What is pranayama?

We can live for days without food or water, but we die in minutes without breathing. Yet it's astonishing how little attention we pay to our breath. Pranayama - the science of breath control - consists of a series of exercises to optimise our breathing and keep the body in vibrant health.

Pranayama goes hand in hand with Asanas (or postures). It is said that pranayama produces heat, called Tapas, which burns impurities out of the subtle nerve channels of the body. This allows a more healthy state of mind – calm and powerful.

Unlike asana practice (postures) there is no visible movement of the body in pranayama; we must acutely sense and feel the movement of the breath within. The only dynamic process is breathing – and keeping attention on the breath.

Which is not as easy as it might seem. The mind has the tendency to bounce around – maintaining concentration is a difficult skill to learn. Ancient yogis recognised this. The sage Patanjali makes a few practical suggestions for keeping our attention on the breath. Focusing, for example, on a place where we can feel or hear the breath. Or try to follow the movement of the breath in the body, feeling the inhalation from the centre of the collarbone, down through the rib cage to the diaphragm, and following the exhale upward from the abdomen.

Suggestions like these help us keep our attention on the breath and prevent the practice from becoming merely mechanical. When we follow the breath, the mind will be drawn into the activities of the breath. In this way Pranayama prepares us for the stillness of meditation.