Bee Breath: Hum Your Way to Health

“Whether we like it or not, we are all either in a stage of prevention or in a stage of recovery from COVID-19.” These words get you thinking: am I doing everything I can to support my own health at this time?

During PYI’s latest Breath Coaching Course, an incredible faculty of doctors, nurses, psychologists, and yoga therapists gathered to teach a group of over fifty students a range of breathing tools to support prevention and recovery from COVID-19.

Among the many useful breath techniques covered, I was delighted to reacquaint myself with an old favorite, Bee Breath or Bhramari Pranayama. As someone who has experienced a severe anxiety disorder, sometimes “taking a deep breath” or focusing on the breath at all wasn’t helpful or even available. However, I had discovered that Bee Breath had the power to literally drown out that anxious mental loop, and its vibration could immediately ground me in my body. I would say that Bee Breath is not only a breathing practice, but also a form of meditation. 

Bhramari is the Sanskrit word for “bee,” and this pranayama or breath exercise is so named for the humming sound produced - like the gentle low buzz or droning of a bee. Sounds relaxing, right? It is, and here’s some science to back that up: as we’re exhaling and creating the droning sound, we’re also lengthening our exhalations - which in turn activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the side in charge of resting, digesting, and healing. 

I’d always known that Bee Breath had a calming effect. In fact, this technique along with others helped me recover from my anxiety disorder, remaining a part of my regular wellness maintenance routine. In PYI’s course, I discovered that one of my most loved breath exercises could also improve immunity - by releasing a beneficial gas called Nitric Oxide into the system (NO.) NO is a critical component in the eradication of viruses.

Here’s how it works:  Nasal NO levels increase dramatically during humming compared with normal quiet nasal exhalation. This effect is likely due to increased contribution of NO from the paranasal sinuses. Humming causes the air to oscillate, which in turn seems to increase the exchange of air between the sinuses and the nasal cavity.

To receive the full anti-viral and anti-bacterial benefits of NO, we need to inhale through the nose after the humming is finished, to draw the NO back into the respiratory tract via the bronchial passageways. Nitric Oxide is a free, naturally produced, anti-viral, anti-bacterial gas and can be made available at any time!

How to Practice Bee's Breath:

1. Sit comfortably but upright, with a stable foundation to support you.

2. Rest one hand on the heart, another on the belly. If it’s comfortable you could close your eyes, or gaze softly downwards.

3. Gently close the lips, keeping the teeth slightly apart, and bring the tip of your tongue to the space behind the upper front teeth. (Try to keep the jaw relaxed throughout your practice.)

4. To begin, take a deep breath in through the nostrils.

5. As you slowly exhale with the mouth closed, make a steady, low-pitched ‘hmmm’ sound at the back of the throat—like the humming of a bee. Focus on making the sound soft, smooth, and steady. The positioning of the tongue allows the vibration to better resonate throughout the head.

6. When you inhale, be sure to breathe in through the nose, thus distributing the beneficial NO throughout the respiratory system.

7. Continue for as many repetitions as you like. After the final exhalation, allow your breath to return to normal and observe any changes that have occurred.

8. Maybe you can even feel the vibration continue throughout your head and body after you've stopped humming!

Bee Breath Potential Benefits

•      Calms and quiets the mind
•      Releases Nitric Oxide into the nasal passages, NO is naturally anti-viral and anti-microbial
•      Improves immunity
•      Increases lung capacity
•      Initiates the “Rest, Digest, and Heal Response,” lowering heart rate, blood pressure, and calming nervous system
•      May aid in loosening blockage from the sinuses

Bee Breath may also have a positive effect on tinnitus, bolster the health of the throat, and strengthen and improve the voice. Practicing for at least 5 minutes may help you achieve a more meditative state. Happy Humming!

Links:

•      Effects of Bhramari Pranayama on health – A systematic review
•      The Effect of Bhramari Pranayama (Bumblebee Breath) on Tinnitus
•      Humming Greatly Increases Nasal Nitric Oxide
•      Nitric oxide and redox mechanisms in the immune response

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Ann Grace MacMullan is a yoga teacher and owner at Team Sun Wellness, a Philadelphia-based company whose mission is to help people of all walks of life take care of themselves through mindful movement and focused breathing. She is also a yoga therapy student at Prema Yoga Institute.

