HY (Հայերեն)
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Second of the five winds
Apana
Apāna · अपान
The wind of release. Seated below the navel and moving down and out, it governs exhalation, elimination, menstruation and birth, which is to say everything the body does by letting go.
downward
release
elimination
pelvis
- Seat
- Below the navel, in the pelvis
- Direction
- Downward and outward
- Governs
- Exhalation, elimination, menstruation, birth
- Its centres
- Root and sacral
- Its opposite
- Prana
- Reversed by
- Mula bandha, the root lock
What it does
Apana is the wind of subtraction. The exhale, the bowel, the bladder, the menstrual cycle and childbirth are all listed under it, and so, in the psychological extension, is letting go of anything at all.
It is the counterpart of prana in every respect: opposite direction, opposite half of the torso, opposite half of the breath.
Against the grain
Hatha yoga's central manoeuvre is to reverse apana. Mula bandha lifts the pelvic floor and drives the downward wind upward; uddiyana bandha draws prana downward to meet it. Where the two meet, at the navel, the texts say heat is produced and the central channel opens.
This is why the locks are taught as a pair and why they are taught with caution. Reversing a wind that ordinarily runs one way is not a neutral act, and the classical literature says to learn it with a teacher.
Excess and deficiency
Excess apana reads as heaviness and downward drag: sluggishness, low mood, everything sinking. Deficiency reads as retention in every sense, constipation and difficulty completing an exhale among them.
The general practice is a longer exhale, squatting postures and forward folds.
Related
Frequently asked questions
Վերջին գրառումներ
Բացահայտեք Տարոտ քարտերի հին իմաստությունը և բացեք ձեր հոգևոր ճանապարհորդության գաղտնիքները: Մեր բլոգը ձեր դարպասն է Տարոտ ընթերցման հարուստ խորհրդանիշների, իմաստների և գործնական կիրառությունների հասկացման համար։
