Dr. Paul Dallaghan Insights

Breathwork, breathing exercises, prānāyāma, whatever it is, the first step is to get clear on how to breathe.

The Year of the Dragon could be your year of the breath through the nose. And why not?

Working out as a different level of physical activity to yoga- learn more about the difference and how you can make it work for you...

Something special seems to happen for human beings when close to the ocean. The magic of the seashore and beach visits have been an essential remedy to our modern, increasingly urbanized, way of living.

Samahita has taken over the luxury villa and garden property next to us. We have designed and built 20 new spectacular rooms - right at the beach.

Samahita completes its 20th year this year, from 2003 to 2023. And just like a new born baby back then it has gone through its infancy, growth stages, fresh maturing, to now, what feels like, a clear and comfortable confidence in what Samahita is and why it was set up. Before the physical Samahita took form we would lead retreats and trainings, initially in Costa Rica (1999-2001) and then in Thailand (2001-2003). Around March 2003 while leading a training I was asked would I not open my own center. I still recall my reply, “No,” but I did elaborate. “Why would I want to run a place and deal with all the hassles and burden when I can teach a program and then go home and do my own thing?”

On one level, a good grasp of any topic can be explained in a simple manner. True. Yet at the same time it is easy for the receiver to miss the nuances and take the simple as the full and accurate explanation. Hence, on the other level, especially from those who gave their words to yoga over 500 years ago, yoga cannot be understood if not experienced, explaining it, even defining it can only mislead. True. So both are true. Well, we need a working meaning and explanation. And this is possible. It may start simple but must continue to be unpacked. More interesting, the process of unpacking is (part of) the process of yoga.

A prominent and experienced personal trainer in the NY fitness scene in the 1990s had gotten quite interested in yoga. She was making the connections between all she had learned in anatomy and physiology for sport and what she was experiencing in the physical postures, breath management, and mental focus in yoga class.

First thing to note: you will laugh. So be careful. Spontaneous free-flowing laughter is great for your soul, your heart, your brain, your total biology, your relationship at home later, but may make non-swinging walking-by grown-ups feel uneasy (but really they’re just jealous coz you’re so free).

The meditative process requires engagement and reflection, fine tuning insight which results in heightened discernment. This one essential key to aiding balance in life now occupies your thoughts. What is understanding? How to develop it? Understand what?

Our conditioning runs deep. Both from the prior influences on a life and the processed experiences throughout a life. Whether you term that genetic and epigenetic factors with social inputs on various scales or you prefer to see past life karma present in the current life with the addition of how you respond to the various inputs. What happens when you are presented with choices, questions of what to do now or next in life, dreams you’d like to convert to actualities? What do you do? How do you respond? What is the initial trigger?

Perhaps you’ve heard these phrases, arising in the next best self-help podcast or book, “believe in yourself”, “fake it till you make it”, and more like that. Rather than self-help it becomes self-deceit, delusion, and less than productive, not just for you but for all. And what do they even mean? or represent? Typically a desire to “be” someone, to “get” something, to “be recognized”. Dangerous stuff.

How are things going for you lately? Some challenges? Nice surprises? Do you stay evenly balanced through the challenge-surprise cycle? Or does it get wild? Does practice go on and off?

That shala was a mental image 15 years ago, put to paper, planned out, and constructed. It was built for people to be in, to engage in practices that have been done for centuries. In line with what these ancient teachings recommend such a shala is a place of peace yet vitality, supportive and serene, to allow you to go within, to aid you in the transformation of consciousness. This space, this shala, has a purpose. Not built to double-up as some event space in a hotel with yoga on its menu. The opposite of that. To offer the experience to learn, practice, and delve deeper into yourself in a unique space dedicated to change, for you, for people, to be here, with the necessary hospitality infrastructure.

The mind left to its own devices is lazy, fickle and follows the path of least resistance. Buddhi, genuine and sincere effort, intelligent, and understanding, requires a degree of effort where there is no room for a lazy mind.

When you say you’ll do something then do it. When you express a sentiment then mean it. When you promise faithfulness and loyalty then be it.

There are many perspectives and opinions to answer such a question. But how many of them truly satisfy our deep yearn to understand? We can also ask it in a few different ways: what’s life about? why was I born? is this all it is? am I supposed to be doing something here?

The real value, the enduring effect, the actual benefit only comes from building a regularity, commitment, sincerity of “just doing it”. Or as I like to say just do it, but with awareness, with connection, like you mean it.

a greater understanding of how people behave, the nature of this world as out of balance, its place as a tricky learning ground of a variety of experiences can strengthen, not replace, your empathy.