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Stress Yoga and Cortisol

Many studies have documented that yoga can have an array of psychological, physiological and physical health benefits for healthy individuals as well as those coping with disease (e.g., Morgan, Irwin, Chung and Wang, 2014; Sengupta, 2012). However, the mechanism through which these yoga-induced health benefits occur is less clear. One possible pathway linking yoga with positive health outcomes is through stress reduction, or reducing one’s reactivity during stressful circumstances. This is a plausible mechanism, given that there is a robust connection between experiencing stressors and adverse health outcomes (e.g., McEwen, 1998; Sapolsky, 2004). This association between stressors and health could be due in part to stress-induced changes in important physiological systems, including the stress hormone cortisol. If yoga enables people to better cope with the stressors they face, this could lead to less stress-induced physiological activation (e.g., less of an increase in cortisol), which in turn could impact health.

The stress hormone cortisol may be a prime candidate as a physiological mediator of the yoga-health association, based on evidence that certain types of stressors can increase cortisol, and the regulation of this hormone in turn can impact health. The prototypical context where cortisol can be activated is in response to a physical threat, such as when survival or safety is threatened; cortisol can mobilize energy resources to effectively respond to the short-term metabolic demands of the threat (e.g., fighting or fleeing). There is increasing evidence that cortisol can also be activated in response to social threat, such as situations in which one feels rejected or evaluated by others (e.g., Dickerson & Kemeny, 2004). For example, in our studies in which participants are randomly assigned to deliver a speech along in a room (non-social context) or in front of an evaluative audience (social context), only the social evaluative stressor elicits a cortisol response (e.g., Dickerson, Mycek & Zaldivar, 2008; Woody, Hooker, Zoccola, & Dickerson, 2018). These and other studies have demonstrated that cortisol is very attuned to the social context and is triggered when we feel evaluated, rejected or devalued; given that we may encounter many such social stressors in daily life, we may be exposed to many situations that could elicit cortisol reactivity. If the cortisol response is frequently activated or fails to shut off after the end of a stressor, this could lead to over-exposure to cortisol and dysregulation in this system. Specifically, cortisol dysregulation has been associated with suppression of aspects of the immune system, damage to neurons (e.g., in the hippocampus), and the development and exacerbation of different disease states. Therefore, it is important to try to identify ways in which we might be able to “quiet” or better regulate the cortisol response, and therefore mitigate these negative effects on health. 

Yoga may be one method to regulate the cortisol response – yoga could shift cortisol trajectories to stressors, which in turn could in turn lead to improvements health outcomes. This could happen through stress reactivity – yoga could alter the way we respond psychologically and physiologically to stressors (e.g., less cortisol reactivity). The reduction of cortisol reactivity to stressors through yoga could confer health benefits.

There is growing support for the premise that yoga could reduce cortisol reactivity to stressors. The basic methodology of these studies is that participants are randomly assigned to participate in a yoga intervention or a control condition, and then subsequently go through a stressor in the laboratory (e.g., difficult cognitive task, delivering a speech). Cortisol is assessed before and after the stressor. This design allows a test of whether yoga leads to differences in stress reactivity.

Benvenutti et al. (2017) had 24 participants complete a yoga session (30 minutes of video-instructed Hatha yoga) or a control session (watching TV) on different days. Following both the yoga and control sessions, the participants then completed a standardized laboratory stressor and cortisol reactivity was assessed. Another study (Gothe, Keswani & McAuley, 2016) recruited 118 sedentary adults, who were randomly assigned to participate in either an 8-week yoga intervention (3 hatha yoga classes per week) or a control group (3 classes per week of stretching exercises). They then completed a challenging cognitive task. Both studies found that the yoga condition had less cortisol reactivity to a laboratory stressor than the control condition; in other words, a single yoga session or regular yoga practice reduced cortisol responses to a subsequent stressor.

Another study assessed cortisol reactivity to a laboratory stressor (speech and math task), then randomly assigned 52 female participants to a yoga intervention (2 Bikram yoga classes per week for 8 weeks) or a waitlist control; then stress reactivity was re-assessed (Hopkins et al., 2016). There was not a significant effect overall between the yoga and control groups in terms of cortisol reactivity following the intervention; however, those who showed exaggerated cortisol reactivity initially showed greater reductions in cortisol when assigned to the yoga condition. In other words, yoga reduced cortisol reactivity among the initial “high reactors.”

