Sep 1

Sep 1 Sudarshan Kriya: A Beneficial Breathwork and Meditation Practice

Hi, I'm Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach.

Several weeks ago, I took a three-night Zoom course learning how to do Sudarshan Kriya. Sudarshan Kriya is a researched-proven meditation and breathwork practice. James Nestor opens his book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art with his experience using this meditation. If you're interested, go to Art Of Living.com for more info about this course.

Art of Living is an educational, humanitarian nonprofit organization that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar started around 50 years ago. Ravi says his goal is to put a smile on everyone's face. Most of the teachers are volunteers, and Art of Living works with many underserved populations, from prisoners to at-risk youth, teaching this meditation practice free of charge.

Although Art of Living It is not affiliated with any religion, the course not only taught a series of specific breathing techniques accompanied by arm movements or kriyas, but it also touched on some basic Vedic or Hindu tenets.

One of the general principles the teacher shared with us is that a sense of belonging comes from within us. Each of us is responsible for whether we are open to a sense of belonging with others or not. Feelings of peace and calm increase a sense of belonging, while stress, anxiety, and fear decrease our feeling of belonging. Remember that situations may change for people, but emotions are basically the same.

According to Vedic philosophy, there are seven layers to our existence: body, mind, breath, intellect, memory, ego, or the separate ‘I,' and self, the connected ‘witness.'

Meditation and breathwork strengthen our sense of self. It’s about coming back repeatedly to our true nature. That’s the essence of meditation.

Most of us are caught in the mind either in the past, glorifying it or angry about something or someone, or in the future, anxious and stressed. We lose this precious moment. The Now. All true joy happens in this moment. And all suffering happens when we resist what's occurring now. We’ve all heard the adage: what we resist persists.

Instead of waiting to be happy in the future or pursuing happiness, as many of us are, life should be an expression of happiness. Right? Because we touch everyone we meet and why not leave a trail of happiness in our wakes?

Along with the pursuit of happiness is our desire to be loved. Yet, according to Vedic philosophy, we are made of love. Love is our very existence, not an emotion. Unconditional love is about exploring the question, ‘What can I give?’ Service to others is the expression of love.

Meditation is how you can experience love and connection not only with yourself but all beings.

I hope I haven’t completely lost you with some of the Vedic philosophical principles taught in the course. If you glazed over, no worries because, as I mentioned, the heart of the class was learning the series of breathwork and accompanying arm movements that are research-proven to release stress and promote calm.

Let me finally talk a bit about that:

The first kriya, we were taught, focuses on inhaling air into all parts of our lungs: the bottom chest, upper chest, and upper back. Then, in the next breathwork practice, we rapidly raised and lower hands in a kriya called ‘bellows breath’ that our teacher said is even better at waking you up than an espresso shot.

We followed that up with breathing in and out to 3 different tempos slow, medium, and fast, following the words SO HUM, meaning I am that.

The complete breathwork series takes about 20 -25 minutes, and then it’s time to meditate for another 10 to 15 minutes.

During the breathwork and meditation, Art of Living recommends sitting in a chair or on your heels in the yoga pose called hero’s pose.

There was also some homework between classes: performing 2 acts of random kindness which I’m considering adding to my nightly checklist. We were asked to practice the breathwork techniques before the next evening’s class. And asked to journal on several deep, not so easy prompts such as What do you need to be happy? Who are you? And where are you? Right, not so easy! Ha!

If you were rolling your eyes at the talk of love, happiness, self, belonging, etcetera, no worries, as I mentioned, this practice is research-proven with over 60 studies. This course is for experienced meditators who want to expand their practice or newbies who want more direction than simply ‘close your eyes and focus on your breathing.’ So, if you are looking for specific daily meditation practice or desire a research-backed way to naturally reduce stress and promote calm, I would highly recommend this Sudarshan Kriya course taught by the nonprofit Art of Living.

I’m Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and thank you for reading this blog about the Art of Living course which teaches Sudarshan Kriya. If you have any questions about this blog, health, wellness, or wellness coaching with me, please reach out via my website at lizmosercoaching.com.