Attention on the breath within a comprehensive yoga approach can be an effective way to address our psychological well-being. Why so?

The respiratory system is now known to be plastic, characterized by ongoing changes in the neural control system. These changes are based on previous experience and long-lasting expressions.

The practice of the ancient hathayoga humming breath “Bhramari” has been recommended for hundreds of years that when done repeatedly and correctly produces “an indescribable blissful experience that fills the mind”. Similar to the practice of repeating the sound of Om on an exhale, it is a wonderful practice that delivers many benefits.

Boost your health dramatically by ensuring you are breathing through your nose – at all times – whether directly doing breathing exercises, a yoga-asana practice, household or work duties throughout the day, or while sleeping. The benefits of nasal breathing compared to mouth breathing have been well researched, and are worth understanding so you can optimize your breathing habits and ensure they are functioning well.

Within a comprehensive breath practice repeated and measured breaths are taken. The exhalation is typically elongated and drawn out when compared to the inhalation. The value of breath training and practices with a specific focus on the exhale, have been shown to have a number of physiological benefits, ranging from the prevention to the care of certain conditions.

Have you ever been told, or maybe you have advised someone else, to take a breath to help calm down? It is a common, if acute, piece of advice. It may give a momentary relief but this effect is typically short-lived as a few deep inhales aren’t going to transform your physiology. In fact, only focusing on big inhales can exacerbate your anxiety. Instead of focusing on how deep your inhale is tune into the length and completion of your exhale. Aim to do this when not upset and you will find it becomes part of your normal breath functioning. This takes the same time and energy investment as the above acute advice but turns it into “breath resilience”, something you can cultivate over time by regularly practicing controlled yet simple breathwork activities. Subsequently, your capacity to adapt in different stressful situations without succumbing to negative mood and affect, known as “emotional resilience”, can be a possible outcome.

Ask anyone would they like to take a relaxation break and the majority would respond emphatically with a “yes”. In fact, it’s so easy all you have to do is lay down on the floor wherever you are. Could be under your desk, in a dedicated room, on your bed, the garden, even the beach (if you’ve been lucky to get one of those this year). So why do so few take such breaks?

Breathing exercises are the specific techniques of breathwork, done regularly in a routine, to train the respiratory apparatus and regulate the function of the respiratory center in the brainstem.

Mitāhara – moderate eating – then becomes the clarion call of how to manage food with a yoga practice, whether your aim is a healthier physical body or a wish to progress in meditative practice. There is no direct advice given in any older yoga teaching that demands being a vegetarian or vegan. Though you may interpret some other aspects, as in non-violence, to mean vegetarianism, but that is a full debate of its own.

Prānāyāma has been referred to in modern literature as ‘yogic breathing’. This is an attempt to differentiate breathing exercises as noted in the yogic texts from general breathwork. Yet the term ‘yogic breathing’ is unsatisfactory as it neither defines or accurately explains the nature of prānāyāma and instead implies some alternate obscure way of breathing. Ironically, prānāyāma correctly defined means ‘no breath’.

Yoga, Breath and COVID-19: lifestyle behavioral support mechanisms Approaches to manage the physical and psychological burden of stress from living through and after the current global pandemic

Yoga, Breath and COVID-19: lifestyle behavioral support mechanisms
Approaches to manage the physical and psychological burden of stress from living through and after the current global pandemic

Yoga, Breath and Covid-19: lifestyle behavioral support mechanisms
Approaches to manage the physical and psychological burden of stress from living through and after the current global pandemic

The current coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in research around the nature of the virus and what happens in the respiratory tract. The practice of yoga, particularly Hatha yoga, has been focused on respiratory tract health, from the nasal cavity and sinuses right down to the lungs, for at least 1,000 years. Now a major scientific study published in the journal Cell has characterized specific ways the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 infects the cells of the nasal cavity to the greatest degree as it then continues to infect down the respiratory tract to a lesser degree

“Breathwork” has become frequently used in the popular search for respiration developing and improving routines. In support of an official definition we offer: The regulated activity of inhalation and exhalation consciously engaged in, to exercise and optimize the organs of respiration and brainstem nervous impulses that control breathing, with an outcome of improved respiration efficiency across a 24-hour period.

Beyond the economics of the global crisis, what is the psychological and emotional burden of these events now, a year from now, and even a generation from now, and how can they be addressed from the point-of-view of the living individual?

Anatomical physical improvements to your respiratory, neuroendocrine, cardiovascular and digestive systems: Improve the capacity and functioning of your diaphragm, your primary muscle of breathing which in turn leads to easier and deeper breaths.

