause trouble especially during winter, the season that is worst for Vata disturbance) and ending with degenerative arthritis if the aggravation persists.

Since every cell contains Vata dosha, the effects of aggravating it are not confined to the joints. The whole body begins to shrivel and dry up; the bowels become dry, tight, and constipated; racked with insomnia and worry, the person languishes, prey to ever-increasing aches and pains. Millions of prescriptions for painkillers, tranquilizers, and sleeping pills are written by baffled doctors who cannot explain why elderly patients start exhibiting such symptoms, since usually there is nothing organically wrong. In medical terminology, organic means that a physical organ shows signs of disease or malfunction. Physicians tend to dismiss symptoms without organic cause as psychosomatic or idiopathic (unexplainable).

Old people rarely suffer from just one of the symptoms of Vata imbalance and many suffer them on a broad scale. If multiple drugs are prescribed for each symptom, new imbalances begin to pile up, for the body cannot help but react with imbalance to painkillers, diuretics, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, beta blockers, and all the other medications commonly prescribed for the elderly. Whether we like it or not, a symptom is something the body wants to express—it is a message—and drugs suppress that expression.

How fast you age is intimately linked to the speed and intensity of Vata aggravation. Some people are extremely prone to Vata imbalance, while others are not. Some people may get aggravated Vata in their fingers, leading to arthritis, while others get it in their intestines, leading to chronic constipation.

What can cause Vata imbalance? Ayurveda follows the principle of complementarity—“like speaks to like.” What this means is that any quality Vata dosha possesses will be stimulated by the same quality outside your body. These qualities are as follows.

QUALITIES OF VATA DOSHA

Dry

Cold

Changeable

Rough

Moving

Light

Subtle

Quick

Leads other doshas

Anything in your environment that contains the above traits will increase Vata. For example:

Dry weather; dry foods (crackers, cereals, potato chips, etc.)

Cold weather; cold food and drink

Changeable: sudden life changes; death in family; loss of job; mood swings; sudden change of season; etc.

Rough-textured materials next to the skin; rough words or behavior

Moving: travel; falling down; physical exercise or labor; exposure to drafts or wind

Light foods that have a high air content, particularly raw fruits and vegetables

Subtle changes of mood, a subtle draft

Quick: any activity, physical or mental, requiring speed; being made to rush

Let me illustrate how these qualities (called gunas in Sanskrit) interact. If my kidneys detect a fluid shortage in my bloodstream, they secrete a specific chemical messenger—angiotensin 2—which gets carried to the hypothalamus in the brain and is converted into a mental event: I feel thirsty. This feeling then prompts me to act by getting a glass of water.

In Ayurvedic terms, what has happened is a steady flow of one impulse of intelligence—Vata—as it registers the needs of 50 trillion cells simultaneously. Vata has the quality of being dry, and it increases under any kind of dry condition. Dry crackers, dry desert heat, dry cold from air-conditioning, and even dry wit all serve to increase Vata. Dryness make us thirsty because our bodies detect this increased Vata, and the signal will persist until something wet, such as a drink of water, brings the opposite quality into play and Vata falls back into line.

Vata is the easiest dosha to push out of balance, but also the easiest to bring back. Since Prana Vata, the most important aspect of this dosha, regulates the nervous system, it shifts with the slightest thought or sensation. By doing the things that are needed to keep Prana Vata in balance, we have a complete system for conserving Prana and defeating the aging process at an extremely subtle level. This means we must pay some attention to Vata every day, which is in fact quite a natural and easy thing to do. Vata can be “pacified”—i.e., kept in balance—through various lifestyle measures.

PACIFYING VATA

To keep Vata dosha in balance, you need to keep the following qualities in mind:

Regular:	regular habits; mealtimes; bedtime; work schedule
Warm:	warm, well-cooked food; sunshine; avoidance of cold food and drink
Nourishing:	rich, nourishing, even heavy foods in cold weather; nurturing emotions
Relaxing:	taking time for adequate rest; avoidance of stressful situations, overexcitement, and overexertion
Stable:	stable relationships and work; stable home life
Calming:	quiet, orderly work environment; gentle massage (particularly good is warm oil massage using sesame oil)
Steady:	steady supply of food and water to body; not skipping meals or going on an empty stomach

A dosha is pacified by qualities it lacks. Because Vata tends to make people erratic, irregular, and inconsistent, it is helpful to counter with the oposite—steadiness and regularity. Small matters such as not skipping meals and going to bed on time pay large dividends in pacifying Vata. Prolonged exposure to stress creates serious Vata imbalance, so special attention has to be paid to giving yourself a quiet, orderly work environment. Cheerful conditions at work greatly relieve the Vata tendency to uncertainty and insecurity.

