HOW YANTRA YOGA CAN HELP YOU TO BREATH YOUR WAY TO WELL-BEING
July 2022
— by Therese Pechstein —
The roots of Yantra Yoga lie in the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism in the 8th century. In the beginning, yoga was a simple thing. One sat down to meditate and breathe. In modern yoga, the aspect of breathing has been lost. The practice of breathing is reduced to the pranayama technique and one focuses more on the posture.
Breathing in Yantra Yoga
Yantra Yoga is based on movement and rhythm, but the central aspect is breathing. There are two types: fluid and rough breathing. The fluid breathing is a breath that is as gentle as possible. Rough breathing is controlled and rapid. Fluid breathing should start from the bottom, about four finger-widths below the belly button, and flow directly upward. Exhalation works the other way around. It starts at the top of the nostrils and goes downward. This is the breath of Yantra yoga. Holding the breath is done in a certain position. Because depending on where you hold the breath, the experience on the subtle level of life energy (prana) is completely different.
For me, this is one of the secrets of Yantra Yoga. Anyone who has ever participated in an intensive meditation retreat over several days and with several hours of meditation daily knows how it feels. One is relaxed, calm and a bit spaced out, because the mind is not able to react immediately to the manifold, external impulses, to which one is usually exposed again immediately after the retreat. And that's exactly how I felt after three days of intensive Yantra Yoga training. The practiced harmony between concentration, movement and tracing my breathing in the body, led me into a deep relaxation.
Yantra Yoga is breathing from the beginning, because through breathing we can control the mind. Meanwhile, science has also found out that the breath is a kind of remote control of the mind. Our mind depends on energy, depends on breath, because breath is connected to our energy level.
— Fabio Andrico
If the breath is blocked, the energy can no longer circulate properly and lead to fragmented breathing in the upper chest area. As a result, the sympathetic nervous system is in constant arousal. As a result, one feels stressed. Until breathing is controlled, this can't really change. Because the breath is connected to our emotions. If I am nervous, I breathe nervously. If I am calm, my breathing is also calm.
Body, mind and breath
The shape of our body affects the way the breath moves within us. A breath that is not efficient and harmonious leads to poor posture and therefore poorer breathing. Yantra Yoga guides the breath as accurately as possible through the body to the point where it should be concentrated and focused. This is the core of Yantra Yoga, along with the rhythm and movement.
In Yantra Yoga it means body, voice and mind. Voice here means breath. There is an interdependence. When the mind is agitated, the breathing is tense and so is the body. The tension in the body changes the posture. It leads to a posture that does not allow for steady and flowing breathing, as it should be in Yantra.
— Fabio Andrico
Body, breathing and mind are connected. Those who have a body must also breathe. In addition, we have the ability to act consciously. Being present and aware of things is also the direction of mindfulness. But if we are too agitated inside, it is difficult to be mindful.
Herein lies another aspect of Yantra Yoga: helping people to be present and relaxed. When we are able to feel security and awareness in our lives, it changes our daily lives for the better. When there is less tension, we automatically focus less on ourselves. We have time and space to understand that everything is connected.
In mindfulness and meditation practice, much emphasis is placed on breathing in order to experience that breathing and mind are one. But to have this experience is not so easy. Yantra Yoga helps me with this. By learning to better trace my breathing through my body, even to places I didn't even know could breathe before, I can recognize and control my emotions much more clearly. This helps me greatly in dealing with the people and problems of my everyday life, as my breathing gives me the ability to respond appropriately to challenges.
The “Eight Movements for Purifying Prana”
In Yantra Yoga, one begins immediately with breathing, because Yantra Yoga was a yoga for yogis. The preparation is done through the «Eight Movements for Purifying Prana». They help to breathe in a more effective way because a better coordination of inhalation and exhalation, as well as holding the breath, the different aspects of prana are purified. Prana is energy and the bridge between body and mind.
The only moment in Yantra practice where one stays is when the breath is held. When breathing in or out, the body is always in motion. The principle of Yantra Yoga is therefor to achieve a perfect synergy between the movement of the body, breathing and rhythm.
Sometimes we call Yantra Yoga the yoga of breath and movement. But there is also the rhythm. The pulse is rhythm. Expansion, contraction is rhythm. Everything is rhythm, is vibration. Rhythm is an important aspect of coordinating our vital functions. In Yantra Yoga, therefore, rhythm is based on the heartbeat of a healthy person in a state of relaxation.
— Fabio Andrico
Yantra Yoga is powerful. A harmonious force with the breath embedded in it. It is like a dance. A dance of energy. By constantly practicing the «Eight movements» the breath is formed. But you have to practice it.
In Yantra Yoga you can be super flexible, but if you don't pay close attention to the aspect of breath and holding the breath, it's not Yantra Yoga. This is about directing the breath and holding it in a certain way. This is the core, the heart of Yantra Yoga.
The RESPIRA method
Many people are now used to shallow chest breathing. It is difficult for them to breathe in a different way.
That's why I developed the RESPIRA method for people who don't want to or can't practice Yantra Yoga, but still want to understand how to do it properly. It's about helping people who want to train to breathe in a more natural way.
— Fabio Andrico
The purpose of RESPIRA is to get people to experience the most spontaneous and natural possible way of breathing. Because when one can breathe in this way, the mind will follow. Like the «Eight movements», RESPIRA trains the body and brain to reprogram existing patterns to create a different memory.
The breath should move the body. This works when there is a perfect synergy of movement and breath. If one succeeds in integrating the breath into the movement and letting the breath lead the movement, the movement will be much smoother. You don't have to exert yourself as much and everything is much more harmonious. That is Yantra Yoga. And it can only succeed if you are not distracted.
Yantra Yoga and Tibetan Medicine
In Tibetan medicine, as in Yantra Yoga, it is believed that each person is born with a certain amount of breath.
In Tibetan medicine, «Lung» is the energy of movement. There are five different types of Lung, which are assigned to different parts of the body and have different functions. If the function is disturbed, for example due to incorrect breathing, this can lead to problems with this particular Lung. These problems are not so easy to solve, because it is not a physical problem, but an energetic one.
Yantra Yoga shapes the way the breath moves to achieve a certain state of breath that signifies health. The body is used to shape the breath, and the breath is shaped to coordinate and purify the energy and allow the mind to be more relaxed and clear.
— Fabio Andrico
Yantra Yoga and RESPIRA are about experiencing a breath that is less conditioned. A spontaneous breathing, without the superstructures created by the body and mind. Something that feels gentle and natural. Where the body and mind are centered and relaxed at the same time, but with energy. If the mind is not the «wild monkey» that bites all the time, maybe some space opens up to experience a new spiritual dimension.
Would you like to try out this type of yoga or deepen your own experience in Yantra Yoga? Landguet Ried offers a basic course in August 2022 and a teacher training with Fabio Andrico in October. Find out more here >
Therese Pechstein works as an online editor. She has been travelling the countries of Asia for more than twenty years and has been practising Vipassana Meditation intensively for ten years. In 2021 she was a participant in the Yantra Yoga course with Fabio Andrico at Landguet Ried. This text is based on her own experiences during the course and on a conversation between Begoña Martinez, Managing Director of Landguet Ried, and Fabrio Andrico in June 2022.