Personal Pranayama. – Breathing with the Trees
Jenny Tonge with Pascale Rees
Last year we got to test out our yoga deck freshly made and ready to welcome back Jenny Tonge with Pascale Rees for a Personal Pranayama retreat where we began to understand how to manage our breath and so too manage our nervous system. How to develop consciousness of our energy through the day, what is happening to our nervous system, if and when our mind fluctuates (chitta rite nirodha). How to become more intimate with our pranayama kosha (energy body), aware of our manamaya kosha (mental body) and how this affects our pranayam kosha (breath body) and how by tuning in to all these elements we can begin to create a breathing practice that will bring us back to calm.
Manage your Breath, Manage your Nervous System.
Transcript of video clip.
Under the Linden Tree we have been running a yoga retreat with six people from europe and a few people from Tinos where the organic farm is located and we have had five incredible days of sun, yoga and especially breath pranayama practice.
We’ve learnt a number of breath techniques which will help the people who practice to really start to understand their nervous system and then to manage the nervous system. You can actually begin to manage your own nervous system with a little bit of understanding of how your breath resonates in your body and therefore whether you are stressed or whether you feel perhaps depressed with some breath work. With pranayama work you can start to gently change your state of mind without using some of the more harsh methods of the chemical drugs given by medics and just come to a more gentle experience and appreciation of how to manage your day to day everyday experiences.
The breath I really enjoy on a day to day basis is coherent breathing and with this I use ujjahi technique. Ujjayi is an ancient practice that comes from 3000 years ago and in modern times we’ve been able to have the privilege of investigating this with science and we found that as you practice ujjayi breath you begin to produce a neuro chemical called gaba with the yoga movements and this chemical is one of the bodies own products that calms the nervous system and another way of bringing calm and ease to your every day life and then on the other hand there’s the experience of wanting to build energy and to raise your feeling of excitement sometimes.
This afternoon I am going to be teaching kapalabhati breath which in Sanskrit language translates as skull shining breath and this is a breath to do when the sun and the wind are not quite so mild or the darkness of winter is come and you want to be really energised so you just begin to use breath practice to lift your energy, so rather than maybe having a cup of coffee you may be able to do fifteen minutes of kapalabhati breath and this is all part of a lifestyle change and we support this with ayurvedic techniques and understanding how the doshas (that which causes problems), your own dosha resonates within your body and we relate this to the energy of the land. Tinos has so much good strong energy and you can feel the sun and be in the water and feel the wind and all of these elements add to the richness of practice here.
For more information on Jenny Tonge please click here. If you would like to take part in our next yoga retreat or other workshops and activities at Under the Linden Tree please do follow us on Instagram & Facebook or sign up to receive our newsletters by going to our Stay in Touch section in our footer below and filling out your name and email .