Slow Breathing Goes By Another Name — Prayer

Prayer has its roots in every culture and tradition around the world but what often gets missed is the need for a controlled breath

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

I used to think praying was for losers. Desperate people pleading to a man in the sky who never listened.

Today I see it differently.

It’s an act of integrity. Or a way of setting an intention, having a moment of humility, or creating an opportunity to slow the breath down and still the mind.

This turnaround happened years ago when I was training to become a Kundalini yoga teacher. During those three months, I felt the power of prayer and the presence of spirit through movement and chanting.

It re-programmed my mind to see prayer as something other than a religious act. It became a place where I could connect with the divine and commune with spirit and both transcended the religious dogma I had long dismissed.

Helping the breath find its voice

Chanting is one of my favourite ways to pray.

For reasons still unknown, however, it’s easier to make a sound longer than it is to breathe out normally. So, we can make sounds or tones to prolong our exhales.

Prolonging our exhales has a number of benefits that include:

• Smooth digestion

• Lower blood pressure

• Balanced nervous system

• Higher volumes of oxygen absorbed into tissues and cells

• More available energy

• Clearer thinking

• Balanced hormone levels

• Reduced stress levels

With this in mind, it should be no surprise that many religions and spiritual practices have some form of chanting that accompanies their rituals and prayers. Christians sing hymns. Hindus and Sikhs chant mantras. Buddhists and Jews recite prayers. And on and on it goes. What they all have in common is that before a hymn, mantra, or prayer, there is a short inhale followed by a long exhale and many syllables or tones last 10–20 seconds or more. They are then repeated for minutes at a time. This drops people down to 3–4 breaths a minute which generates feelings of peace, harmony, and joy. This, along with a sense of devotion, is the foundation for a spiritual experience.

Sadly, the breath’s role in facilitating such an event is often overlooked.

The best things in life are free

One of the biggest lessons I learned from Kundalini yoga was that three of the most energising and uplifting things in life — the breath, sound, and movement — are free.

Another one is the act of prayer.

What I know now is that prayer can look and sound a million different ways for a million different people. It certainly doesn’t mean sitting beneath a cross, hands in prayer position, and whispering some wish or desire to a holy figure in the heavens above.

There’s nothing wrong with that but there are other ways too.

So, prayer can be experienced in the joy of dancing, singing, laughing, lovemaking, swimming, breathing, hugging, witnessing, and contemplating life. It can be in the stillness and chaos of everyday happenings or in the madness of rage and the utter joy of gratitude.

There’s no right or wrong here. That’s the joy of being human.

“If you only say one prayer in a day make it thank you” — Rumi

The only thing I’d like to add to that is that if you’re feeling extra joyful you can even chant it :)

Talking of chanting, below is one of my favourite daily devotional practices that’s as old as time.

The Sacred Sound of Aum (Om)

Putting it into practice:

1 breath = 16 seconds

Breathe in for 4 seconds

Breathe out for 12 seconds

• Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds

• Then begin to exhale with the sound of Aaaah for 4 seconds

• Continue exhaling for another 4 seconds but with the sound Ooooh

• Continue exhaling for another 4 seconds but with the sound of Ummmm
  (Total exhalation time = 12 seconds)

• Then inhale for 4 seconds and repeat

If you want to deepen the experience, extend each exhalation to 6–8 seconds. So, the total exhalation time will be 24 or 32 seconds instead (4 second inhale + 6–8 seconds for each sound.)

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Thanks for reading!

See you next week :)