The Power Of Breath: 5 Pranayama Breathing Techniques For Your Health

Without breath there is no life. Breathing is fundamental for our survival, therefore our body breathes in and out all day long to keep us alive, breathing happens automatically and because of that, it usually goes unnoticed. Breath is an unconscious action that our body performs out of necessity.

But when was that last time that you took notice of your breath? When was the last time you observed the quality, depth, or sensation? When was the last time you practiced conscious breathing or breath manipulation? For some of us, that answer may be never.

For those of us who practice yoga regularly, we are familiar with conscious breathing and breath manipulation techniques, often called breath work or Pranayama.

In yogic philosophy and practices, prana is our life force, and breathing is our main way to interact with our prana, making pranayama the conscious manipulation of breath.

Meaning, with breath we pump life and energy though the body and each technique has a variety of benefits for both the physical and energetic body.

If you would like to know more about the energetic body (subtle body) and prana click here.

Deep Breathing and Your Health

Before learning some pranayama techniques that you can try at home or add to your daily yoga practice, let’s talk about the health benefits of conscious breath work and what enhanced breath awareness can do for you.

Breath work has a wide array of health benefits to offer us. Even just taking a few deep breaths in the morning when you wake, before meals, and before bed can really make a difference.

Here are just some of the benefits that deep and conscious breath can offer:

Improves blood flow

When we breath, the movement of the diaphragm helps to pump the blood as it moves upward and downwards, helping us to remove more toxins from the body, stimulating better blood flow.

Due to increased blood flow, deep breathing also helps reduce and relieve pain, as deep breathing triggers the release of endorphins. Increased blood flow will also fight soreness and give you faster and better quality recovery from physical exertion.

Increased energy

Deep breathing increases our blood flow, and more oxygen in our blood means increased energy levels, because the more oxygen we have in our blood, the better our body can function.

Deep breathing will also improve our stamina. When working out at your your maximum capacity, remember to breath to prevent too much cortisol from being produced in the body. Despite the fact that exercise is good for us, when we exercise we put out body under controlled, temporary stress. This is why it is important not to over exercise as to prevent excess cortisol production or hormone imbalances in women.

So when exercising, by breathing deeply and consciously, we are telling our body that, in this state of temporary stress, it is safe. More oxygen to the muscles during your workout also means better use of your strength, muscles, and stamina.

Reduces inflammation

Disease thrives in bodies that are acidic. Deep breathing is said to reduce the acidity in the body, making it more alkaline. Stress is also responsible for increasing acidity in the body, and breathing will help reduce stress.

In addition to deep breathing, keep inflammatory and acidic foods out of your diet.

● Refined sugar and artificial sweeteners ● Dairy products ● Processed and packaged foods ● Processed meats ● Sodas and other artificially sweetened beverages

● Processed grains

If you are interested in improving your health from the inside out and reducing inflammation and acidity in the body, reach for: dates as a natural sweetener that are great for the adrenals, vegan substitutes for cheese such as cashew “cheese”, choose whole foods and cook from home as much as possible, buy organic when possible, choose a vegan protein source or choose organic and grass-fed meat. Choose filtered water or pure coconut water over sugary drinks, and choose gluten free and unrefined grains such as gluten free oats or buckwheat over conventional flour.

Lowers blood pressure

When your body relaxes with deep breathing and increased blood flow, your blood vessels will dilate. When a blood vessel dilates it opens, allowing for increased blood flow. A widening of the arteries reduces blood pressure due to dilation, making it is easier for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body, improving circulation, lowering blood pressure, and regulating the heart rate.

Improves immunity

Deep breathing brings fresh oxygen into the body, and as you exhale, you eliminate and expel toxins and carbon dioxide from the body. Carbon dioxide is a natural toxic waste that comes out from our body by breathing.

When our lungs are compromised due to shallow breathing, the body needs to work harder to expel this waste, making our body weaker and could possibly lead to illness. When the blood is oxygenated, it allows for higher functioning of your vital organs, including the immune system. A cleaner blood supply improves and strengthens immunity.

Deep breathing also increases absorption of vitamins and nutrients in the body, allowing for better overall health and faster recovery time from exercise and illness if you happen to get sick.

Breathing relaxes mind and body

When we get angry, stressed, nervous or scared, our muscles will tighten as part of our fight or flight response and our breathing becomes shallow. When this occurs, our bodies are not getting the amount of oxygen they require.

To reverse this process, engage in long, deep breaths, practice one of the pranayama techniques found in this article, or simply take 5 deep breaths, see if you can count your inhale for 5 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds, repeat whenever needed to calm the body and the mind.

