Pranayama, or “Breath Control”

The breath is a powerful tool in deepening your meditation practice. Breathwork is the practice of controlling the length, force, and type of breaths we take, in order to get a desired effect. Basically, if you control your breath, you can have a powerful influence on how life feels.

One of the most helpful and simple forms of Breath Control is 4-7-8 breathing.

• Can be practiced literally anywhere, and just about at any time.

• Inhale for ~4 counts

• Hold for ~7 counts

• Exhale for ~8 counts

• If you’re alone or doing pranayama in a group, you can exhale loudly

  • like you’re taking a big sigh after a long day

  • or, through pursed lips, like you’re blowing through a straw

• Different emotional and physical states will call for variations on this practice

• I will do this throughout the day at any given moment - while driving, walking, shopping, between customers at work.

• For heavy relaxation at home or to help me fall asleep, I will extend the exhale as long as I comfortably can to a rate of just a few breaths per minute. This reliably makes me take a nap or at least feel a strong downshift in my nervous system state. Great for after work.