If you’ve been practicing yoga (asana) long enough, then you probably remember the buzz when yoga was becoming truly mainstream. Instead of the mysterious studio tucked into the strip mall, or the random loft space, or the studio you found by word-of-mouth—spaces were popping up left and right.
It seems like something similar is happening surrounding breathwork, though it’s too early to say whether the trajectory might look the same.
Breathwork has broken through the wall of pop culture. It is no longer deemed “too strange,” nor is it left for the fringe populations. It’s still a speciality item, but you don’t have to look that hard to find it.
That said, just because breathwork is in vogue, doesn’t mean we collectively know a whole lot about it.
Does pranayama mean breathwork?
The fact is that breathing has been a conscious practice across spiritual traditions for millennia. With a culture like ours, though—it’s likely humans are engaging in breath as a “practice” more than ever.
One tradition that has gone particularly long on breathing is the Yog-Vedantic tradition (the yogic tradition).
In a yogic context, the term for “breathwork” is actually a Sanskrit word: pranayama. But the translation isn’t that simple.
There are many different ways to translate and contemplate pranyama. For the purposes of this conversation…
Prana does not actually mean breath. It means life force. It is the “aliveness” that is present in the world around us. We are made up of prana, but so is the field that we exist in. Prana is energy. All things have prana, to varying degrees of complexity.
Yama refers to a type of control or restraint. We can think of this as an active “practice.”
So if you put it all together—pranayama—you get the concept of harnessing energy; the practice of working within the field of life force.
In this sense, pranayama is about so much more than breathwork. If all things are energy, then pranayama is really about learning how to work with the field of energy with a sense of mastery or expertise.
What we’re getting wrong about breathwork
In the current movement of breathwork, we are (generally) practicing techniques without fully understanding ourselves as prana. Or, we are practicing pranayama with little awareness of how our own pranic system works.
We enjoy breathwork because it gives us a natural buzz. And that truly is phenomenal—to gain these transcendent experiences through nothing more than the capacity of the body.
But to stop at the buzz of breathwork is like stopping at asana (yoga postures) and calling it yoga.
Breathwork isn’t about getting high. It’s about learning how to work with the true abilities of our energy body, harnessing the field of energy around us to shift our state.
This might sound a bit esoteric, but these are principles that you’re likely experiencing on a daily basis already:
Think about the last time you were feeling low. Very likely, your posture was slumped (meaning your spine, the main channel of prana, was limited). Your shoulders were likely dropping, your breath was likely short, and everything was pulling you down.
Inversely, think about the last time you were really excited. You might have thrown your arms up in the air. Your spine was likely straight. Your body was probably moving and full of energy. Everything was pulling you up.
Pranayama is essentially the artful elaboration on these principles.
The breath supplies energy
Interestingly, the breath and prana aren’t actually the same thing. Prana rides on the breath. Meaning, we can work with our breath in order to access prana; to bring more of it into our system.
Certain breath practices have certain impacts on our energetic state.
Some practices are designed to lift our pranic state, to flood the subtle body with energy and excite the energy levels. Practices like: Kapalabhati (Breath of Fire).
Other practices are designed to ground our energy. To shift the nervous system into a state of deeper calm and connection. Practices like: Sama Vriti (Square Breath) or Alom Vilom (Alternate Nostril Breathing).
Every breath technique has a bit of a different impact on our energetic state. There are nuances. Some breaths are meant to take us into a state of transcendence, while others are designed to awaken specific energy centers.
Understanding that the breath can impact us energetically, in a number of ways, is the first step to really embracing pranayama as a practice.
Accessible breathwork practices that you can try now
As mentioned, breathwork is meant to shift your state. On the physical level, it helps to balance the nervous system. On the mental/emotional level, it can help us transcend limiting beliefs. On the spiritual level, it can take us to infinity (and beyond). But you won’t experience any of these things without actually practicing.
Here are two techniques that can familiarize you with the different impacts breath can have on your system.
When you need to ground: 3-9-6 Breath
- Find a comfortable seat with your spine straight. Close the eyes down.
- Inhale your breath through the nose for a slow count of three (1-2-3).
- Hold your breath in for a slow count of nine.
- Exhale your breath through the nose for a slow count of 6. There is no breath hold at the bottom of the exhale.
- Continue for 3-5 minutes.
When you need to uplift: Breath of Fire
Note: Prenatal students can avoid this breath technique.
- This technique involves pumping of the navel, which can be a very new experience. This can take time to develop.
- Start in a comfortable seat with the spine tall.
- Breathe in through the nose halfway.
- Forcefully push the air out of the nose, while drawing the navel back toward the spine. Then, immediately release the navel.
- Notice how the inhale happens on its own. Don’t control the inhale.
- Repeat, finding a quick rhythm with the breath pushing out of the nose. The navel should be snapping back to the spine 1-2 times per second.
- Continue for one minute. Over time, you can built this practice up to 3 minutes.