My new book, Essential Pranayama: Breathing Techniques for Balance, Healing, and Peace, is now available everywhere books are sold! Get your copy today!
As I write, the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic. The world is shutting down, going down to bare bone essential businesses, initiating social distancing and “shelter-in-place” mandates, and we’re all, rather forcibly, turning toward ourselves. The emotional, mental, and political climates change by the hour and we are all on pins and needles to find out when our lives can return to "normal." This new reality in some ways makes me think that it’s a terrible time to release a book, but I also believe that it is the best time. Folks are looking for healthy ways to cope, to maintain, and to regulate. When I wrote Essential Pranayama late last year, my mission was and still is to help people regulate their minds, bodies, and energy, and maybe even connect to something deeper and more eternal. I feel the main takeaway from Essential Pranayama (though there are many), is the regulation of the nervous system. When we’re afraid, anxious, uncertain, and the world seems tenuous, we trigger into our Sympathetic Nervous System Response (also called “Fight or flight”). This response is good for times when we need to take action, avoid or fight danger, or to flee. The problem comes when we stay in this state for too long and have nothing to do with the energy. Many people I know are sitting at home and are anxious and afraid. Please know there’s nothing wrong with feeling these ways and it’s extraordinarily natural given our circumstances. The truth is, though, if we stay there too long there can be strong mental and emotional consequences. This is where my new book could become a lifeline. There’s a place within us all where we are always calm, steady, and at ease. While there are plenty of sources out there that describe this place in detail and have many names and associations for it, defining it here isn’t necessary. What I can do is to help you help yourself get there and we do that by inducing the Parasympathetic Nervous System Response. This is your “Rest & Restore” state of being. It’s that calm feeling you may get after a good massage, yoga class, or walk in nature. When we’re in balance, sleeping well, eating well, and exercising, it can be quite easy to stay in this state, but when the world gets the best of us we have a harder time grounding. In Essential Pranayama, I list 45 unique techniques that will help you to induce this parasympathetic response and bring you toward your best self. What better way to serve the world right now than to release an instructional book on accessible breathing techniques to help people feel calmer. Essential Pranayama is out now and I’ll be posting short videos of some of the techniques on my Instagram. There are also three practices currently available on my Insight Timer page.
Essential Pranayama: Breathing Techniques for Balance, Healing, and Peace is now available everywhere books are sold!