Transcript of What are Natural Cycles? | Breathing Pattern | Heartfulness

...when you close your eyes and see whether you are emitting energy or receiving energy. And you check yourself again after a few hours and see what happens. Emitting and receiving energy, this cycle will also go on changing. Hello everyone. In this session, I would like to talk about Natural Cycles. What are these natural cycles? To start with, we have this very regular pattern of breathing - inhale, exhale. It goes on and on and on. Another rhythm is our heartbeats. There's another level that comes to my understanding which is at a deeper level. This is energy influx and outflux. Just as this inhalation and exhalation of air goes on and on, if you pay further attention to it, both nostrils react differently. Observe. Do like this. [Breathing through] one of the nostrils will be very smooth, the other nostril is not as smooth. After two hours if you would check, maybe it's the same, maybe it's different. But certainly there is a difference night and day [in our breathing pattern.] Our genetic predisposition is geared towards reacting to solar cycles. Our forefathers had a specific routine of life, based on this daily Sun movement. Most activities were performed during the daytime. Nights were for rest. There's a special pattern of the breathing movement. It will be mostly dominated by the left side breathing during the night-time. And during the daytime, it will be dominated by the right nostril. Likewise, the energy movement influx. When you close your eyes and see whether you're emitting energy or receiving energy, and you check yourself again after a few hours and see what happens. So this body is emitting energy and receiving energy, therefore this cycle will also go on changing. And if you are able to observe and correlate things, then you will understand that this also follows a breathing pattern and this breathing pattern follows the Sun cycle. When this cycle is disturbed at a physiological level and my right nostril is dominating during the daytime. It's okay. This is natural. But instead of the right nostril, if my left nostril is very active for most part of the day, then something is not right with my health I think. This is how ancient yogis used to predict that is not so good today. We are used to sleep at night time. It's difficult to change this pattern. It is also scientifically proven now that individuals who work at night, those who have long night shifts or those individuals who go on past midnight, staying awake, when we measure their health status for a few months or a year or two, you'll see a noticeable impact on their health. This is all because of this inability to sleep at night time. I would like to bring to your attention, one beautiful talk delivered by Jeff Iliff. You can search his talk on this TED Talks website. One more reason to have a good night's sleep - where Jeff mentions how our neurological system detoxifies itself during sleep. So in his research he has found that it is the space between the cells, the brain cells, which allows the cerebrospinal fluid to flow through. In a normal individual, whose sleep pattern is okay, this drainage of cerebrospinal fluid is effectively able to remove the toxins. In sleep-deprived individuals this is an impossibility. The effectiveness of removal of toxins reduces greatly. When your self is sleep-deprived what happens in the morning? You become cranky, you become irritated. Persons who are sleep-deprived cannot also engage themselves in creative discussion, fruitful discussions. So it is good to give ourselves an opportunity to sleep luxuriously, to sleep early, if possible. As I was saying, just as there is influx of energy and outflux from our system all the time. That means, if we are able to meditate and receive Transmission, drawing the energy inward, and if this happens - drawing of energy inward during meditation - if this matches with our natural rhythm of energy influx, then it would be wonderful. But if at that time, when I am in a state where energy is going out and I feel like meditating saying, “Oh, let the Transmission come in". What is happening now? You are now trying to meditate against the flow, natural flow. It is like swimming against the flow of water. Automatically just before sunrise or an hour before sunrise, your natural system is to draw energy inward. And just before sunset, the energy will be going out. You'll notice that. And that's why it will help you to get rid of many things from the system through the process of Cleaning - when you throw out those unnecessary complexities and impurities from the system, along with the energy flow, which is in natural rhythm, then the cleaning will be more effective. If you wait for the night to descend, then natural flow will change. Of course you may do the cleaning, but it will not be as effective. I have found that the majority of individuals who meditate with me they have found this particular rhythm, that when we meditate together, early morning before sunrise, when energy influx is natural at that time, and at that time when meditation is also aided with Transmission, it potentiates the impact on our system. During the daytime, when the right nostril is supposed to be dominating, all our daily activities require strength – hand movement, leg movement, and you're always on the go - it is a sympathetic response. At night-time you need rest. The whole system demands a proper rest. It is parasympathetic in nature. You will notice that the left nostril will be more prominent, dominating during the night-time, the moment of rest. What happens when you are having so much fear, anxiety, to the extent that your heart starts beating faster and faster? It is a sympathetic response, which is related to the right nostril. All sympathetic responses, we can say safely, that the right nostril will be predominating at that time. So in order to reverse this, counter it, in the moment of anger or just before you're going to get angry, take a deep breath and I would say, close this right nostril with your thumb and breathe deeply with the left nostril. Feel it in your abdomen and then release it. And then again, same thing with the left nostril. You do it eight-nine times, ten times. As a result you'll feel that yes, the heartbeats have gone down a bit. You have become calmer, anger would also dissipate to a large extent. The parasympathetic system would come into play.