Breathing Exercises

Breathing Exercises
(Pranayama)


Incorporate breathing exercises (pranayama) into your yoga practice!

After a few months of doing beginner yoga, the yoga teacher introduced pranayama at the end of the class! I had no idea that a few simple minutes of breathing exercises could result in a wonderful feeling of well-being, balance, joy and happiness that lasted the whole day!


Click here or scroll down to find out more about yoga breathing exercises.

 Insights

Moving Meditation

After practising yoga with asanas and pranayama for several months, I noticed that when I was in a class where I followed the teacher with no interruptions, the class became a moving meditation.

 You become slightly disconnected from your body and connected more with the energy around you.

This was my first realisation that yoga is not just a physical experience but a tool to experience difference levels of consciousness.

Teacher

The breathing techniques are powerful, so it’s best to learn them from an experienced yoga teacher if possible.

It is best to practice pranayama in the morning on an empty stomach.

If you are also doing the physical exercise, you can add the breathing exercises afterwards.

Powerful

These breathing exercises are powerful.

I found that just doing the pranayama alone, without any physical asanas, still had a powerful effect on my well-being.

The combination of physical and breathing exercises left me with a feeling of balance, joy and happiness, often lasting well into the day.

You can mix and match breathing exercises. You don’t always need to do the same ones.

 Listen to your body. 

Once you understand the effects of each one, you will know which ones your body needs on a particular day.

Vary the amount of time you spend on the breathing exercises, depending on the time you have. 

I may do them anywhere from five to twenty minutes, depending on the day.

Precautions

'Certain kinds of breathing exercises that involve abdominal contractions with an upward motion (pranayama) are not recommended if you have your period, are pregnant or have digestive problems. 

Do not practice pranayama with a fast rhythm or breath retention if you have asthma, heart disease, hypertension or are pregnant. 

This is not a complete list of precautions. if you have a specific health condition, please speak with your health professional or local yoga therapist before practising'

(Esther Ekhart : EkhartYoga) 

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