Taken together, these methodologically rigorous studies suggest that yoga may lead to reduced cortisol reactivity to stressors. However, more research should be done to replicate and extend these findings, as important questions remain. For example, the psychological mechanism of these effects has yet to be delineated. After yoga, do individuals appraise the stressor differently, or respond with different emotions – and does this in turn affect cortisol reactivity? Understanding how yoga may lead to cognitive or affective shifts which in turn shape physiology will be an important next step. Additionally, the “critical ingredient” of the yoga practice that translates into reductions in physiological reactivity will need to be unpacked. These studies examined Bikram and Hatha yoga – but the intensity, frequency and style of yoga that most effectively leads to substantive stress reductions has yet to be empirically tested. Practices of different intensities, duration, and orientation may have different physiological consequences. Further, other research has found similar results with mindfulness meditation – for example, cortisol reactivity has been reduced (e.g., Creswell, Pacilio, Lindsay, & Brown, 2014) or better regulated (Manigault, Woody, Zoccola, & Dickerson, 2018) among those randomly assigned to a mindfulness meditation intervention or who are high on trait mindfulness. Therefore, studies that compare meditation, yoga, and other mind-body interventions (e.g., tai chi) could elucidate common and distinct pathways through which these two practices could influence physiological reactivity and health.

In sum, there is consistent evidence that yoga may serve as a stress-buffer – leading to better regulation of cortisol reactivity to stressors. This provides empirical evidence for a phenomenon many yogis have intrinsically understood – what happens “on the mat” can have an effect on how one responds to “off the mat” stressful experiences. Yoga has the potential to improve health outcomes via the regulation of stress-responsive systems; the next phase of research is needed to usher in a greater understanding of yoga’s benefits and the mechanisms through which they may occur.

RERFERENCES CITED

Benvenutti, M. J., Alves, E. D., Michael, S., Ding, D., Stamatakis, M., & Edwards, K. M. (2017). A single session of hatha yoga improves stress reactivity and recover after an acute psychological stress task: A counterbalanced, randomized crossover trial in healthy individuals. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 35, 120-126. 

Creswell, J. D., Pacilio, L. E., Lindsay, E. K., & Brown, K. W. (2014). Brief mindfulness training alters psychological and neuroendocrine responses to social evaluative stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 44, 1-12.

Dickerson, S. S., & Kemeny, M. E.  (2004).  Acute stressors and cortisol responses: A theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research.  Psychological Bulletin, 130(3), 355-391.

Dickerson, S. S., Mycek, P. J., & Zaldivar, F. (2008).  Social evaluation – but not mere social presence – elicits cortisol responses to a laboratory stressor task.   Health Psychology, 27(1), 116-121.

Gothe, N. P., Keswani, R. K., & McAuley, E. (2016). Yoga practice improves executive function by attenuating stress levels. Biological Psychology, 121, 109-116.

Hopkins, L. B., Medina, J. L., Baird, S. O., Rosenfield, D., Powers, M. B., & Smits, J. A. J. (2016). Heated hatha yoga to target cortisol reactivity to stress and affective eating in women at risk for obesity-related illnesses: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 84(6), 558-564.

Manigault, A. W., Woody, A., Zoccola, P. M., & Dickerson, S. S. (2018). Education is associated with the magnitude of cortisol responses to psychosocial stress in college students. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 1-8.

McEwen, B. S. (1998). Stress, adaptation, and disease: Allostasis and allostatic load. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 840, 33-44.

Morgan, N., Irwin, M. R., Chung, M., & Wang, C. (2014). The effects of mind-body therapies on the immune system: Meta-analysis. PLOS One, 9, e100903.

Sengupta, P. (2012). Health impacts of yoga and pranayama: A state-of-the-art review. International Journal of Preventative Medicine, 3(7), 444-458.

Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Disease, and Coping. New York: Holt and Company.

Woody, A., Hooker, E.D., Zoccola, P.M. & Dickerson, S. S. (2018). Social-evaluative threat, cognitive load, and the cortisol and cardiovascular stress response. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 97, 149-155.

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Sally Dickerson, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology. Her research and teaching focus on how the body responds to stressful circumstances. She also is a yoga teacher (RYT-200) and yoga therapy student at Prema Yoga Institute.

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Meditating with Mantras and Mudras in Therapeutic Yoga

Some of the most famous images in yoga are of a silver-haired and wrinkled B.K.S. Iyengar in an advanced posture just a few years before his death well into his nineties, or a pink lipstick-wearing Tao Porchon-Lynch displaying increAfter practicing yoga over a long enough period of time, most of us encounter its more nuanced components that don’t necessarily fall into the category of asana or pranayama. These types of practices are especially of interest to yoga therapists, as they tap into the more subtle forms of using yoga for healing.

