The One Minute Breath

“You live by the breath. You can get everything from your breath of life.
Now please speak to your breath. Talk to it. Pray with it. This is a life relationship: you and your breath.
You can achieve what you want, just relate to your own breath of life. That is God in you. Never breathe unconsciously and never waste a breath on negativity. Feel (the breath) in your consciousness, feel it in your body. Feel it in the mind, and the soul will awaken.
If you are poor, inhale, hold the breath, and tell the breath to bring you prosperity. If you are unhappy, inhale, hold the breath, and tell it to bring you happiness. Whenever you need your prayer to be answered, breathe like this and ask the breath of life to communicate with the Creator of the breath of life to give you everything.
You will be shocked how well you can communicate with God just through the breath of life. What can give you life, can give you everything. The link between you and God is through the breath of life.” ~ Yogi Bhajan, from Praana Praanee Praanayam, available through KRI

The One Minute Breath is a great technique to keep your calm through our fast-changing times.

Benefits

• Dramatic calming of anxiety, fear and worry
• Openness to feeling one’s presence and the presence of spirit
• Optimized cooperation between the brain hemispheres
• Intuition develops
• The whole brain works, especially the old brain and the frontal hemispheres

To Practice: Sit in a meditation posture. Inhale for 20 seconds, hold for 20 seconds, exhale for 20 seconds. 

One Minute Breath Tips:

To start, make yourself very comfortable. Have a shawl on that you can remove without exertion if you get warm. Be very still.

Once you are set, take 3 minutes to relax and deepen your breath (or try 3 minutes of Breath of Fire, or if you are really tense try 3 minutes of Sat Kriya).

Inhale slowly and steadily, filling your lower abdomen, your stomach area, going up to your lungs and then all the way up the chest.

Lock the breath once you fill your upper chest (after 20 seconds).

Hold (20 seconds).

Then exhale, slowly gently and steadily.

At the end of 20 seconds gently reverse to an inhale and begin again.

Having trouble working your way into it?

Don’t fight your breath. Be relaxed. Here are two approaches:

1. Give yourself permission to work up to it. Start inhaling for 10 seconds, holding for 10 seconds, exhaling for 10 seconds (or even 5 seconds if necessary). Take a day or two and then increase to 15, 15, 15, and then to 20, 20, 20.
2. Start with 20, 20, 20. If you find yourself struggling against your breath, complete the breath and then begin one minute of deep breathing. After a minute, start again, inhaling for 20 seconds, holding for 20 seconds, exhaling for 20 seconds