The 8 Stroke Breath for Energy and Stress Release brings your focus back to the breath. It is said that practicing it every evening for 11 minutes can give you enough energy to balance your daily consumption of prana and take you out of stress.
“The eight strokes will make you watch and count the breath and that will force you to relate to your breath. Best procedure is that you do this exercise every evening. Eleven minutes a day of eight-stroke breathing can give you enough energy to balance your (daily) consumption of (pranic) life and take you out of stress. Is it possible? Do you have eleven minutes?” ~Yogi Bhajan
Before you begin your practice, tune-in by chanting the mantra Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo
How to chant the mantra Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo
Sit in Easy Pose with your spine straight. Press your palms together in Prayer Pose at the center of the chest, sides of the thumbs pressed against the sternum. With your eyes closed, focus your concentration at the Third Eye Point located between the eyebrows at the root of the nose, about a half inch under the skin. Inhale deeply and as you exhale chant Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo, on one breath. The sound Dev is chanted a minor third higher than the other sounds. If you cannot chant it all on one breath, take a short breath after Ong Namo. Repeat the mantra three times. The meaning of Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo is: I call on the creative infinite consciousness of the universe. I call on the divine wisdom within me.
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