When you are under the influence of Vata, you will naturally seek warmth; keeping warm in winter and sunbathing at other times of the year soothes this dosha. Your diet should emphasize well-cooked, nourishing foods; Ayurveda considers even heavy, oily food to be good for Vata (which is why long-cooked stews and soups seem so appealing in winter). Avoiding cold salads, iced drinks, alcohol, and dry or uncooked food in cold weather will also correct the body’s tendency to develop aggravated Vata at those times. In general, stimulants of any kind, including coffee, tobacco, and alcohol, create Vata imbalance.

When out of balance, Vata leads to light, interrupted sleep; this is best countered by going to bed early and avoiding late-night reading and television. The body also wants some periods of calmness, relaxation, and peace during each day. Meditation is ideal, since exposing the nervous system to deep silence allows it to harmonize all the synchronized bodily rhythms that Vata regulates. Peaceful, loving family life is an ideal many people feel has slipped away in recent decades, but from the viewpoint of Vata dosha, it is vital.

Vata has a special affinity with warm oils; daily massage with warm sesame oil on the feet, head, and lower abdomen is one of the best measures for relieving deep stresses in the nervous system. The oil should be applied gently and slowly before the morning bath and again before bedtime. Special attention to balancing Vata should be paid whenever you are recuperating from illness or under emotional stress; suffering from jet leg; displaying depression, chronic fatigue, and exhaustion; or have been physically wounded—all of these conditions cause severe Vata disturbance.

If you detect chronic symptoms of Vata imbalance, the following specific measures should help:

• Include sweet, sour, and salty tastes in your meals; these are balancing for Vata. This dosha calls for more sour and salty foods than does any other.

• Avoid bitter, astringent, and pungent (spicy) tastes. Astringent is counted as a taste in Ayurveda; it is found in dry-tasting foods that pucker the mouth (beans, lentils, pomegranates, tea).

• If you feel uncomfortable living in a dry, cold, windy climate, consider moving to a warm one, which is more conducive to Vata balance. Everyone who lives in a cold climate would do well, according to Ayurveda, to make sure that their home and workplace has warm, humidified air. Avoid drafts and prolonged outdoor exercise in winter. Warm, hearty food eaten at regular intervals is a good anti-Vata measure in cold climates.

• If possible, eat all meals sitting down in a peaceful, quiet, friendly setting. Food eaten on the run disturbs Vata. Avoid any kind of dieting, fasting, or spending any length of time with an empty stomach.

• If you have an irregular appetite—a common problem when Vata is imbalanced—try eating several small meals throughout the day (the last one should be at sundown, or at least a couple of hours before bedtime).

• Avoid prolonged travel without rest in between flights or long drives. In cases of jet lag, take adequate time to rest and/or sleep as soon as you have reached your destination. Drink plenty of fluids en route; herb tea or plain hot water is helpful on jets; liquor and cold drinks tend to aggravate the jarring effect on Vata dosha.

• Aroma therapy or warm baths with a few drops of fragrant oil help soothe Vata. Choose scents that are warm, grounding, and soothing, such as wintergreen, sandalwood, camphor, cinnamon, basil, orange, rose geranium, and clove.

• In cooking, herbs and spices should be sweet and/or heating in quality: ginger, black pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, mustard, mint, cayenne, horseradish, cumin, nutmeg, cardamom, green coriander, fennel, basil, oregano, rosemary, sage, and thyme.

* Pranayama forms an important part of the traditional Ayurvedic procedures I employ in medical practice. The interested reader may refer to my earlier book, Perfect Health (New York: Harmony Books, 1990), which details the complete program of Maharishi Ayurveda, a revival of the most powerful knowledge from India’s ancient “science of life.”