There is one simple prāṇāyāma that is very important and useful, especially for business people who have a lot of responsibility. This is bhrāmarī prāṇāyāma, in which you plug your ears, shut your lips, separate your teeth, and make the sound of ōm, opening the mouth. The sound becomes like the humming of a bee. After doing bhrāmarī prāṇāyāma 10 or 11 times, you will find that you experience less pain in the body than you felt prior to the practice. Nor will you feel as angry or as insecure as you did before.
Why? Because this little technique—simply inhaling deeply, then producing the sound of ōm with the outgoing breath—creates vibrations within your body that change the mental patterns of the brain. The brain has two hemispheres, and they are always generating energy that flows in particular directions. If you breathe deeply and produce the sound of ōm in a certain way, then the movement of this energy changes. And that affects everything else happening in your body, from your thoughts right up to the secretions of your glands. If some secretions are deficient, they will be increased. If they are in excess, they are decreased. Everything becomes balanced.
What happens on the emotional level is that any agitation, fatigue, fear or insecurity is calmed, and your thoughts become clear. Old, long-forgotten memories become fresh again—and I don’t mean memories of death, violence or unpleasant things, but things that you will enjoy remembering. Of course, you don’t want to be reminded of your work obligations, or of somebody who has died, or of times when you have been insulted, hurt or harmed. No, that’s something different. I’m talking about pure memories returning to you, keen and sharp. This is another of those small but important siddhīs—not one of the great, miraculous phenomena that we always hear about.
Of course, many people insist upon practicing Tantra and yoga with the sole aim of achieving the great siddhīs. But even with such simple techniques as bhrāmarī prāṇāyāma, the big siddhīs will also come. When we begin to engage in sadhanamantra japa, concentration, dhyana or prāṇāyāma —we awaken the many categories of power that reside within us. For we are powerhouses—we are full of energies, which are awakened and begin to function when we practice sadhana.
Source: "Gifts from the Goddess"