Breath is with us from the moment of birth, a fact of life that we allow to go on as we take it for granted. Yet at any moment of compromise, such as being out-of-breath, we immediately suffer. This suffering may result from a malfunction in the body because of low oxygen (hypoxia) or an upsurge of fear as we feel the connection to life is threatened. Breath is that important, that powerful. It influences every metabolic function, meaning your level of energy and subsequently how you feel.

This article teaches advanced level breathing exercises using the 1:1:2:1 ratio for inhale, pause, exhale, pause

This article teaches intermediate level breathing exercises using the 1:1:2 ratio for inhale, pause and exhale.

This article teaches beginner level breathing exercises using the 1:1 or 1:2 ratio for inhale and exhale.

Correctly learned and practiced breathing exercises not only will improve your immune system but increase the robustness of your respiratory system, essential elements against any type of respiratory tract virus or illness. In addition expect gains in your levels of physical activity and cognitive ability, meaning how you currently use, and can continue to use, both your body and brain.

This practice is good for all but inspired by the question recently of what to practice due to having contracted the virus. The hope is it helps if dealing with the virus or similar but also aids the energetic force in preventing it. See it as an energetic immune support, beyond mere physiological explanation of what the breath can do

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In recent years it has become normal to see exercise as a great regulator of health and even an aid, if not improver, to cognition, how well your brain works. There are numerous studies that now quite conclusively show this. (1) This is great news. Only 100-150 years ago physical activity was considered to leave one dull-minded and it was actually a raised objection by the educated groups, at least in India, to not engage in activities like yoga asanas and other physical force.

This is a practice to counter the rising chronic effects of anxiety leading to stress burden. Further work can develop the breath as a personally empowering routine which requires a sequence beyond that recommended in this 10-minute practice. Refined practice with the breath tends to fall under the classical Pranayama techniques which we teach at Samahita Retreat. There is a distinction between breathwork and Pranayama yet both involve the breath. A panic or anxiety attack is an acute response and can benefit from immediate breathwork.

This is a practice to counter the rising chronic effects of anxiety leading to stress burden. Further work can develop the breath as a personally empowering routine which requires a sequence beyond that recommended in this 10-minute practice. Refined practice with the breath tends to fall under the classical Pranayama techniques which we teach at Samahita Retreat. There is a distinction between breathwork and Pranayama yet both involve the breath. A panic or anxiety attack is an acute response and can benefit from immediate breathwork.

You can address both an anxiety attack and the ongoing burden of anxiety through breathwork. You can do this as its own technique or in combination with other therapies or medication you are being supervised in. It is not meant to replace other treatment. If you are on medication or in other support therapy treatment it is wiser to continue with that and build up the breathwork practice gradually. It is not recommended to drop prescribed medication or other treatments in the hope that breathwork will fix it. Any benefit from these practices come from a regular practice over the long term.

You can address both an anxiety attack and the ongoing burden of anxiety through breathwork. You can do this as its own technique or in combination with other therapies or medication you are being supervised in. It is not meant to replace other treatment. If you are on medication or in other support therapy treatment it is wiser to continue with that and build up the breathwork practice gradually. It is not recommended to drop prescribed medication or other treatments in the hope that breathwork will fix it. Any benefit from these practices come from a regular practice over the long term.

You engage in pure intimacy everyday. It’s called breathing. How deep it goes is a matter of difference between individuals. That depth and the breath’s effect can also be stifled with reduced intimacy based on how you mentally appraise a situation – an emotional response displays as anxiety or one that is managed and reveals resilience.

Within this recent historical time period the physical body moving approach of Surya Namaskar was developed. A key manuscript describing it by the Maharaja of Aundh is only about 120 years old. The “Namaskar” system that became more popular from the 1920s on collided with calisthenic practices and other physical forms of workout. Indian gymnasiums were a mixture of Indian martial arts, flowing sun salutations, calisthenics with the practice of āsana done after the heavy physical work was done. A giant in this field and the first to research yoga and its effects in scientific experimentation, Swami Kuvalyananda, was asked by the Bombay government of the day (1932) to produce a pamphlet detailing āsana practice and routines for one, the physical development, and two, for one who is looking more at a spiritual approach. Here was presented the “jumping”, burpee-style movement between postures. This was a system that Krishnamcharya fully adopted at the behest of the Maharaja of Mysore as they were planning to open the school there. He refined it in the Surya Namaskar noting specific sequenced steps as “vinyasas” coordinated to a particular movement of breath.

