ym breathwork

YM breathwork and pranayama

Please read the Scrolls on Breath, Breath-work, Prana, Pranayama, Hatha Yoga, and Vinyasa first to gain a broader understanding of what is presented here.

In movement

In YM we move with natural breathing. We practise breath-work in stillness lying down or sitting. We wait for the natural merging of movement and breath to happen through practice.

This merging of breath and posture (either dynamic or still/held postures), through energetic channels of the bodies, is the very science of Hatha Yoga. I consider this an advanced practice. Again this is all relative to how often and for how long you practise — see further information on Breath.

See also YM Hatha Vinyasa Yoga for more information on breath in movement.

In stillness

Even though I personally practise intermediate breath practices, where I have expertise and confidence in providing teaching and teacher training is in the range of breath-work where I use natural breathing, belly breathing, as well as the separate and gathered parts of the full yogic breath as a starting point.

I use these techniques to assess the breath — the starting point of the practitioner — and then guide accordingly. Just like in any training, as the practitioner practises the techniques will require refining and redefining. This is an organic process.

When certain preconditions are naturally present, or arise from practice, we can take the breath practice further into more challenging breath movement patterns. For example, if someone already has a certain level of breathing practice (such as a singer or athlete who has trained their diaphragm and breathing apparatus), I can start directly with the YM two-part breathing technique to pave the way for Ujjayi breathing.

The YM breath practices

If someone is studying YM Sadhana, after two years of natural breathing, belly breathing and full yogic breath practices we introduce a YM breathwork practice known as:

Two-part breathing

(Equivalent to yogic abdominal breathing at first in shape and form. Then the practice is adapted to create more ease, space and diaphragmatic movement ability.)

With regular practice of two-part breathing, and with some cues in the meditations, we find ourselves naturally entering the YM:

Four-part breathing

A natural extension of two-part breathing into Ujjayi breath preparation. All this and more is thoroughly covered in the Sadhana Course Years 3–5.

We also have a:

Diaphragmatic stretch breath practice

which is part of our YM breathwork tools.

We also have vinyasa / movement meditations to help us access deeper breathing called:

Pranayama vinyasas

Further reading

Breath

Breath-Work

Prana

PranaYama

YM Breath-Work

Free breath-work session with Mithila click image below.