Air: the element of rhythm
Air qualities are expansion, filling, lightness, rhythm, grace, mobility and thinking. The fundamental expression of air is rhythmic expansion, opening or exetension, and it is embodied in the technique of pranayama. The arena of air is the thorax, its source is the throat, its medium the joints, and its key the bones. Air is cultivated and expressed by creating space in the joints and organs, particularly the lungs, and creating lightness in action and movement.
The superficial application of air is to develop the capacity to overcome the effect of gravity on the physical body, especially through the practice of inversions and armbalances. The subtle application is to free the mind from rigidity by releasing the breath from all imposition and intention. This is the being or transformation state of pranayama, which results only from respiratory freedom, and never from control. Establishing air requires rhythm, the sign of its presence is its opposite, stillness. Without rhythm we become locked into deep dualistic patterns of physical, mental and spiritual tension.
The breath can only safely be released by recognising and realising the functional unity (yoga) of respiration and motion, that began when locomotion brought life and breathing out of the ocean. To release the body from structural distortion is to liberate the breath. This depends especially on lengthening and releasing the spine. This can not be established without releasing and integrating all the motor joints that support the spine directly or indirectly. This involves activating the dynamic of the bandhas in the whole body. Then the spine is supported and fulfilled and breathing takes place freely and fully through the agency of the whole body.