In order to breathe a vast respiratory apparatus and neuronal programming is required (1). It is deeply wired. However, based on changes to our lifestyle as we grow and eventually age both this respiratory set of muscles and organs, as well as the integrity of nervous impulses that direct it, typically reduce in efficiency. This affects our physical health as well as our response to that state of health and other stimuli impacting us each day. Though the breath is by and large an involuntary process, it has the unique capacity for conscious intervention whereby we can manipulate the motion of breathing. Done well, with understanding, it can change our entire physiology and how we feel mentally. That is powerful.

Expert advice might be harder to find in an online jungle today. So, first qualification, I’m “at-home” (obvious one ;). Second, a rare combo of advanced practitioner-teacher with stress scientist-researcher on the practices of yoga, breathwork, meditation (quick tip – those three are all actually yoga but I am a victim of modern reduced vernacular of yogic terms) training. The simple and humble hope is to be able to offer some help as April might be our most intense month yet.

Stuck at home without much to do? Or too much to do but it’s all stressful? Or bored? Or just not interested that much in what has to be done or what could be done? Thinking more about “what if’s”?

Yoga, though ancient in origin, is now found around the world in one form or another, from traditional ashrams to the modern yoga studio offering its different styles of classes. To take a deeper look reveals asana practice as the most conspicuous representative of this vast tradition of yoga. Many who practice yoga today will not know what the kriyas of hatha yoga are but have most likely come across a few of them in a modern interpretation of those techniques.

Paul was recently posed some questions on how and why I got into yoga and eventually started Samahita. It has become an interview online and so we reproduce the questions here.

Light therapy is as old as the sun. Unfortunately today we limit our time in the sun so we are not overexposed to ultraviolet rays and their damaging effects. As a therapy away from the sun modern technology has learned to harness visible red light and invisible near-infrared light to penetrate the skin’s surface and enact healing to both organs and skin, including the brain.

The topic of health typically revolves around a degree of ill-health in and through the body and ways to improve the function of the body. When mental health is discussed it is usually under the area of psychological pathologies or a depleted brain that no longer performs in a normal manner, labelled under dementia. However, the health of your brain impacts every thought, behavior and action

The research on sleep and understanding coming from it is increasing every year. Poor quality sleep first and foremost, and then duration of sleep, are considered main culprits behind several disease states. This blog does not plan to write a synopsis of all this wonderful information. Rather, it is a help to address a question recently asked in class, and common everywhere, “I can’t fall asleep … is there a way to breathe and sleep and calm down?”

The reality is we are in a continuously oppressive, destructive environment. That doesn’t mean to set a negative tone or context; it just means there are numerous forces we have to deal with: environmentally, and through physics and so on. To put yourself in the savasana position requires a complete release of bodily tension, which is not what we allow to happen very much in other moments of our lives whether sitting or standing for example.

When we talk about managing injury, in one sense, just for daily wellbeing, we want to manage this on a body-health-stress level. But the other sense is that the state of mind or personal spiritual progress – in other words your attitude and how you understand things and look at them – is a key component in all of this. It’s not enough to just do it; we need to do it, understand it, and absorb into it.

Though Samahita may be physically closed (for now) we are virtually with you. We are still committed to deliver good information and turn into action in your life. Part of that is to share the profound benefit of great practices I have experienced and been taught over the years. As you can see from the image below, we believe in and encourage you to tap into key ways that increase your energy level, quite literally. Hence the cold shower challenge.

Paul was interviewed for Yoga Journal China about injuries and yoga practice. As he explains, it is not as straight forward as addressing a body-tissue injury. That is merely one factor. You need to look at injuries brought from outside class and unfortunate injuries occurring in a pose, but also how you approach practice, where your focus is, how the breath fits in with injury prevention, the vital place of the lower abdomen in managing the body and thus any possibility of avoiding injury, and intelligent ways to modify that help you heal and grow instead of worsening the issue or staying stuck. This interview transcript is from the spoken word, so slightly different than when written, and is brought to you in three parts.

Yoga, though also physically challenging at times, has a focus to balance nervous activity, teach integrity of posture, to encourage this through stamina development and holding of positions. Some positions are just too complex for the average person or too intricate to be added to a fitness routine, which current yoga approaches try to do.

In yoga classes we are encouraged to keep our mouths closed, breathing only through the nose. Yet this is highly advised off the mat as well, and for several good reasons. The evolution of our systems to partially separate the passage of food and air is sophisticated and well studied.

If you have ever asked why do yoga and fitness? Isn’t my yoga my fitness anyway? What kind of workout goes well with yoga? How to do yoga to fit a workout? Or still don’t know why a longterm yoga practitioner would also embrace other workouts, then please read all, or part, of the following to get an understanding as to the genesis of YogaCoreCycle and how the bigger picture of yoga requires such activity, within moderation.