In meditation, we sometimes make use of mantras and/or mudras. Mantras are words or phrases that can be repeated aloud or to oneself with the rhythm of the breath, and mudras are the use of the hands to focus the brain. While most yoga practitioners have had some exposure to these concepts, as yoga therapists, we can go a step deeper to understand why they are used and how they can support healing.

What makes mantras and mudras of such interest to yoga therapists is how they tap into the parts of the body that can be most effective for promoting healing. The Homunculus Diagram shows the human body in proportion to the amount of nerve endings in each part. For this reason, when offering a yoga chikitsa, yoga therapists pay special attention to the parts of the body with the greatest number of nerve endings because of their efficacy to support healing – the face, lips and mouth (mantras) and the hands and fingers (mudras).

Thus, mantras and mudras help link physical actions to the functioning of the mind. Especially for active students, those who find meditation challenging, or those who are pitta vitiated, Ayurvedically-speaking, mantras and mudras can be a highly effective point through which to access meditation.

Mantras

Mantras have transcended the yoga community and are commonly cited as ways to enhance performance and in self-help circles. We repeat these words or short phrases to manifest an outcome or send out an intention, reminiscent of a prayer.

In yoga, mantras are chanted or repeated silently. When chanted or spoken aloud, we activate the healing capacities of connecting the brain to the mouth, lips and tongue. Even if repeated silently, mantras can help focus the mind during meditation.

Some common mantras include:

• Kirtan kriya – Four syllables, sa ta na ma, meaning birth, life death and rebirth – make up this classic mantra. The Kirtan kriya can be highly effective in focusing the mind during meditation when it is repeated over and over in a melodic way.

• Peace mantras – Om shanti shanti shanti is a common mantra used to call in peace, often heard at the end of a yoga class or to conclude a longer chant. Another mantra for peace can be more personal, such as breathing in “I am at peace,” and repeating it on the exhale. If “at peace” does not resonate with you, you can substitute another state of being to help bring a sense of ease to the mind and body.

• Devotional mantras – Mantras can also be used to chant devotion to a belief system or deity. One of the most common devotional mantras is the Gaytri mantra, which Sri Swami Satchidananda translates as “Let us meditate on Isvara [God] and His Glory who has created the Universe, who is fit to be worshipped, who is the remover of all sins and ignorance. May he enlighten our intellect." 

Mudras

Given the concentration of nerve endings in the hands and fingers, using them in meditation is said to be the most effective body-based yoga style to improve brain function. It also makes mudras one of the most accessible forms of asana, given the undeniably physical aspect of the practice. If you’re working with a client in a hospital setting, or if you’re working to introduce a more physical practice, mudras can be a great way to ease into asana.

Some common mudras

• Anjali mudra -- The most common mudra most of us are familiar with is Anjali mudra, or bringing the hands to a prayer position at the center of the chest. This is a devotional position meant to bring awareness to the heart’s center and can be found within many other asanas.

• Dhyana mudra – Place the non-dominant hand in the lap, face-up, with the dominant hand resting face-up on top of it. This is a powerful mantra for promoting healing and balance, by symbolically cradling our yang side and allowing it to rest.

Once you’ve introduced mantas or mudras to a yoga therapy client, the next step is putting them together.

• Mala beads – Chanting or repeating a mantra 108 times as you hold a mala is one of the most classical examples of devotion. Hold the mala in your right hand, draped over your middle finger. Using the thumb, touch one bead, silently or out loud speak your mantra, and slide your thumb to the next bead, being sure to skip over the large guru bead. At PYI, we chant “aham Prema” 108 times to honor the divine love inherent to our lineage.

• The Kirtan kriya – Once you’ve learned sa ta na ma, you can add the hands. On sa, lightly touch the thumb to the index finger, bring the thumb to the top of the middle finger for ta, the fourth finger for na, and the pinky finger for ma. Repeat.

Mantras and mudras are well known in yoga, but it’s their therapeutic effects where they really stand out. Ultimately, mantras and mudras are simple and highly accessible tools to deepen a therapeutic yoga experience.

LINKS:

https://www.intuitiveflow.com/the-magic-of-the-hand-mudras/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwRoHC83wx0&feature=youtu.be

https://www.yogiapproved.com/om/mantras-explained-use/

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Hannah Slocum Darcy is a yoga teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and adaptive practice for many life stages and scenarios.