Reduces stress and anxiety

When your body enters a more relaxed state by practicing deep and conscious breathing, depression, negative and anxious thoughts, as well as nervousness can be improved and even eliminated.

Deep breathing slows down your heart rate, allowing the body to take in more oxygen, sending signals to the brain, telling it to wind down. Also mentioned above, deep breathing can help balances your hormones (especially important for females and for keeping a regular cycle), and for both men and women, lowering cortisol levels is important for stress management.

Helps you sleep better

Along with your regular sleep schedule, try incorporating a deep breathing routine to get to sleep faster and to improve quality of sleep. Try a healing meditation practice to calm the body and help you focus the mind, inducing relaxation and letting go. Those dealing with insomnia should practice breathing exercises, along with meditation before bedtime.

For more information on mediation techniques for relaxation and improved sleep, visit this blog post.

Stimulates the lymphatic system

Breathing is what moves the lymph, shallow breathing can cause the lymphatic system to become sluggish and therefore, it will not allow for proper detoxification through the skin. Deep breathing will help you get the lymph pumping and flowing properly.

The largest lymph node in the body is located just above the navel (belly button), meaning, when you breathe and allow the belly to expand and contract, you pump and stimulate that lymph node.

Improves digestion

Stress and gut health are directly related. To maintain a healthy gut and for improved and optional digestion, stress reduction is required and essential for successful digestion. Deep breathing before a meal can help reduce stress, prepare the body for food, and optimise digestion.

Increased blood flow due to deep breathing practice, encourages healing of the gut and increased function. When practicing deep belly breathing for better digestion, allow the stomach to expand as the diaphragm moves downward to allow air to fill the lungs on your inhale. Visualise a balloon being filled with air as you inhale and watch it deflate on your exhale. Try to take at least 5 big belly breaths before each meal to experience improved digestion, and more mindful eating habits.

Pranayama Techniques

Now that we are aware of the many health benefits of deep breathing, let’s explore some of the pranayama techniques that you can apply to your everyday life to start feeling better.

Simple yogic breath

To practice simple yogic breath, place your right hand on your chest and the left hand on your belly. Feel the chest rise and expand into your hand as you inhale, then let the breath fill the belly, then as you exhale feel the belly soften first, and then the chest, as you inhale again, feel the upper chest, then the middle chest, and belly rise, then the belly deflates and falls, flowed by the middle chest, and finally the upper chest. So we fill the body from top to bottom and empty from bottom to top.

Next, place your hands on either each side of your ribcage, as you inhale, filling the chest, you will start to feel the rib cage expand and open, then the belly will fill, as you exhale, the opposite will happen, the belly softens, the ribcage retracts and gets smaller and then the chest will fall.

Next, bring your right hand to your lower back and as you inhale, feel the back press into your hand as it expands. This is caused by the diaphragm expanding and forcing the organs inside the belly to move to make space for breath.

Practice all three of these; belly breathing, breathing through the sides of the body and the back of the body, or choose one to practice. Try practicing deep belly breathing before a meal or all three of these techniques in the morning or before bedtime.

Any little effort counts. Try these and see for yourself how they affect you, and repeat them for 5 repetitions each. You could also practice breathing into a place where you may feel pain either physically or emotionally, in an effort to release what you might be holding on to. Breath should feed and nourish, allow it to move, keeping your life force or prana flowing.

Ujayi breathing

The word Ujayi means “victory”, victory over the mind, our mental chatter and the distractions that hold us back from being fully present in our lives. Ujayi is a technique or a tool that we use to keep our mind focused and on track. We can use this breath before sitting down to work or before we begin our yoga practice to keep our mind focused on the task at hand.

Uiayi has an ocean like quality and sound, that helps us cultivate heat in the body to feed our internal flame, energy, life force, and creativity. This kind of breath helps to lengthen the inhale and the exhale.

By employing a slight constriction and tightness at the back of the throat, using the epiglottis to get this particular sound to happen. The epiglottis is a leaf-shaped flap in the throat that prevents food from entering the windpipe and the lungs. It stands open during breathing, allowing air into the larynx.

We don’t want this breath to be too loud because that would mean that the throat is excessively constricted. A great way to practice this breath is to pretend that you are fogging up a mirror with hot air.

To practice this, place your hand in front of your mouth and blow hot air into the palm of your hand, then, create that same heat but this time, keep the mouth and lips closed, finding that same tightness in the back of the throat on your exhale.

Bee's (Brahmari) breath or humming bee breath

This is a very simple pranayama that can be helpful in stressful situations. It helps to calm, soothe, and ease the mind. This breath is also helpful when practiced before bed to help you fall asleep.

The sound of this breath mirrors that of the big, black bee, who’s hum is vibrational and soothing. Try exploring different tones, humming at a different pitch can be a fun way to see if that sound resonates in any particular parts of the body due to the tone of the hum.

