Breathwork | Pranayama

As a fire blazes brightly when the covering of ash over it is scattered by the wind, the divine fire within the body shines in all its majesty when the ashes of desire are scattered by the practice of pranayama
– B.K.S. IyengarCompany Name

The power of the breath

Calm your body, your mind, and activate your life force.

Given for free, oxygen through your breath (automatically by your wonderful body) is the single thing keeping you alive.


Practiced by eastern cultures as a therapeutic tool in yoga, Qigong, and other meditative practices, breathwork has now become a key tool in the biohacking toolbox. The more effectively you breathe the more oxygen you intake for each of your body’s processes and the more carbon dioxide you offload.
“The presence of oxygen is the absence of disease” – Gary Brecka.

Breathwork boosts circulation, increasing capacity for detoxification and delivering nutrients and oxygen in the blood through the body: to tissues for reducing inflammation and healing, to the brain improving mental clarity, and to the muscles improving physical performance and endurance.


Another direct and profound impact breathwork has on physiology is through the autonomic nervous system. As the name suggests, whether you are in a fight or flight response or rest and digest is largely automated and occurs subconsciously, however with breathwork you can consciously shift your nervous system response. Calming breathwork stimulates rest and digest, lowers cortisol and can lead to relaxation, a lower heart rate, regulated blood pressure, stimulate digestive processed.



Breathwork practices are naturally mediative, boosting awareness and mindfulness. Through the lens of yoga, they also activate your life force. Pranayama is the Sanskrit term from “prana” meaning life force or vital energy and “ayama” meaning regulation or control. So, pranayama refers to the practice of controlling or regulating the breath to influence the flow of prana or life force energy in the body.



Breath occurs at the nexus of the autonomic nervous system, governed by the reptilian section of our brain the amygdala, and our conscious mind, in the prefrontal cortex. It is the quickest and easiest (not to mention free) way to regulate your nervous system.

Down-regulating breathing can switch you from a fight or flight parasympathetic nervous system state (anxious) to the rest and digest sympathetic state (calm).

Stimulating breathwork can help move you out of a dorsal vagus shut down state (depressed) and bypass the conscious mind, allowing you to access your subconscious mind to work through past trauma. Or further into deep meditation into the superconscious mind eliciting intense feelings of oneness, awe, and clarity.

Box Breathing (4×4)

A calming pranayama. Used by navy seals.
Visualise a box in your mind or in the environment in front of you. As you breathe in follow the left side of the box up for 4 counts, hold your breath and cross the top of the box for 4 counts, breathe out down the right side for 4 counts and hold as you go along the bottom of the box for 4 counts. Repeat for as many rounds as necessary. Try to breathe through your nose.

Alternate Nostril Breathing

A balancing pranayama. Performed at the end of every Ashtanga Yoga practice to rebalance the body and the nervous system.
Breathe in through your left nostril, breathe out through your right nostril, breathe in through your left, breathe out through the right. Repeat.
Known as Nadi Shodhana in Yoga, this pranayama uses fingers to block each nostril as required.

Fully Body Coherent Breath

Based off Dirga or the three-part breath. A calming pranayama.
As you take a deep breath fill your belly completely, then fill your ribs 360 degrees, then fill up your chest to your collarbones. Breathe out let it all go. Repeat.
Take as deep and long breaths as you can without feeling discomfort or stress. For a calming coherent option follow along here.

Humming Bee

Known as Bhramari. A calming pranayama for training the vagus nerve.
Inhale through the nose and as you exhale hum a long continuous tone. The tone you chose with change the vibration and where you feel it in your body. You can perform the full Shanmukhi mudra, where you cover your eyes and ears to bring greater awareness to the vibrational component of humming.

Physiological Sigh

A quick and effective calming pranayama consisting of a double inhale followed by an elongated exhale. Follow along and learn more about the psychological sigh from Dr Huberman of Huberman Lab here.

Wim Hoff style

A really activating and stimulating pranayama.
30 deep full breaths in and out followed by holding an out breath. Inhale and hold for 15 seconds. Repeat for 3 rounds.

Kapalbhati

A really activating and stimulating pranayama.
Used to create heat in the body in Hatha Yoga practice. Involves pumping of the diaphragm thinking of trying to pull your belly button flush to your spine, concurrent with a sharp exhalation through the nose, followed by a fast involuntary inhale through the nostrils. Build up speed.

Hollotropic

A really powerful pranayama which uses accelerated breathing with evocative music
Led and observed with trauma-informed guidance. An intensely activating pranayama with the purpose to open the subconscious for self exploration and to help you process past trauma.