Langhana: The Lightness That Comes From Releasing Your Burdens
While there are countless techniques and practices in yoga, all practices can be grouped into one of three categories: brmhana, langhana, and samana. This has to do with the overall effect of the practice. Brmhana increases energy and vitality, langhana creates lightness, and samana maintains balance. On any given day, we will need to assess ourselves and employ the techniques that are appropriate for our current state.
There is far too much to unpack here for a single article so today I am focusing on langhana. The way I conceptualize of langhana changed recently and it immediately became more powerful. I hope that in sharing this perspective with you, you will be able to experience the intended results more easily!
What is langhana?
Langhana translates to “lightness” and these practices are generally used to help people relax, calm down, and regain control of their mental/emotional energies. This often leaves us with the wrong impression; that langhana is slow and boring! The truth is that langhana-style practices are incredibly important and will be very powerful when properly understood and applied.
Let’s get back to this concept of lightness. Langhana is not any ordinary type of lightness, this is the result of releasing the things that are weighing us down!
Langhana is the lightness that comes from releasing all of your burdens.
Just take a moment to imagine how that might feel…to be completely free from all burdens, doubts, fears, anxieties…
Still think it sounds boring?
When was the last time you truly felt like absolutely nothing was holding you back?
Unfortunately, many people feel as if they might never find that place again; there are simply too many obstacles in their life. But yoga is here to help!
Langhana is the process AND the result
Langhana practices are naturally built around the exhale. We use postures that emphasize exhalation: forward bends, twists, and some lateral bends. These postures will naturally have their effect, but the focus of the mind is where the real benefits come from. When you actively participate in every exhale with the intention of releasing your burdens - that’s powerful!
When you actively participate in every exhale with the intention of releasing your burdens - that’s powerful!
You can practice this anywhere (try it now!)
Take a smooth, calm, easy inhale…now exhale with the intention of releasing anything that’s holding you back. You don’t need to try and release everything all at once, this is a gradual process. Sometimes we have to release a ton before we actually feel any sort of lightness at all, and that’s okay. The point is to breathe and release without judging yourself or your results. Judgement of any kind is a burden. We are attempting to reach the place of accepting this moment exactly how it is, however it is. We must be careful not to add our own judgement into any practice we engage in.
Say ‘aaahhhh’ with your entire being
I like to physically sigh out loud - “aaaaahhhhhh”. Coupled with the intention to release, it usually doesn’t take long to feel an improvement in my mood. Then I try to to let the feeling of this sigh permeate my mind, emotions, and energy field. Try breathing with this “full body sigh” for several minutes and see where it takes you!
The entire practice should be done with a free and easy attitude. Adding in any feelings of effort or desire to achieve will only hinder the process. Just let yourself breathe freely and release. Once you get the hang of this you can add it into your asana (postures) practice. Bringing the mind and intention into any practice will immediately supercharge the effect. By using your intention to consciously participate in the process of release, you will be able to lighten yourself much more easily. Now you are practicing with several layers of your being and the changes will be deeper and longer-lasting.
The ultimate way to release resistance
To my fellow students of Abraham, (channeled by Esther Hicks) this is essentially what they are teaching as their preferred method of meditation: breathe and focus on releasing your resistances to the natural flow of positive energy within you. This is also the main strategy used by many schools of Qigong - release resistance and allow the Qi (chi) to flow naturally. This is always best accomplished by combining intention and emotion (bhavana) while focusing upon the exhale.
I highly encourage everyone to practice this until you gain such familiarity with the feeling of release that you can employ it whenever needed. This is a game changer for anyone who is seeking to maintain that feeling of glowing positivity within. As you learn to access this more regularly, you will no longer get so far from the inner state of balance; you can gently bring yourself back as soon as you start moving towards negativity.
An excellent tool, but not a perfect one
Langhana is fantastic but it is not always the best choice for everyone. It might seem like it would be the perfect cure for depression, for example, but when someone is too depressed to even get out of bed every day, we would recommend some more brmhana (uplifting) practices to give them enough strength and energy to face the day. Once they are able to get into a healthier routine, then we could then use langhana to help them find more freedom from the causes of their depression.
Obviously, mental health issues are highly complex and a highly personalized approach is needed, but I did want to briefly warn against viewing langhana as a “cure-all”.
But most of us can immediately benefit from this concept of releasing our burdens with intention and breath! I encourage you to give it a try for several minutes at a time, at least once per day. Make a 30-day challenge out of it and see where your newfound lightness takes you!
I wish you all the best with your practice and in your life. If you enjoyed this article, I hope you’ll come say hi on YouTube and Instagram! You can find my info below. Cheers!
@ https://www.youtube.com/c/johndennery
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