Prana is the universal energy which flows in and around the body and is considered a life-giving force. Have you ever felt that warmth and feeling of something flowing in your muscles after a great stretch ? That is prana.

It’s really important to maintain prana with a chronic pain condition because often the loss of it by the end of the day leads to you crashing into pain and exhaustion by the afternoon (cue the sugar).

So how do you not let go of your prana like the picture (which should actually have my face on it as I am constantly working on not throwing prana around like it’s going out of fashion …lol)

Two great starting points are:

NOTICING when you are starting to develop tension your body and simply bring awareness to your breath (pranayama) for a few moments. Simply noticing is incredibly powerful.

PACING involves maintaining a fairly even activity over the day and taking frequent short breaks. Less can lead to doing more.

Good luck and keep up the prana, prana, prana!

PHOTO Courtesy of “Heart of Yoga” by T Desikachar