As I was about to write this introduction I found my mind drift to many of the great wonders and benefits my life has received in these many years in yoga. I happened to just go to Daphne Tse’s pledge site and play her new song, which she sang with us back in July and will again this Christmas. It always stirs my heart. Similar for me is the great music of Jack Harrison, a good Irishman who I have been happy to be part of his music journey out there.

The answer to this is something that evolves over time, with one’s development, as the experiences and insight grows and changes. In the beginning I can’t say why I practiced other than I liked it. I remember saying to myself “this is the most intelligent form of exercise I have ever done”.

Consider yoga as just a word, or term, for the process of being internally connected, a light to look at oneself, separate to outside study. One might ask, “what supports such a process?” Hence the many approaches within yoga and spiritual paths in general. My point is that yoga is a term for that, “internal focus and connection”, just as gravity is a term for a certain exerted external force.

Personally I think life is beautiful and great. An underlying understanding from many philosophies is that life is full of suffering. Which it is, especially if you really look at all we go through. However, how do you approach this? I realize the temporariness of life. I am personally going through the difficulties and challenges of life. Yet somehow, everyday, I feel great and very upbeat, from deep within.

What I would like to say though may seem contrary to the usual advice but please take it on, as I have to myself: if you’re feeling challenged, down or overwhelmed, though the practice is of benefit, and do take time to clear the mind, but even more immediate is to get the things done in your life that need to be done. It is said our suffering (“dukkha”) comes from not taking care of things in our life that need to be done. If you are thinking, ‘I am out of balance and off-center’, then do what has to be done.

This is the beauty of the yoga method and why it is still available today to those interested in looking within. On the surface it goes through popular shifts but at its core it answers the perennial question still haunting mankind: to know thyself. So let practice evolve and change but aim to understand the teachings. Don’t be attached to the techniques nor the teacher, but connect with the teachings.

One of the more discussed and misunderstood topics in yoga, the common belief is that it is celibacy, a complete abstinence from sexual activity. But this is only part of the picture. “Brahma” is the Ultimate Reality, the Creator. “Char” is to move. Literally then the move to the ultimate reality or more practically put, ways or methodology to be used for self realization.

The essence of it is a lack of, or at least a reduction in, selfish behavior. The mental attitude is not one of “what am I going to get, what can I get or I really want that”, but rather no interest to acquire and keep. There is a stronger urge to give and share, use things as needed and be willing to let them go when done.

An auspicious event. It happens only once every 144 years. Of the four sites Allahabad is the largest. It is held here every 12 years. On the occasion of the twelfth of these it becomes the Maha. But this is determined more by astrological alignments than a multiple of years. January 2001 saw the largest gathering of humans in one location for one particular event, ever.

Follow and DO as you read. Sit at the edge of your chair. Try to straighten your spine. Put one hand on your navel. Put the other hand on your heart center. Inhale through your nose.

You may say, “but I’m breathing all the time.” True. It’s such a vital function that without it you wouldn’t be reading this. The quality of breathing varies greatly, however, leaving most people seriously undernourished and overstressed.

Paul Dallaghan’s Interview for Inner Peace Conference in Amsterdam: "I was sent away at 16 on my own to work and live on a farm in rural France. Much time was spent in nature, either working or quietly alone. Without me realizing it was a key meditative time. That was the first key transformation for me with a few later key shifts occurring so it is now lived on a daily level."

There is a big difference between something that is clean and something that is pure. If you were to hold out both hands and have a flower placed in each hand, one being plastic and totally clean, the other being real but with some dirt still on it, could you tell the difference? You can tell just by feeling. Automatically you know which is artificial and which is natural. You know instinctively because it is your essential nature.

Since the dawn of time the refined mind has understood that one’s behaviour, actions, speak loudest about the character of an individual. We are taught growing up that “talk is cheap” and “actions speak louder than words”. It is the actualization of this through our systems where satya lies for us.

Pratyahara is taught and discussed in many texts on yoga and related philosophies. A thorough presentation of the topic would require much reference, a lot more than is necessary for this article. So without getting too academic and caught up in all the texts let me attempt to offer a simple and workable understanding of it.

“I will not hurt you.” Is this a promise you are willing to keep or at least try? Could you extend it beyond your family and friends to all members of society? To all animals and insects? Not just in action but through what you say? To totally taking care of your actions so that even a seemingly non-hurtful one is done mindfully so there is no indirect hurt? To watching all thoughts that bring up negative and hurtful images and feelings within?