What are Vayus?
There is a pure yogic energy that moves through the world and flows into each of you. This energy is called prana, and it is transported through your bodies through something called vayu. Vayu translates into “wind” and your vayus is responsible for the transfer of energy throughout the body.
Although vayus are thin, they have a huge impact on how your bodies feel, so learning to move with their natural rhythms is vital to our health.
Pranavayu
Pranavayu is a force that moves inward and brings vital energy to your bodies and your minds. Everything you take, from the air you inhale to the food you consume and the thoughts and emotions you feel, is brought in with pranavayus. This vayu allows you to see the world in all its glory and motivates you to see and act for all the possibilities of life.
Practicing pranayama and the heart-opening asanas will let your pranavayus flow. If you want to connect with your pranavayu, practice laying the bow, laying the camel, laying the cobra, posing the dancer and laying the bridge.
Apanavayu
The apanavayu governs the flow of energy downward and outward into your bodies. The energy of Apana nourishes the organs of digestion and reproduction, is located in the pelvic floor and its energy nourishes the organs of digestion and reproduction.
Because it is in the pelvic floor, its energy pervades the lower abdomen. What you release and let go in life and in your bodies is as important as what you receive and absorb. If you release too much, there won’t be enough to feed you. And if you keep everything inside, it can become toxic.
Just like breathing, you need to find the balance of allowing the new life energy into each inhalation and releasing all that you no longer need at each exhalation. To activate your apanavayu, focus on standing upright, like forward folds, which will bring a release to the mind and fill it with meaning.
You can also try the seat forward fold, the curve forward with the legs apart, the tree pose and the bound angle pose.
Samanavayu
Samanavayu combines the ascending energy of prana and the descending energy of the apana. Here, the inner winds of the upper and lower parts of the body meet in the abdomen. Like a converging vortex of energy, our samanavayu moves around the navel as it digests all the substances: food, air, experiences, emotions and thoughts.
Samana creates a power plant in your core, where you can find the balance inside and outside the carpet. Your self-confidence stems from this fire of converging energies, giving you the motivation for a true transformation.
In your practice, you can activate this vital energy by focusing on twisting and abdominal work, which will neutralize and ignite the core. Find your center and get to know all that power with poses like laying the rotated side angle, crow, and chair position, abdominal tilting and posing in the boat.
Guideline to do
- Sit gracefully in a celibate posture, that is, your buttocks will be between the calves and ankles, for 2 minutes. The hands would be relaxed on the thighs, and you would breathe normally.
- Then lift your buttocks, up from the knees. Stretch your arms to the sides, which are parallel to the ground, palms up. Inhale in six times, while you get up from the kneeling position . Hold the position and breathe in 12 times.
Slowly exhale in six times, and lower the buttocks to the floor . Repeat 7 times and the eighth time, slap over the head.
- Bicycle movement. Lie on your back with your hands at your sides and lift your legs about 15 centimeters off the ground, performing a pedaling motion , and keeping them parallel to the ground, for 2 1/2 minutes.
- Inhale immediately and lift your legs at a ninety degree angle , hold the position for 30 seconds, exhale slowly and lower your legs.
How to direct prana through UdanaVayu
For standing, supine, prone and sitting positions:
Inhale: imagine the breath moving from the ground to the soles of your feet, climbing up the legs, going through the spine to the chest.
Exhale: invite the energy to continue moving upwards through the crown.
Inhale: repeat what was indicated above.
Exhale: allows breathing to be released in the throat region while exhaling through the nose, releasing any tension in the throat, jaw and teeth.
For inverted positions:
Inhale: imagine that breathing begins in the hands and / or arms, whatever is in contact with the floor. Let it continue up the arms and torso as you lengthen the inhalation.
Exhale: move your breath through your legs and take it out through the soles of your feet.
Working with this vayu in asana
Applying this breathing job can be very useful during investments, especially when the neck, arms and shoulders feel compressed. Also in the standing postures where you can feel your legs compressed or locked (warrior I, chair posture, eagle posture) and in forward bends in a sitting position, where the spine collapses forward.
Push-ups, particularly those in the abdomen, can activate udanavayu.
Vyana vayu
The last vayu, vyanavayu , moves from the center outwards. This is the vayu opposite samanavayu, which attracts everything from the outside inwards, towards the center. Located in the area of the heart, vyanavayu represents the whole body, the skin, the energy that radiates beyond the limits of our skin and that supports our optimal health.
Vyanavayu is related to circulation at all levels. From the circulation of food, water and oxygen throughout the body to the circulation of emotions and thoughts. Healthy circulation allows nutrients to reach the place where they are needed, as well as allows the absorption of these nutrients, the release of energy from absorption and waste disposal. Therefore, this vayu helps the operation of all other vayus.
On a mental level, vyanavayu is associated with ideas and emotions that can flow freely. It is thought that people who are able to express themselves in a loving way, the brave and the extroverts and those who circulate and expand in the world have a healthy vyanavayu. An inefficient vyanavayu is related to separation, alienation and hatred, due to an extreme limitation of thoughts or emotions. It is believed that such separation results from an excess of vyana, which causes ideas and emotions to disintegrate due to said excess.
How to direct prana through vyanavayu
Inhale: allows the breath to go from the nose to the heart and then move to the back of the heart (to the deepest and darkest corners).
Exhale: imagine the breath moving through the arms and legs and along the torso. Then imagine the breath moving through each pore of your body, expanding beyond the limit of your skin.
