Konstantin Dragov is the first Bulgarian instructor in yogic breathing "Sudarshan Kriya" of the "Art of Living" Foundation for Bulgaria and coordinator of the organization's voluntary initiatives. By profession, he is a civil engineer who obtained his master's degree at the University of California, Berkeley (USA). Konstantin Dragov explained the benefits of yogic breathing for dealing with stress and negative thoughts and emotions at an online seminar on the Facebook page of the foundation. We offer part of his lecture.
How to deal with negative thoughts?
- We all want to be productive, successful, have good relationships with the people around us. Stress from work load, even from family relationships, prevents us from getting the most out of life. Under stress, our energy level is lower than necessary for our activity.
When a person is exhausted, that's when all the doubts about his capabilities, pessimism, accusations towards himself and others appear. And when he is rested, a person has more positive thoughts, feels joy, problems seem smaller and easier to solve. So again, it comes down to needing more energy.
What opportunities do we have to raise our energy?
- One option is to reduce our commitments, but everyone has some expectations from us and wants us to live up to them. The hours of the day are also limited, we cannot "stretch" it. Therefore, it remains for us to find a way to influence the energy, to raise it.
He althy, freshly prepared food is one of the sources of energy, in combination with physical activity, with movement. By the way, our immunity is directly related to movement. When we move (any kind of exercise, even walking), we move the lymph in our lymphatic system.
Konstantin Dragov
The second source of energy is sleep and rest. The third source is our own mind, but only when it has a positive attitude towards life and when we associate with positive people. It energizes us. However, the most important source of energy is our breathing. Without food, a person can last several days, even more. No sleep - 2 or 3 days. Without a calm and positive mind, we can last a lifetime. But we can only go minutes without breathing.
Breathing is the most important source of energy that can compensate for the lack of other sources. In addition, breathing is the main way we clear ourselves of toxins. Over 85% of the impurities in the body are expelled by exhalation. Another significant effect of breathing is its effect on our emotions, controlling them.
Despite the enormous benefits of breathing, most people underestimate it and use only 30 - 35% of their lung capacity. Children have a lot of energy because they use 90% of their lung capacity. Every day we eat about two kilograms of food, drink 2-3 liters of water, but breathe 10,000 liters of air!
When we think about the future, worries and concerns automatically appear in our mind. When we think about the past, we often feel sorry or angry about something that happened before.
Where do we live - in the future or in the past?
- Life is here, in the present moment. Therefore, only when we bring our mind to the present, when we do things 100% consciously, when we communicate with our loved ones in such a way that we are fully with them, and not thinking about work or anything else, then we overcome stress and feel happy and peaceful.
It is breathing that is the key to awareness and control over our thoughts, to our focus on the present moment.
Each emotion corresponds to a precise rhythm of breathing. There is a direct connection between them. For example, when we get angry, we breathe faster. When we get scared, we breathe very shallowly, almost stop. When we are sad, we sigh. When we are excited, we inhale longer.
How to influence our emotions?
- With breathing exercises. In our courses at the Art of Living Foundation, we teach breathing techniques to increase lung capacity, bring the mind to the present moment, and feel calm and happy. Many people mistakenly believe that learning breathing techniques is difficult and that it takes years of practice. On the contrary, it is that easy. Literally in three classes of two and a half hours each person can learn these breathing techniques, which they can then do daily at home
You don't have to practice for months or years to feel good. The benefits are felt instantly.
The technique we teach is called "Sudarshan Kriya". For those who want to experience the feeling, try it first, we have free online workshops every Tuesday and Thursday. The entire "Sudarshan Kriya" technique is learned in three classes, over three consecutive days, at one of our "Art of Living" centers. There is also an option to complete the course online.
I took this course over 20 years ago when I was a student in the US. I was studying civil engineering and needed to improve my memory and concentration. At that time I had no experience with either yoga or meditation. After I learned the Sudarshan Kriya technique and started using it daily for 15 minutes, I first noticed that my concentration improved tremendously. To learn something that used to take me eight hours, now I only need two hours. But that wasn't the only benefit. I felt as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I became more natural, freer and internally happier. My sense of humor seems to have returned from childhood. And when I returned to Bulgaria in the summer, my relatives and friends told me that I had become more smiling, calmer, nicer with them.
To feel happy and well in today's fast-paced world full of tension and uncertainty, we need to practice some form of relaxation of body and mind - be it meditation or breathing exercises.
I recommend starting with the breathing exercises because they are easy to practice and work for everyone. Even if the person is over 70 years old and is significantly immobilized, he can perform them, because the exercises are also done in a sitting position, on a chair.
People who have practiced yoga and have more experience will also find new and useful breathing exercises for them. Because "Sudarshan Kriya" is an extremely deep breathing technique. She uses the rhythm of the breath to reach the deepest state of "samadhi", of meditation.
Over 70 studies have already been done that breathing and meditation cleanse the body at the cellular level, remove toxins from them and thus make it he althier.
Modern scientists claim that more than 90% of diseases have a psycho-somatic basis, that they arise from everyday stress. Even diabetes and high blood pressure are stress reactions. The World He alth Organization predicts that the most negative consequences of the current COVID-19 pandemic will be for people's psyche. Some will get burnout syndrome (professional burnout), others - depression, others - psychosis.
When we don't get rid of accumulated negative emotions effectively, they accumulate in our organism in the form of toxins. And after a few years, bodily problems and diseases will be unlocked - ulcers, diabetes, cancer, etc.
To feel he althy and happy, to have good immunity, I recommend spending a few minutes a day on your breathing. This is a kind of daily hygiene of the mind.