Generally speaking, the lower the tone the more it will be felt in the lower parts of the body, likewise, higher tones will be felt higher in the body. This kind of breath helps to drive energy up, towards the crown of the head. Depending on the tone and pitch of our hum, we can direct the vibrations to where they need to go, using this kind of breath as a healing tool.

Kapalabhati or Skull shining breath

This pranayama is technically a Kriya, or cleansing practice, however, it also falls into the pranayama category as we are still working with and manipulating our breath.

This breath practice pushes air upwards and out through the crown of the head towards our halos. These are the arcs of light that sit above the heads of spiritual figures in both Eastern and Western cultures and teachings. This halo is their skull shining. It serves as an indication that they are so filled with light that it cannot be contain by the physical form and therefore exudes from them.

We practice Kapalabhati to buff or clean any dirt that might be preventing the light from our halos from shining. The way that this breath works is through a forceful exhalation (not too forceful as we don’t want to put any stress on the organs). The muscular action is the same as a cough or a sneeze, as we apply a compression to the transverse abdominis. There will only be relaxation on the inhale which is totally passive.

Eventually the lungs will get strong enough to fill up on the passive inhale and will be able to push out enough air without you getting fatigued as you “snap” the belly in on your exhale. If you are having trouble feeling this, it can be helpful to place a hand on your belly in order to feel the snap with each exhalation. Keeping the mouth closed helps to push the breath up towards the third eye before it goes out of the nose while keeping the shoulders and chest relaxed.

This breath can be practiced at the end of your yoga practice before Shavasana, or in the morning on an empty stomach is best. This breath should not be performed if you are pregnant.

Nadi Shodhana: alternating nostril breathing

To practice Nadi Shodhana, we use a special hand Mudra or seal to close and open one nostril at a time, this Mudra is called the Vishnu Mudra. We alternate from one nostril to the other, breathing from right to left separately in order to access either the left energetic channel or the right energetic channel.

The channel on the right side is called Pingala Nadi and it is our masculine energy channel, giving us heating, sun, or solar energy. The left energetic channel is our feminine energy channel called Ida Nadi, which is the source of our cooling, moon, or lunar energy.

This pranayama helps us to balance energy in the body and push more breath or prana through our central channel, called Shushumna Nadi. It can also be used as a tool to help identify where we might be having difficulty producing energy in the body or which energy we might be lacking.

If you find you are feeling imbalanced and need either more heat or cooling, you could practice this pranayama using only one energy channel to balance yourself out. When practicing this type of “play” you must always start and finish with the left nostril as this helps us to maintain our calm.

To practice this pranayama technique, take your right hand and drop the first two fingers into your palm to find the Vishnu Mudra. If this is too difficult for you, you could always touch the first two fingers to the third eye while you manipulate the nostrils. The ring finger will close the left nostril and the thumb will close the the right nostril. When breathing through the right nostril, the left nostril will be closed and the same will apply for the opposite side. In the moment of transition, there will be a brief moment in which both nostrils are closed which acts as an introduction to breath retention.

Remember that, this kind of play and experimentation is very powerful and should not be used unless you are already very familiar with the current balance of your energetic body or if you are able to practice with the guidance of an experienced yoga teacher.

Begin by exhaling all of the air out and begin, try to keep the inhales and exhales to 4 counts with a tiny hold at the top to transition between sides, always starting and ending with the left.

This Pranayama can be done at any time during the day, but it is best done in the morning before you start your day. This way, once you align your energy, you can carry that increased harmony with you, into your day.

Final thoughts

If these pranayama techniques seem too complicated for you at this time, don’t stress! We want to reduce stress, not cause more of it. Like anything, start small, and work up to it. Start by practicing deep breaths at least three times per day, that’s all it takes.

If you find that you are struggling or are unsure about the proper technique of these pranayama techniques, go to your local yoga studio and take a class! Don’t be afraid to ask your teacher for help afterwards.

Yoga is meant to be a tool for us to use. Yoga doesn’t make our life better, yoga makes us better at life. Meaning, when you feel like life is getting you down or you are having trouble managing, turn to yoga and breath for help.

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Jasmine Melrose

Director & Founder of DECO the Blog

Jasmine Melrose is a Toronto native living in Amsterdam. Once a professional dancer, her passions include movement, fitness, yoga, healing, and all things vegan. Jasmine is a 500-hour trained yoga teacher, who loves to get you deeper into your practice. She is also a certified barre teacher who loves making raw vegan, guilt-free and good-for-you treats. Check out her recipes and articles on everything from fitness to yoga, to notes on a journey towards healing.

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