Every single one of us has the power to change our energetic frequency. Sounds like a tall order, but this access comes by way of our inhales and exhales. Our breath.
In several ancient lineages, this is known as prana, or life force energy, or Qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine. To cultivate more of this inimitable vitality, you can practice pranayama breathing, which stimulates heat and expansion. “Prana is the special elixir of the universe that is contained in everything, the force that keeps us going,” says Krissy Jones, who teaches pranayama and yoga every day as the co-founder of Sky Ting. “Through either controlling your breath or simply observing it, you can strengthen your nervous system and bring yourself to different states of consciousness, which has an effect on the glandular system.” In an effort to further support our hormones and deepen our understanding of the mind-body connection, we sat down with Krissy, who shared many stop-you-in-your-tracks gems. Read on as she shares her wisdom on breath and its ability to shift your emotions, energy, and reality.
On “Lubricating” Awareness: “The layers of yoga can be very mystical or very practical, and playing with the glandular system [through breathwork] is a more practical way of accessing your chakras system. When I help get people into their bodies, into different corners and crevices that are normally overlooked, we’re cleaning up places that have been stagnant for a while and exploring deeper, energetic pathways. That’s why yoga and meditation feel so good because your whole body gets lubricated with awareness, blood, Qi, and breath, all of which keeps us healthy.”
On Embracing All the Human Stuff: “I use breath techniques for purification purposes, because the more clear I am, the more I can see what’s really there—truth, love, and beauty—what I think we’re all looking for. It allows you to see your truest nature. We’re all made of the same stuff, which is energy or love or God consciousness, whatever you deem to call it. That realization can heal us: that we’re not alone, we’re all connected, and we’re all made of the same, benevolent matter.”
The breath, then, is the bridge between the body and the mind.
On Awakening Unconscious Desires: “When you’re doing low belly breathing, you’re targeting the endocrine system and the spleen and pancreas (hormone-secreting organs), which are connected to sex, food, money, water, and unconscious desires. Pranayama exercises that I would use to access those types of systems include lower belly, diaphragmatic breathing or kapalabhati breathing, which is navel pumping in and up to remove stagnation from the lungs.”
On Being Your Own Safety Net: “One major set of glands are the adrenals which sit on top of the kidneys. They’re in charge of your safety and stability. I like to soothe my kidneys with a pose, like rounded plow, where I can breathe into my lower back area. From a mystical dialogue, the element of the kidneys is water and the portal to the kidneys is hearing. Listening to your own breath will support your kidneys, like an oceanic sound, which connects back to the water element.”
On Immunity-Boosting Breath: “The solar plexus finds your thymus gland and the throat relates to the thyroid gland. This is the center of you, the communal and your self-expression in the world. I use ujjayi breathing to open these channels, where you’re pulling in and up out of the throat and making a sound like rubbing the breath against the thyroid gland. You can also tap the center of the chest with your fingers to stimulate the thymus. The thymus gland is in charge of your immune system, so I’ve been doing a lot of breathwork that activates it.”
the more clear I am, the more I can see what’s really there—truth, love, and beauty.
On Grand Visualizations: “The pituitary and the pineal glands at the crown are represented in the mystical dialogue as your visions, your imagination, your goals, your higher self. The type of breathwork [to support] is fun because it’s more image-based. When I play with glands up there, I visualize myself on a mountaintop, overlooking the ocean and I’m pulling my breath in and pulling my breath out like the tides going in and out. It’s quiet, sometimes it’s more about noticing the breath moving. You can also do a headstand to move blood and Qi to that place.The pineal gland is the mapquest of the body, your ability to zoom out above the personal and your connection to the universe. It’s your north star, guiding you. ”
On an Imaginative Practice: “I’m not a doctor and when I’m speaking about the glands, I’m talking in a metaphorical and energetic sense. But I know that when you participate in your own well-being in an imaginative way, it’s very powerful. It’s about bringing awareness rather than ‘giving away’ the power of your body to external forces. Wherever you bring your focus, you bring more Qi, blood flow, and oxygen to the area and that sparks health.”
it’s not that you’ll never get stressed, that you’ll never get hurt, but how quickly and gracefully do you bounce back?
On Time and Space Limitations: “I think what happens outside in the world affects your interior world, your body, and you can’t avoid it if you want to change and move something. The mind is so fast—it’s able to work itself out of any sort of knot, but the body is held in time and space. It takes longer to work out issues in the physical form. The breath, then, is the bridge between the body and the mind. It’s the signature of your nervous system and it gives you a lot of information about what’s going on.”
On Quantum Field Relationships: “I think by changing your breath, you can actually moment-to-moment regulate your emotions, and [therefore] change your life. When I’m relating to a boyfriend or my business partner, I know that I’m not in a relationship with them because I can never truly know them but in a relationship with the field between us. Breathwork can be a powerful way to keep the energetic fields around you clean and purified and make you more magnetic. When you’re a clear channel of energy, it allows what you want to come through.”
Final Words on Health: “Regular breathwork practices help to strengthen your nervous system’s flexibility and ability to move from fight-or-flight mode, to the parasympathetic system, from stress to ease. The definition of good health to me is the speed of recovery—it’s not that you’ll never get stressed, that you’ll never get hurt, but how quickly and gracefully do you bounce back?”
MORE WAYS TO EMBRACE THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION
Joe Holder Talks “Strategic Laziness”
