Quiet Practices for Loud Times: Balancing Prana and Apana Vayu
Consider everything you might interact with in a particular hour of your day: sights, smells, sensations, notifications, conversations, images - so many things calling our attention in so many directions. Even if you’ve built habits to moderate all this intake (minimizing notifications on your devices, clearing your spaces of clutter, etc.), it can still be a lot. You might be tempted either to retreat inward, shutting off the intake valve, or retreat outward, dissociating from your own bodymind — neither of which is sustainable, day in and day out. And so we say again: Yoga was born for times like these.
(Remember, Yoga was born in times like these, and has supported and challenged revolutionary thinkers, poets, and changemakers across the centuries. Anjali Rao gives some choice examples here).
Whether we’re feeling inundated or pulled from all directions, Yoga practices can support us through the movement of prana. Prana (energy or life force) can be absorbed through everything around us, and like anything that we take in and release - food, water, breath - prana moves through us with the help of multiple systems and pathways. Today we’re working with two of these pathways, prana vayu and apana vayu.
Vayu roughly translates to “wind.” The five vayu describe pathways of energetic flow within our bodies (you can find a good, brief summary here). We’ll focus first on prana vayu, the pathway for drawing energy and awareness inward, then use apana vayu to root down into support and connection.
prana vayu: gathering in what was splayed out
Through prana vayu, we draw our awareness inward, re-collecting our attention that has been spread thin. We withdraw focus from the swirl of sensory information, likes and dislikes, past and future, and redirect that focus toward the heart, toward intention, toward what is true. From this centered perspective, we can observe the swirl, and the constant pulse of expansion and contraction, but we’ll feel less pulled by these forces. That is, we can draw attention inward without closing down or shutting the world out.
In the physical body, prana vayu lives at the seat of the heart, so we can envision muscular energy drawing in and lightly up toward there. Let’s use anjaneyāsana, a low lunge with the back knee down, as an example:
First, imagine arriving in this posture without much muscular engagement (or hop on a mat and try it out): your pelvis is heavy, your belly and ribs spill and splay open, your arms are soft overhead, the back of your neck is probably scrunched as your head falls back.
From there, imagine that everything draws in toward center and then toward your heart space. The muscles at the front and back and sides of your legs hug evenly toward bone and your legs draw in toward each other, your pelvic floor lifts; all of this allows for buoyancy in your pelvis. Your abdominals draw toward each other and lightly upward, and your front ribs knit together making space at the back of your lungs; your chin draws down slightly toward your chest, your arms hug toward each other and your shoulders draw down to support the back of your heart.
Physically, you’ve supported your vital organs, lifted weight and pressure out of your joints and lumbar spine, and opened up space to breathe. Energetically, you’ve collected prana at the center. From here, the same pathway you’ve created for breath is open for prana to move freely; what is nourishing can be distributed and integrated, and what is left can be released. Pretty good, yeah?
When we approach asana (and everything else) with the intention of energetic alignment, we can move through each shape in a way that supports and opens pathways for breath/prana to move. And in turn, that free movement of energy allows us to move with more ease and freedom too.
apana vayu: the way out is through (the roots)
Of course, as far as our bodies are concerned, drawing in necessitates letting out. We can’t just go around taking in energy, food, breath, etc. without sending anything back out or releasing by-products and waste. Right? Right. But we don’t want to go back to splaying out in all directions. So what do we do with all this energy we’ve gathered up? We root it down, through the pathway of apana vayu. Already we’ve drawn attention away from likes and dislikes, past and future, from the stories we tell ourselves - now we can root with our whole awareness, from a place of steadiness, not desperation.
Let’s go back to our image of anjaneyasana. You’ve drawn your energy in and up, you’ve expanded heart center and filled your lungs — you’re practically a helium balloon! But instead of floating away and dissipating all that energy you’ve re-collected, apana vayu, the rooting pathway, is going to be your tether.
In your lunge, keep the engagement and the lift, but balance it by pushing down into the earth. Follow the energy in your mind’s eye, from your lower abdomen down through your pelvis and all the way through your legs and feet down into the ground. Feel the support of the earth beneath you. Just like the rebound at the bottom of your exhale, there is an affirming reverberation that comes back up through the legs and pelvic floor and gives you a sense of stability, a place to rest into.
Through apana, you’ve rooted into the great interconnected web of creation, a place of belonging. You’ve balanced what you’re taking in and offering out. Physically and energetically, you’re supported. I don’t know about you, but that thought alone allows me a deeper breath. Apana vayu is associated with the exhale. In addition to rooting, it’s a clearing out, a release. Through this pathway we can eliminate what’s stuck, untrue, or congested, holding only what is most aligned with truth and intention.
Then of course, we begin again. Each breath is an opportunity to gather toward center and remember what we already know, the wisdom we hold deep in our hearts and DNA, in our muscle memory, in our hands. When we are firmly connected to this knowing, we can move, act, and speak from that place, supported by our interconnected roots. We can take in the swirl and pulsation of life because we have a steady foundation, and we’ve opened pathways for all this intake to be processed and released.
Sometimes just thinking and breathing through these energetic pathways is enough to re-balance. But focused practice helps too, especially in building the habitual neural pathways so that you can more easily find your way when you feel off-balance. Here are a few simple ways to practice…
Practices for balancing apana and prana vayu
Simple breath practice: Sama Vritti Pranayama (aka “even breathing” or “box breathing”). Start by breathing evenly, matching the length of your inhale (hello prana vayu!) and exhale (apana vayu); then, add a pause of equal length at the top and bottom of your breath (each breath now has four equal parts, hence the name “box breathing”).
Breath meditation: Breathe evenly as described above. On each inhale, imagine taking in what nourishes you, and integrating/digesting in the pause at the top of the breath; on each exhale, imagine that you could physically and energetically embody ‘release’; notice the rebound at the bottom of your breath, leading you to the next inhale. (You can also practice this meditation while breathing at a natural pace, observing rather than controlling your breath).
Asana for balancing apana and prana vayu: warrior poses, standing balances, ustrāsana (camel pose). In these poses (or any pose!), try: muscular engagement in and up when you inhale, root and yield weight into the earth through your legs and pelvis when you exhale.
Embodiment practice for balancing apana and prana vayu:
When you first try this practice, it’s best to lie down on the floor, as you would in Savāsana.To start, draw focus into your physical body; bring attention to the right and left sides of your body as distinct, one side at a time.
Next, contract/engage the muscles on the right side of your body and imagine breathing only through your right nostril and right lung (air will move through both sides, of course, but imagine using the right side to its full capacity), while remaining completely relaxed throughout the left side. Maintain this only for 2-3 breaths.
Relax the right side, and begin to contract/engage the left side, imagining your breath moving only through the left side while the right side remains completely relaxed. Maintain this for the same number of breaths as the first side.
Once you’ve released the effort on both sides, now you’ll begin to perceive your body as a unified whole. Relax both sides and breathe normally.
Imagine equal effort on both sides of your body, and each side putting equal weight into the floor. Imagine your breath filling and moving through your entire body as a whole. Stay with this awareness for at least five breaths, or longer if time permits.
Once you have practiced this once or twice lying down, try it seated or even standing. Then it can be a balancing practice at your desk, in a waiting room, in the TSA line, etc.
If you try these practices, or know of others that are helpful for you, let us know in the comments!