Love Your Lungs

I mentioned Max Strom in my last post, and it reminded me of something else interesting he said in the seminar I had with him last month.

He said that we carry our feelings in our chests, and that is why pranayama is so important. This is what my understanding of what he said was, anyway.

He said that though science would dispute it, his scientist friend couldn’t explain why it was that when we are depressed we deeply exhale, when we are excited we take short, shallow in breaths and when we cry, our chests pump up and down. If we can control our breathing through pranayama, we can start to take some control over our emotions, our thoughts and our bodies. The chest is a vital gateway to that.

I have only dabbled a little bit into pranayama so far – I take deep belly breaths when I am stressed, and when I remember to, and I activate the ujjayi breath throughout my asana (though I have to remind myself to keep it up sometimes, and try to take a lion’s breath before I resume). Anyway, it’s something I plan on exploring a lot more. I think it has the potential to be so much more powerful than it is to me now. I will keep you posted.