The practice of pranayama develops a steady mind and strengthens your willpower, as well.Balasana Pose Yoga Like some of the other facets of yoga, many pranayama exercises may require a qualified teacher and frequent committed practice to fully enjoy their benefitsBalasana Pose Yoga. Iyengar would further argue that it should be taught not just by a teacher, but by a master of the practice as the conscious prolongation of inhalation, or puraka; retention, or kumbhaka; and exhalation, or rechaka. In his extensive text on this subject, Light on Pranayama, Iyengar says that inhalation is the act of receiving the primeval energy in the form of breath, and retention is when the breath is held in order to savor that energy.
He also explains, In exhalation all thoughts are emptied with the breath: Then, while the lungs are empty, one surrenders the individual energy, I,’ to the primeval energy, the Atma. Iyengar, Light on Pranayama There are a few pranayama exercises that are associated with and often integrated into asanas, as well as various forms of meditation, which I will explain in brief. They are ujayyi, or the victorious breath; kapalabhati, or the breath of fire ; and nadi shodhana, or alternate nostril breathing. While Iyengar believes that pranayama should be taught carefully and apart from asana, Pattabhi Jois’s Astanga Vinyasa Yoga has inextricably bound the two together.
