Why should I try breath work?

 As breath stills our mind, our energies are free to unhook from the senses and bend inward.

B.K.S Iyengar

Yoga breath control exercises, also known by the Sanskrit term pranayama, have been practised for centuries in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Today, similar breathing exercises have gained popularity in the west as part of secular mindfulness and meditation practices and as a tool to boost performance by endurance athletes. So, what what benefits can you expect to get from breath work? 

Feel calmer

Breathing exercises can be a great choice when you need a quick way to calm your nervous system and feel a boost of energy.  There are many different techniques to learn that will help, and often just a few rounds will do the trick. Long term, the practice can help with all sorts of things, including anxiety, stress, depression, insomnia, improved focus, and increased self-awareness.

Reduce muscle tension

We spend many of our waking hours holding ourselves in tensed postures as we crane our bodies looking at screens. While yoga postures, or asana, maintain suppleness, it is only when we combine these physical exercises with breath control techniques that we can move beyond our physical limitations to release deeply held tension in the body. When you reach a physical limit in your yoga practise, breath work allows you to soften and move beyond it where physical effort cannot. 

Improve lung health

When we breathe normally we use just a small proportion of our lung capacity. The muscles that support breathing can be strengthened with training like all the other muscles in the body. By practising breathing exercises you learn to increase your lung capacity by expanding and deflating the chest wall to a greater extent that you would with normal exercise. This is why free divers who spend time at depth without any respiratory equipment use yoga to increase the time they can spend underwater. 

Boost your immune system

When our bodies are physically and mentally stressed we are more vulnerable to bacteria and viruses. By building simple breathing exercises into your routine you can reduce your day to day stress levels. These simple techniques can be used anywhere and are effective in minutes. Having a few breathing exercises at your fingertips you can build your resilience and allow your natural defences against disease and infection to function more effectively.  

Increase concentration

Pranayama has been shown to regulate our autonomic nervous system – the system in our bodies that controls functions like our heart rate, digestion and fight or flight response. By increasing the oxygen supply to the brain, pranayama exercises can calm these responses and reduce anxiety. This leaves you with more freedom to take charge of your thoughts and increases your ability to concentrate.