Saturday, December 27, 2008

The Incredible Pranayama Hulk (minor spoilers)

After the trainwreck that was the first movie, we finally get what we hoped for! In the Incredible Hulk, Edward Norton plays Bruce Banner, who uses meditation and pranayama breathing techniques to gain control over his anger, and his own mind. Control your own (hulk) body, control your own mind. I have an interesting relationship with anger myself and pranayama has helped me tremendously. Warning: Messing around with pranayama in an undisciplined manner can and will screw you up in ways that your doctor will not be able to help you with.

Here Bruce Banner was apparently meditating with a metronome (he's holding it).
"I can keep rhythm with no metronome, no metronome." Flobots (Handlebars)

After sparring with his martial arts teacher, it's time for more interesting exercises.

"Here, emotion (chest). Fear, no good. So emotion... and control (stomach).
The best way to control your anger, is to control your body. Control your pulse. Breathe."

Breathing from the chest is what most of us do, yet it's not optimal at all. Energy can stagnate because the circulation of breath is not what it has to be, for this we should breathe from below. In my times of mastery, I am always breathing from below. When someone complains to me about anything, I will always mention breathing when appropriate.
There are many forms of breathing exercises. Before meditation (optimal regiment is twice daily, morning and early evening), one can set a timer of ten minutes (wether in his mind or on a clock, or add a noise at the tenth minute of any meditation music) and breathe slowly in through the stomach, hold for a while, then release completely. Doing this in a relaxed manner (not forced at all), can help to calm you down tremendously no matter where you are. It stills the mind and is a great meditation beginner. If you want to go further, you can visualise a small light going from your perineum, up the spine, to your third eye (not the crown!).

Here the teacher does a small demonstration of the real life technique called "Breath of fire", for beginners, you breathe in completely, and then you take one or two minutes to pump air in and out with brute force, after two minutes, you relax and breathe relaxed and normal again, this is a prana(yama) or chi building exercise and a nervous system clearing exercise, during this exercise we can visualise ourselves fill with light and see that light break through energy blockages. Needless to say, you get a li'l high, hehe.

Control of the mind, control of the body, control of the pulse, control of... meditate and find out.

In the end we see Banner meditating again, with my favorite mudra.

He's finished and the hands open, btw, no metronome in sight.

A stretching of the muscles.

Looks like Banner's meditations have payed off, those are green eyes,
and he now can call on his power through his will.

For guided pranayama audiobooks check these two:
Andrew Weil: Breathing, The Master Key To Self Healing
Brain Sync Kelly Howell: Awakening Kundalini
Or check out Yogani's AYP Pranayama lessons.

Warning: Messing around with pranayama in an undisciplined manner can and will screw you up in ways that your doctor will not be able to help you with.

6 comments:

Tigno323 said...

i actually messed around with and it did screw me up,i had to refix my brian,it messed me up and i think im still messed up psychology.

Rob Pugh said...

fwiw, that martial arts instructor is Rickson Gracie, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu legend and former MMA fighter. And he's big on yoga, obviously.

Dedroidify said...

Oeh, one of the Gracies, thanks for the info Rob!

Dedroidify said...

Tigno leave Brian alone ffs.

Faith said...

The sleeping serpent... Kundalini... Yes, it requires a great teacher for one to learn the entire process. Not recommended for people with weak mental health. LOL.

Awesome blog by the way.

Dedroidify said...

Thanks VotR! Voter? A voter is a voice of the rainbow, haha, oh language.