If you have just dropped into the world of yoga and health you would be aware of everyone muttering the mantra of PRANAYAM!

The ultimate good health guide for the masses that can be practised anywhere by anyone and it will show results. The benefits of Pranayam have been espoused by a number of people from Ramdev Baba on television to my next door neighbour (who has the zeal of the new convert).

My mother, who incidentally hopped onto the Pranayam bandwagon about 5 years ago, recently taught me the basic techniques and told me to be regular with the yoga for it to show any improvement.

The 5 Steps in the process are
1. Kapal Bharati
2. Anulom Vilom
3. Bhramri
4. Omkara
5. Shavasan

Simple breathing techniques that you need to do with your spine straight and seated in an upright position. Lets see what the benefits of this whole exercise are. Well for starters the ENERGY LEVELS get a solid boost. As soon as you finish doing the twenty minutes worth of Pranayam, you get a solid physical kickback of extra energy. If you do it in the morning at the start of your day you will be active and brimming with energy the whole day.

Then you tend to loose weight if you do kapal bharati regularly for over 1000 counts in a day for a month continuously. The little paunch that you decided was cute coz you couldn't get rid of will be gone. If by chance you suffer from sinusitis, kiss the sniffles goodbye. The process of breathing from alternate nostrils in anulom vilom will ensure that you have a clear, cold free head.

The thyroid is also exercised and produces insulin in correct ammounts. I believe the diabetics who use the Pranayam exercises regularly are able to better control their blood sugar levels. You have heightened awareness of your surrounding as your five senses are more active. Blood pressure comes under control and heart patients are also adviced to practice this to keep the bad cholestrol under control.

Okay I think I've convinced myself to give it a try for a month. Will tell you my personal experiance with Pranayam aftyer the month is over.