Yoga, Breathing and Pranayma

Breath is our life force, our connection between the physical and spiritual. The conscious use of the breath, or pranayama, separates yoga from other forms of exercise. Working with the breath will ease you into an asana, and certain types of breathing are said to transmute the creative energies. All this is explored in the links below.

	A Primer on Pranayama Our own article on Pranayama basics - what it is, and why it's important to your health and well-being to develop a relationship with your breath.
	Importance of Breathing Before getting into specific forms of yoga breathing, it is important to understand, from a physical point of view, exactly what breathing does for us. Consider this site Oxygen 101.
	Pranayama - Breathing Techniques This site goes deeper into the benefits of pranayama. It discusses basic techniques, and gives brief explanations of the main types of pranayama which are used in yoga.
	Basic Breathing Techniques British yoga instructor Phil Aston offers up a thorough page on basic breathing and includes a section on the more meditative Yoga Nidra.
	Hatha Yoga Breathing It only makes sense that a trumpeter would know something about breathing! Bandleader Rich Szabo travels from the diaphragm to the collarbone in a thorough discussion of full body breathing. Separating each section of your lungs raises awareness of the full breathing process.
	Yoga Breathing Here is a good, basic primer on pranayama. It includes Alternate Nostril Breathing and Ujjayi Breath.
	Alternate Nostril Breathing In Sanskrit it's called Nadi Shodhan Pranayama. This is a basic pranayama exercise that everyone should know.
	Pranayama And why would someone want to practice Alternate Nostril Breathing? This page gives a brief explanation of the Science of Breath.
	Yoga - Pranayama This is a very practical site, and its emphasis is to help the reader learn to breathe naturally. It's a good instructional page, which teaches how to work the lungs.
	Taoist Relaxation Yoga Warning - this technique is far more difficult than it seems! Who would ever guess that it would take so much patience and fortitude to "listen to your breathing"?
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