Yogic way of dealing with breathlessness

Breathing is so important and required – I never knew this till few days ago, when I started having breathlessness all of a sudden and felt like catching the air and filling it inside my heart. Although all my life I had been breathing, but that process was spontaneous. I never had to put any effort in doing so, it was automatic.

Off-late, I started looking for air around myself and felt like taking out my windpipe and filling it with oxygen. Huh!! So suffocating.

I went to the doctor, but came back barehanded, without any disease on the prescription, which brought more suffocation, as now, I was clueless about what to do next. With no disease in hand and no idea about the problem which was creating so much of suffocation, I started scrutinizing myself. Could it be the increased stress? As soon as I started thinking about the tension I was going through, the air again started refusing to go inside my heart.

So, here it was again, stress. As soon as we start getting stressed-up, our body somehow tells us that we should stop torturing the body by stressing more on the stress. Instead, we should look for the resolution.

Ultimately, I got the first resolution about finding the problem which was causing the breathlessness. It was the stress which was telling me not to worry so much.

Wow, such a great way of telling us that we are going in a wrong direction. We are a part of this nature and it has all the answers, we just need to look around with open eyes.

I started with a simple in and out breathing exercise followed with Kapalbhati and Anulom-Vilom.

Kapalbhati is a great technique of curing many ailments related to stomach, stress, breathing and many more diseases. Majority number of diseases are caused due to the stomach. Kapalbhati helps in keeping the stomach in a good health while removing the problems which have accumulated over a period of time. It cleans our lungs and stomach, and increases the amount of oxygen within us. This helps in curing many unwanted diseases, including breathlessness, by reducing stress and stabilizing anxiety. I got a relief the same day, after doing Kapalbhati for about 20-25 mins.

But this was not it. As the shortness of the breath was too much, I also did Anulom-Vilom. This is yet another simple but very effective technique of healing the body. It helps in the intake of the right amount of oxygen at a right speed and releases all the stress. This simple way of breathing relaxes the entire body and makes it more lively and energetic.

By doing just these simple Yogasanas, my stress level decreased and I started breathing normally again. Now, even when I am very busy, I take out at least few minutes, even while working or travelling and do these breathing exercises. Such a relief it is!!