What is pranayama: meaning, benefits, how to do it and more!

Pranayama is the exercise of conducting the breath. In yoga, breathing is associated with vital force, as it comprises this energy that makes life possible. For this reason, pranayama comprises a technique capable of prolonging life and ensuring greater health, as it optimizes this process of nourishing cells with vital energy.

In this article, you’ll learn more about all the issues relevant to practicing pranayama, such as its meaning, its benefits and even some techniques to start practicing. Check out!

Pranayama consists of the practice of essentially breathing exercises, which lead to a better state of the body in general. Pranayama immediately relieves stress, improves concentration and ensures greater stability for body and mind.

In the long term, it is capable of curing diseases and increasing the longevity of human beings, as it guarantees the maintenance of the health of the body’s cells. Following are some of the essential aspects of pranayama, such as what prana is, its relationship to consciousness and unconsciousness, pranayama and the chakras, and more. Follow!

To do Pranayama exercises correctly, it is essential to understand what prana is. In Hindu philosophy, adopted by Yoga, prana is the vital energy, which feeds everything that is alive. It is a biological source, but also a spiritual one.

Therefore, pranayama exercises exist to work on the flow of prana throughout the body, which is often overlooked in the fast-paced Western world. Prana is responsible for overall tissue health, leading to longevity and the healing of many ailments.

The word pranayama is made up of two others that have specific meanings, prana being the life force and yama being the control, restriction or channel. In this way, pranayama would be precisely this ability to channel the vital force.

Furthermore, Yama is also associated with the god of death in Yoga. In this case, there is an allegorical interpretation of breathing as the balance between life and death, insofar as there is only life while the being is breathing.

Pranayama is, in general, worked on in Yoga, as it is one of the bases of stability sought by this practice.

Yoga, in addition to being an exercise for the body, is an exercise for the mind. The ability to combine posture and breathing is essential for your evolution. For this reason, practicing pranayama together with physical postures is the way in Yoga to achieve absolute balance.

The nadis are the nerve endings in the body that absorb prana energy. It is through them that the alignment promoted by pranayama actually happens. They can be considered subtle channels, through which this energy circulates. Obstruction of these channels is associated with the emergence of diseases.

In all, there are 72,000 nadis, but 3 main ones can be identified, which represent the masculine, the feminine and a central one, through which all energy circulates, when body, mind and spirit are in balance.

One of the highest goals in life for Yoga is the transformation of what is unconscious to conscious. In this context, pranayama plays a role as a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious. It is the expansion of the life force.

So pranayama is important because it establishes this contact between mind, body and spirit. Therefore, it acts as a guide of conscience. Its exercise is, therefore, a true passage to conscious evolution.

According to the philosophy of Yoga, the body is a true vehicle of energy and the study of prana and pranayama exercises are ways of observing this functioning.

In this logic, life is a pulsating energy in which the body is the very source. The channeling of this energy, in turn, would be able to optimize this process and, as the energy is better conducted, the body and mind would benefit. Pranayama therefore helps to run the mechanism which makes the body a vehicle of energy.

The chakras are the energy centers that order the human body, each one being associated with a set of situations and emotions that guide the being towards evolution. Pranayama, in this context, is the fuel for the energy process that is hosted by the chakras.

For this reason, practicing pranayama is also essential to maintain the alignment of the chakras and feed each energy center correctly.

The benefits of pranayama in the practitioner’s life are endless. This exercise, if done daily, significantly improves stress and anxiety problems, leads to weight loss and ensures greater balance for body and mind.

This happens because, in general, pranayama increases the vital energy present in each tissue and the improved flow favors the balance of the system as a whole. Following are some of the main benefits gained by practicing pranayama daily. Follow!

In busy life, stopping and breathing can seem very difficult and meaningless, but this is precisely the only effective way to regain the peace of mind necessary to carry out all tasks. By performing pranayama on a daily basis, you reduce your stress and anxiety levels. Thus, you can concentrate better and decide with conscience.

So, for no other reason, the procedure indicated for anxiety crises is paused breathing. Pranayama proposes to bring this practice into your daily life, so that you always keep your stress levels low, ensuring a better quality of life.

Anxiety and lack of time are the two main factors that lead to weight gain. For this, the exercise of pranayama helps to combat these two factors. So, in addition to not being anxious all the time, which helps you make better decisions about what to eat, you become more aware of what is good for your health and stop wanting harmful foods, such as fast food and ultra-processed foods.

The result of this is weight loss in a natural and healthy way. Also, many pranayama exercises, if done correctly, burn localized belly fat.

The lymphatic system is responsible for transporting body fluids, especially defense cells, which are so important for maintaining health as a whole. However, accelerated breathing is responsible for the accumulation of fluids, which brings the feeling of swelling and can lead to several more serious problems over time.

Thus, with the practice of pranayama, it is possible to reverse this situation. Exercises boost the lymphatic system, reducing the feeling of bloating and increasing tissue efficiency. The effect is the same as a lymphatic drainage performed by beauticians, but in a natural way.

Properly worked breathing is responsible for the health of the tissues in general and it is no different with the skin. Thus, performing pranayama, you also have the benefits of skin care, free of charge and naturally.

The multitude of creams and treatments can be replaced by breathing exercises, in which the elasticity and health of the cells comes naturally. The result is glowing, healthy skin.

Hindu philosophy, in general, works with the idea that the body is, in itself, a center of vital energy, on which all existence depends. In this sense, breathing and prana are the major source of circulation of this energy.

Thus, working this flow correctly means enhancing vital energy. For this reason, through pranayama, you acquire more energy for daily tasks, reducing stress and anxiety. In short, it’s about living fully the energy that is given as a gift every day by life.

Because it is precisely this flow of energy that governs life, including pranayama in your daily activities is a way to harmonize your entire body. Incorrect breathing is not only associated with weight gain, but with all sorts of energy build-ups that cause imbalance.

So, with these exercises, you become able to improve physical fitness, breathing and even balance, including your ability to walk, run and do daily activities, manual or intellectual. In this way, it is a way to promote body harmony in general.

As important as the pranayama method itself are the conditions of the environment and especially the interior for the practice. Thus, it is essential that you are in an environment where you can concentrate and surrender to the exercise.

It is also important that you are properly accommodated and that you have no distractions around, if possible. Following are some tips on how to do pranayama, such as preparation and alternate breathing. Check out!

It is essential that the environment for practicing pranayama is welcoming. You can add essential oils, incense and relaxing music to speed up the whole process.

It is also very important that you are comfortable. You must remain in a place where you can cross-legged and with your spine straight. As it is a breathing exercise, it is very important that the air can circulate smoothly throughout your body and, for that, posture makes all the difference.

The best way to train your breathing for pranayama is through alternate breathing. To do it, you must first cover one of the nostrils with your thumb and inhale deeply. After filling the lung with air, you must change the thumb side and exhale with the nostril that was covered previously.

This process must be repeated initially 5 times. Over time, the ideal is to perform 12 minutes of this exercise a day. When you reach this goal, you will be at an evolution point in your pranayama.

As already clarified earlier, the practice of pranayama includes some exercises, especially breathing, which guarantee the improvement of mental and physical health as a whole. Therefore, it is possible to practice different exercises to work different areas of the body and obtain different benefits from it.

Below you will find the main…