How to start teaching pranayama: the 4 steps that TKV uses

By the time I was 9 years old things were not good at home, my mother and father seemed to be engaged in a constant fight that left little room for any peace behind my impressionable pisces eyes.

As soon as I was old enough to stay for after school activities I began looking for clubs I could join, things I could do.  I ended up taking piano lessons.

On my first lesson, one very cold winter day, an old nun sat with me and drew black and white symbols on something she called a "pentagram".  "Where is the piano?" (Donde esta el piano?!) is all I could think!, when do we "get to it"?!  I must have been pretty transparent because even though I didn't say anything, a few minutes later she took me to the brown golden almost mythical vertical piano they had at the front of the room. I was in heaven.

I've been re-reading "The Heart of Yoga" again. Have been focusing on the part where TKV is discussing how his father taught him to teach pranayama, how it was done especially for each individual and how the fourth limb was incorporated pretty much right away, no waiting till third series or anything like that.

Just like the good old nun, Krishnamacharya knew that the actual practice of the most important instrument (the breath) had to be incorporated as soon as possible so that the veil of misconceptions could be lifted away and clarity remembered.

"The most important part of pranayama is the exhalation... When someone is not able to breathe out slowly and quietly... he or she is not ready for pranayama either mentally or otherwise"

Why the emphasis on exhalation? "Yoga's essential aim is to eliminate impurities and reduce avidya [wrong perception]... the exhalation transports impurities out of the body"

And so, if the exhalation is too short, then the first type of pranayama practiced should focus on extending it, and viceversa.  This is how he does it:

1. Makes the student take three asanas: pascimatanasana, (a forward bend), a back bend, and an inversion, like shoulder stand
2. Has the student try to keep an even ratio of in and out breath, say for example 5 counts in 5 counts out.  
3. The anatomy of the poses (i.e. weight of the diaphragm in the inversion) will make it difficult to maintain the ratio, and show where the student needs to work to even it out
4. From the experiment he can determine maybe to do a ratio of 1 count to 2 counts, one for breathing in, two for breathing out to work on fortifying control of exhalation.

Needless to say I have began to pay a lot more attention to where the difficulty is for me in every asana now, and funny enough I have realized that the exhale is where I have more trouble maintaining a smooth count.  

I wonder if this is somewhat of a universal tendency as, for example, the first pranayama exercises I was taught in group settings all involved longer exhales, and this was not just for me but for everybody.  I also wonder how much of our childhood memories may inflict long held patterns of breathing.

By the time I was 10 the fighting was so intense that I remember one day hiding in a closet, covering my ears with all my might and not breathing.  After a while it all became silent and for a moment I was at peace.  Then I started breathing again.

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