mornings

6.45am - the house is silent, I finished my 20min of Pranayama and sit here in front of the computer ready to share :-)

oh, I love this mornings...

here in Cairo it's getting warm. sure soon we'll complain and it will all be a bit too much. but right now, right now I just love it. I wake up without an alarm because I hear birds singing, there is just enough daylight that comes into my bedroom already AND it's warm. I just love to get out of bed when it's nice and warm all around me. I can put loose clothes on, open the window and BREATH.

no matter how busy my day will be or not, how early I manage to rise or not, I do Pranayama every day and preferably in the morning. reason enough to share with you what I do :-)

I start with a couple of full yogic breath, some also call it 3 part breath, moving into Kapalabhati.

Kapalabhati definitely wakes my body up and energises me the most. I also believe that doing this every day is the reason why I never get a blocked nose. honestly, even if I am with a cold, it's all coming out ;-)

I move on to Anuloma Viloma. this is the first breathing exercise I learned in one of it's many variations. last summer I was introduced in doing Anuloma Viloma without using the hand, but just by imagining the breath coming in and out through different nostrils, which I find is great for people who suffer from allergies or just in general get blocked easily.

Then I usually add Nauli, which is a cleansing exercise. it took me a while to get into it, but now it just completes a perfect start into my day!

this is the 3 exercises I do daily, depending on time and how I feel, I might add more or vary a little bit. 

ever since I started teaching yoga I realised that for many people it's not easy to focus on their breath and it's not naturally for all to breath deeply.

it takes a while to learn, but mainly the people I work with one on one, experience big changes after a very short time by using only "simple" exercises throughout their every day life. and this exercises are done everywhere, not necessarily on a yoga mat!

so how about a couple of conscious inhales and exhales after you finished reading this, adding some breath focus into your life whenever and wherever you can :-)