Breath of Fire Yoga : How to do, Types, Benefits and Risks

Your full concentration must be on your breathing. At first, it might look tricky to breathe in rhythm without slowing the speed, but as mentioned above, regular practice will make it easy.

Let’s check out the step-by-step process to perform breath of fire yoga.

1. Sit in a peaceful place with your back straight and hands on your knees in an open-palm mudra. Keep your eyes closed and your full focus on your abdomen as it expands and contracts with your inhale and exhale.
   Concentrate on your breathing and feel your belly going inward toward your spine and outward as you breathe in.
2. While you breathe in and out through your nostrils, yoga has a deeper route. It involves your navel point, which, as mentioned above, is pumped in and out repeatedly.
3. When you understand your diaphragm movement with your breathing, open your mouth and start panting like a dog. This will help you understand the rhythm.
4. Gradually increase the pace of your breathing, but make sure you inhale and exhale at the same pace. Breathe in and out at the same rate without taking any pauses. You must complete 2-3 cycles every second.
5. Once you have decided to stop, release your last breath slowly and start breathing normally.

Beginners should start with 1-3 minutes of this exercise and increase the pace gradually. Your chest should be lifted, and your abdomen must be relaxed. These are the signs that you are doing the yoga right.

Benefits of Breath of Fire Yoga

Relieves Stress

A study suggests that Breath of Fire can lower stress levels. The effects are better when the yoga is combined with a sound. It calms your mind, reduces frustration, and reduces anxiety or stress. Although more research is needed to know the benefits of Breath of Fire yoga on your stress levels, experts say that it helps you achieve a sense of relaxation by reducing the activity of your fight-and-flight stress response.

Flushes Out the Toxic Air

The air contains many toxic gases that enter your respiratory system through breathing. When you breathe through your stomach instead of your lungs, the toxic air inside your body is replaced with fresh air. Thus, it’s a great way to detoxify your respiratory system. You should practice breath of fire once a day to flush the toxins out of your body and fill your skull with fresh air.

Good for Respiratory Problems

Breath of fire is considered good practice for asthma patients and those with other respiratory problems. It’s an excellent exercise for your respiratory muscles and is great for your diaphragm, which is responsible for providing air to the lungs. In addition, regular and fast-paced rhythmic breathing pattern improves your lungs’ capacity to take more air, as it broadens your airway passages, allowing air to enter and exit easily. In fact, regular practice can activate the deeper sections of your lungs, which aren’t normally used for breathing.

Boosts Concentration

One of the most common reasons people practice breath of fire yoga is to enhance their concentration. It improves your brain function, attention, and reaction time. Earlier, we mentioned the stress-relieving properties of pranayam. Well, this benefit is related to the pranayama’s stress-killing effect. It’s obvious that a mind free of stress focuses better. If you are having a hard time concentrating, try this yoga to increase your concentration and mindfulness. Breath of Fire yoga increases the oxygen supply to your brain, improving your focus.

Tones Your Abdomen and Improves Digestion

In Breath of Fire, you breathe through your belly. This exercise involves your abdominal muscles. So, regular practice can help you get a toned abdomen. It can also improve your digestion. Although there’s no research regarding this, it’s obvious that regular contractions increase abdominal muscle activity, which eventually helps tone your belly.

Improves Your Digestion

A 2013 report shows that Breath of Fire helped a 62-year-old man get rid of gastroesophageal reflux. It might be because of the stress-relieving effect of the pranayam. Experts also suggest that you should include this breathing exercise in your routine yoga practice to relieve irritable bowel syndrome. However, there’s no clinical research proving the benefits of this exercise in regulating bowel movements.

Improves Decision Making

It looks like there’s no connection between your decision-making skills and yoga, but Breath of Fire does affect the areas of your brain that make you alert and improves your ability to make an informed decision. Detoxification of the air and a lightness in your skull promotes the feeling of calmness. By reducing stress and keeping us alert, the Breath of Fire yoga is a wonderful way to help us in decision-making.