The Cycles of Breathing
   The relationship of acting, feeling, thinking and intuiting is intimately linked to the breathing process. Each breath we take is just an aspect of ourselves in miniature. There are 4 parts to each breath cycle which relate to our life force as well as our mode of daily self expression. The physical and meta-physical correspondences for breathing are as follows:
.   Inhalation represents that time of inspiring, drawing in, imbibing fresh life force, consuming, filling up. It is easy and pleasant. That which we always look forward to. Indicates one's ability to create and accumulate.
·    Internal retention (holding one's breath inside). This represents being able to hold that energy, to assimilate, to compress, pressurise, exchange bad energy for good, expand the storage capacity, maintain without loss, chew over, inwardly distribute that goodness which inhalation has brought in. Indicates one's ability to persevere and sustain themself.
·    Exhalation represents expiring, letting go, passing out the staleness, the tiredness, the tension, tossing off that which is no longer needed, renouncing, self-depletion, approaching emptiness, contracting towards the end, exhausting, winding down. That which we tend to like the least. Indicates one's ability to renounce.
·    External retention (holding the breath out). This is the hardest of all for most people and is representative of holding out, forcing more life force out from nothing, going beyond the present limits, starving past exhaustion, giving more than we think we can, blocking a time of letting in again, suppressing even below empty. It is like having someone hold your head underwater longer than you are able to tolerate. It is an emptiness (shoonya) which seems to offer no escape. It is the darkest period, just before the new life force rushes in again and we explode into a fresh awakening. It is a very powerful phase of existence, where one's abilities to sustain this state indicate one's ability to be deeply transformed.
   Now, every person breathes through all of these phases to some extent, with different emphases and to different ratios. Most of the time we pay no attention to our breathing rate or cyclic ratios thereby remaining unconscious of our minute-by-minute selves. Each of the above 4 breathing phases, accurately mirrors our different personality strengths and weaknesses, so it is not until one comes face to face with yoga pranayamas that our habitual deficiencies become evident. Even in the elementary levels, we practise slowing down the breath, lengthening

the inhalations, retentions and exhala-tions. After some time, the ratios between these phases are consciously altered, thereby transforming the corresponding elements of personality. How does this occur? It happens because the prana, the life force, we are manipulating, has a very direct influence on the mind. This is the principle which the yogis use to prepare their mind for deep and effective meditation.

The 4 Breath Centres
   In the human body there are different physical parts to our breathing system. Most people know a bit about how the lungs work, but fewer know about the function of the diaphragm and thorax. In pranayama we explore the actual experience of breathing and learn where these parts are and how they feel when breathing.
   Beyond the physiological components of breathing, yoga teaches there are also more subtle layers of breath and energy awareness. In pranayama sessions, we explore these functions too. In some of the techniques you will be doing, specifically the relaxation and meditation sessions, you will be instructed on finding the 4 primary breath centres as shown in Figure 3.

   Now everyone knows you don't breathe air through the belly button, the heart, the throat or the forehead, but it is possible to have an experience of prana where its effects are actually felt at these psychic centres. The outcome of discovering and using these breathing centres is that you can directly influence the organs in and