Guest Author: Kalpana
We all know the fable of the hare and the tortoise; where slow and steady wins the race. The moral of this tale applies just as equally to how the breath impacts the ageing process.
A hare typically breathes 45 breaths per minute (bpm) and lives 4 years. The tortoise breathes 4 bpm and can live 150 years.
Whilst it can be said that the physiology of the hare is very different to the tortoise, the animal kingdom has ample evidence of slow breathers outlasting fast breathers.
Elephants have 5 bpm and can live 60 + years. Giraffes at 30 bpm have a life span of up to 20 years.
Yogic wisdom has the ideal wellbeing breath rate for humans at 15 bpm, totalling 21,600 breaths per day. Uncannily, this ancient wisdom coincides exactly with the nautical miles around the equator of 21,600.
At 15 bpm you will be in sync with the pace of the earth’s daily rotation around the sun.
If your normal breath is more than 15 per minute, then you are ageing faster and are sending the message to your mind and body to be in a state of anxiety.
Longer, deeper abdominal breathing will reduce your breaths per minute, increase your oxygen intake and increase circulation. Not only will this increase your vitality and bring you into a state of ease, but also slow the ageing process.
Why stop there, when according to yogic wisdom, reducing your breath to 12 per minute will significantly enhance your perception, clarity and insight. Reducing it to 6 per minute allows a flow of worldly wisdom and – as some scientific research has explored - has a relaxing and regenerative effect on the mind and body. The gold medal has to be for consistently breathing at 3 bpm which, if yogic wisdom is correct, evolves your consciousness to that of a living sage!
Current scientific research is developing on the impact of reducing breaths per minute and this improving cognitive functioning in dementia patients when compared to the non controlled group.
The breath is yours; yours to control, yours to be mindful of. The magnetic feature of Kundalini Yoga is the vibrant breathing exercises. A vast array of yogic breathing exercises, some powerful, some gentle but all that increase the vitality of your prana (your inner life force) and your meditative state of mind. Regular practice of Kundalini Yoga brings a constant and inner focus on the quality of your breathing patterns, enhancing mind body and soul.