"Just as lions, tigers, and elephants are gradually controlled, so prana is controlled through practice. Otherwise the practitioner is destroyed". —Hatha Yoga Pradipika 2:15
That is an important quote from Hatha Yoga Pradipika believed to be the Bible of Yoga by many experts.
“Pneumatic tools can cut through the hardest rock. In pranayama the yogi uses his lungs as pneumatic tools. If they are not used properly, they destroy both the tool and the person using it. The same is true of pranayama” - BKS Iyengar
Sometimes it is painful, when I see senior citizens sitting in park benches doing Kapalbhati pranayama...they probably, will be having diabetes and heart issues... I feel like telling them the negative side effects of these things but I never do that. Yoga philosophy believes in energy channels and the cleansing of these are essential before practicing pranayamas...if someone wants to find hardcore science-based evidence of energy channels it will be difficult to show but it can be felt for sure.
The old school way should be to start with asanas, slowly and safely and after a period of a couple of years your body can be ready for pranayama, the body is compared to pottery and prana as water, you have to dry the soft mud and then quench it in heat to make it strong to hold water. Same way the body needs the heat of asanas before being able to handle prana.
Some schools also advocates changing to a vegetarian diet for better cleansing of energy channels as per the philosophy but I personally don't want to believe that... I enjoy the slow-cooked juicy mutton too much for that, but is there a way people can modify this old school strict method for something more efficient.
The key to this is not to get too fast, first make sure you don't have any ailments before starting this. Slowly start increasing the capacity of your lungs by alternate breathing...just 5 minutes a day slowly...the best way is to go with the flow, feel every breath, the passage of it and at no time exerting yourself, you will feel over the weeks that you can take more breath in the same inhalation. Over a period of a few months when your lungs have the capacity the breath retention should be introduced...and that's when all the benefits appear...be beware that fast-forwarding or taking a shortcut to this can be rather harmful. This process I will elaborate on in future posts but the best and old school way is to practice asanas for a few years before coming to pranayama.
https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/154E5M5IxPpBsjV11O9W7M/Is-Kapalbhati-killing-you.html
Disclaimer:
All the views here are personal. Consult your physician before starting any kind of weight loss program.
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