One of the eight limbs of yoga is Dirga Pranayama, which is a concentration practice with a primary focus on the breath. Dirga Pranayama helps you to prepare for meditation, reducing the heart rate, controlling blood pressure, and lowering the level of cortisol hormones in the body. Our modern life usually revolves around excessive screen time, extra processed food, lack of activities, and other sicknesses. All of these false habits eventually result in stress, weaknesses, and strain on the breathing system. One of the most common issues is chest breathing which limits the diaphragm's motions and increases anxiety and stress. According to the studies, the motion of the diaphragm or diaphragm breathing is beneficial in reducing stress. That’s where Dirga Pranayama comes in, it's an easy technique and the simplest way to improve the breathing system.

What is Dirga Pranayama

A three-part breath, Dirga Pranayama is a type of yoga that involves slow breathing through the three parts i.e. abdomen, chest, and clavicular region. By practicing this three-part yoga you will be getting integrative training, prolonging breathing by using your full lung capacity, and also help in building a body-mind-breath connection. It is one of the most comforting, and grounding breathing exercises that you can do. By doing this yoga, you will be able to retain your attention on the present moment and get in touch with the sensations of your physical body. Dirga Pranayama is often taught at the beginning of the yoga classes, for these reasons and you can also practice it at home. Because it doesn’t require any prior experience to practice Dirga Pranayama.

Benefits of Dirga Pranayama

Dirga Pranayama comes from the two words of Sanskrit and has different meanings like slow, deep, long, and complete referring to the breath. Therefore, it is also known as the practice of “complete breath”. Dirga Pranayama teaches you how to breathe completely and fully. The common problem of today's modern world is ineffective breathing that results from a long period of sitting like driving, or due to bad posture. When you don’t breathe properly or shallowly, the oxygen only enters into your upper chest and cannot reach the lower chest. Due to the lack of oxygen in your blood vessels, it may cause a strain in your heart or lungs.

Dirga Pranayama teaches you how to breathe deeply to reduce the anxiety and stress levels that result due to the lack of oxygen in your body. Dirga Pranayama also develops a sense of awareness in your mind. Different studies revealed that, while doing this three-part yoga, you inhale and exhale seven times more oxygen than in shallow breathing. It also makes up the foundation of your other yogic exercises like meditation.

Step-by-step guide to Dirga Pranayama

This three-step yoga is often done by sitting in a comfortable, cross-legged position. While it could be nice to do it while lying on your back when you are getting started. However, if you are a beginner, our guide will provide you with the basic instructions for doing the Dirga Pranayama at home. Let’s get started with the primary steps:

Start Preparing For the Dirga Pranayama

First of all, get into the comfortable yoga position i.e. cross-legged. Now put your right hand on your stomach while placing your left hand on your upper body. Now close your eyes, and take a start by doing gentle breathing for two or more minutes. If you are distracted by the thoughts of your mind, ward them off, and try not to engage in them. Try to keep your mind clean, clear, and focused.

Breathing from the Diaphragm

Now slowly, begin to inhale and exhale through the nose. While you are inhaling, make sure your belly is filling up with your breath and expanding like a balloon with the air. The next step is exhaling, exhale all of the air out from the belly through your nose. To make sure that your bell is empty of the air, pull your belly backward to the spine. Repeat this part of the breathing for about five minutes.

Rib-Cage Breathing

Breathing from the diaphragm was step one, now take a deep breath and fill up your belly with air. When you feel like your belly is now full of air, inhale a little bit more air. It will allow your rib cage to expand and widen apart. On the exhaling part, let the air move out from the rib cage first and slide them closer, then from the abdominal area as we did in the first part. Continue this for the next five minutes.

Dirga Pranayama - Final Step

Moving towards the next and final step, inhale the oxygen and fill up your abdomen and rib cage with the air. When you think that they are filled, then just inhale a little bit more air that will fill up your upper chest and the collarbone area. By doing this, the area around your heart would expand and rise. Now, while exhaling let the air move out from the heart and collarbone first, causing them to relax. Then move out the air from the rib cage and then from the abdomen drawing them back to their normal postures. After completing this first set of breathing, continue at your speed for almost 15 minutes.

Common Mistakes and Precautions

To get the most out of Dirga Pranayama, don’t breathe too deeply and try to fill the lungs beyond the capacity. It should feel like they are comfortably full not like they are going to burst any moment. Try to breathe smoothly without straining and taking gaps. While Dirga Pranayama may be safe for most people, if you have any medical conditions like asthma or breathing difficulty, go back to your normal breathing pattern.

Conclusion

To conclude, Dirga Pranayama is a type of relaxed, deep, and mindful breathing that involves filling the three parts of your body with air. That will result in an increased level of oxygen in the blood vessels and reduce the overall stress and anxiety. Lastly, make sure to breathe naturally and smoothly without putting too much pressure on the lungs.