How To Breathe While Practicing Yoga

Our yoga asana practice has the power to change our body and mind at the deepest, most subtle level. Although we can breathe in a yoga class without even thinking about it, deep, full and mindful breaths have the power to effect profound change in both body and mind. Learn to get the most from your asana yoga practice through breath awareness and breath control.

How To Breathe In Yoga

What is Pranayama?

Pranayama is the expansion of prana (the body’s energetic life force) through control of breath. This breath, mind, body connection is more intuitive than we think. We tend to sigh out when we need to relax, and we take huge breaths in when experiencing awe. We already understand that energy is tied to breath.

Practicing pranayama takes this further by teaching us to intentionally manipulate energy through breath control. We may choose a fiery breath to stoke an increase in energy, or a cooling breath when things heat up too much. Primarily, we learn to rest in a state of homeostasis, with even, deep, full breaths.

While the effects of mindful breathing can be positive, breathing in the wrong way could also be detrimental to your practice. It’s important to learn and practice pranayama under the guidance of a qualified instructor.

About Breath Awareness

Proper yogic breathing begins with breath awareness. Just as in seated meditation, it’s normal for breath awareness to ebb and flow during a yoga class. We forget about the breath, then realize we’ve forgotten and (hopefully) come back to it.

Developing a strong sense of breath awareness in seated meditation increases our capacity to hold attention on breath even while moving through yoga poses. You may have noticed that as soon as you turn your attention toward breath, you breathe more slowly, evenly and deeply. Doing this creates a positive feedback loop. Taking slow, deep and even breaths keeps the mind calm and steady, and further improves your ability to focus on the breath.

Many yogic breathing techniques also have an audible quality, or require the involvement of asana or specific movement in the body. This too, helps us hold our awareness on the breath.

Your yoga classes likely begin with intentional practices for building breath awareness. First, breath awareness is established when the body is physically still, for example in Sukhasana (easy pose) or Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclined Butterfly Pose). The practice of the yogi is to then maintain this same focused awareness as more complex physical movement is introduced.

Breath For Warming & Cleansing

During the warm-up phase of your yoga class, pranayama is typically geared toward building breath awareness, the purification of body and mind, or the enhancement of heat and energy. These breath practices often take place seated in Sukhasana (easy pose) or Virasana (hero’s pose). Two common pranayamas you’ll find at the start of a Hatha or Kundalini yoga class are Nadi Shodhana and Kapalabhati.

Nadi Shodhana

Alternate nostril breathing, or Nadi Shodhana is an advanced pranayama in which one breathes in and out through a single nostril by alternately closing the right and left side of the nose. Breathing through a single nostril forces slower, deeper breaths. Increasing oxygenation in this manner is cleansing and purifying.

Kapalabhati Pranayama

Translated as Skull Shining breath, Kapalabhati is an advanced and rigorous pranayama technique that builds heat deep within the core and radiates it out through the top of the skull. This cleansing breath clears the sinuses and increases blood oxygenation, purifying both body and mind.

Diaphragmatic Breathing – Yoga's Default Breath

During the majority of your yoga class, your default breath should be slow, full and deep, in and out through your nose. Choose a breath that balances the length of the inhale with the length of the exhale, and minimize the pause between the two. Belly breathing, or diaphragmatic nostril breathing in this way turns on parasympathetic response.

The parasympathetic nervous system keeps the body in balance. It slows and steadies our heart rate, promotes relaxation, and improves mood. Slow, deep breaths also increase the level of oxygen in the blood and clear out toxins with the release of carbon dioxide. Our body and mind feel more clear and energetic, the immune system is strengthened, and we sleep better.

When practiced alongside yoga asana, diaphragmatic nostril breathing keeps the nervous system and endocrine system balanced. The poses work to calm us instead of contributing to our stress. Diaphragmatic breathing is appropriate in any yoga pose.

If you’re new to diaphragmatic breathing, try it by practicing Dirga Pranayama. The Ujjayi pranayama, which you’ve likely heard mentioned in yoga class, is an advanced variation of this same belly breath.

Dirga Pranayama

Three part breath, or dirga pranayama, is an excellent breath for beginners or for anyone with a tendency to take shallow breaths. This breath introduces belly breathing by asking practitioners to intentionally breath into the abdomen in three separate steps. Learn to breathe more deeply and mindfully with these guided dirga pranayama practices:

Ujjayi Pranayama

You want to do yoga at home? Join these free online yoga classes by qualified instructors on Insight Timer.

Breath for Relaxing & Cooling

At certain points in your yoga class the body and mind just need to relax. Emphasizing your exhale breath can bring relief after an intense pose or clear the mind for better focus in a standing balance. A simple sigh out works wonders. Traditional pranayama like Lion’s Breath and Sitali pranayama are also two cooling breath techniques your teacher may mention in yoga class. You can do them in downward dog or during any still transition when you need more calm and relaxation.

Lion’s Breath

Lion’s Breath, or Simhasana, is an asana from the 14th century Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Lion’s Breath alleviates stress and stimulates both the throat and diaphragm. Traditionally, the forceful exhale breath with open mouth and extended tongue takes place on all fours with the big toes touching and the knees out wide. But it also feels relieving when transitioning back into downward dog. Try Lion’s Breath to release heat after a particularly challenging sequence

Sitali & Sitkari Pranayama

Sitali pranayama is a cooling breath that emphasizes inhaling through a rolled tongue lips while exhaling through the nose. If you are genetically unable to roll your tongue, you can practice Sitkari pranayama by inhaling with open lips through closed teeth. Ayurvedic practitioners recommend practicing this breath when you feel hot, especially mid-day or during the summer months. The calming breath also reduces stress and anxiety. When practicing yoga, try Sitali or Sitkari pranayama to quiet the mind before a standing balance pose.

Breath For Savasana

Towards the end of your yoga class, your teacher may cue you to release your control of the breath. If Ujjayi pranayama or diaphragmatic breathing requires effort or causes stress, it’s time to let it go. Continue to breathe mindfully and evenly, in and out through your nose. During savasana, your breath should feel easy, spacious and relaxed. Let your breath reflect your desired state of mind.

Bhramari Pranayama

As you return to your seat to close out your class, there’s opportunity for a gentle pranayama. Bhramari pranayama is a feel-good breathing technique that helps prolong the sensation of post yoga bliss.

Also known as Bee’s Breath for its vibrating, humming sound, Bhramari pranayama is cooling and calming. The vibrations produced by a hum on the exhale mimic the natural hum and vibration of the subtle body when your chakras are open and prana flows freely. It’s an accessible way to practice the goal of yoga.

Yoga, Breath & Prana

In Yogic philosophy it is said that energy in the mind and body flows through a network of subtle body channels (chakras). These channels cannot be seen, but may be felt. Sometimes, energy doesn’t flow at all. It becomes trapped at chakra points where the channels of the subtle body get twisted up in knots. Asana, breath and focused attention work together to free these energetic blockages.

Yoga asana twists, pulls and pushes the subtle body channels to allow prana to flow more freely. By practicing yoga, knots that form the chakras are loosened from within due to the movement of energy.

Because prana is connected to the breath, we help this process along when we breathe deeply and fully. Awareness of the breath alone has the ability to direct the flow of prana, while deep, full breaths further open and expand the subtle body channels.