Leaning into yoga philosophy: Pranayama and the Therapeutic Process

There is something quietly radical about turning toward your own breath. That choice says: I am here. I am worth attending to. I am, right now, enough. In a world that moves fast and rewards productivity and hustle, presence can feel like resistance. Pausing to notice the inhale, to follow the exhale, to be with what is represents a turn towards becoming all we hope to be in the world. I come to this topic as both a yoga teacher and a therapist, and what continues to surprise and move me is how consistently these two paths point toward the same truth: that the body is not a problem to be managed, but a home to be returned to. Breath is a way back home.

It’s profound to me how connected spiritual teachings are across traditions. The more I study, the more it’s clear that different communities found unique ways of saying similar things about being human, offering lessons on loving ourselves and others, pulling us back to unity over and over, helping us stay attached to compassion, presence, and spirit. All the traditions I've learned from describe self-awareness and self-observation as part of wellbeing. This is deeply true of the link between yoga and the enneagram.

All traditions make a big deal about breath, breathing, and its connection to spirit and presence.

The yoga sutras and teachings of spiritual masters like Patanjali (who introduced the 8-limbed path of yoga I was taught) are beautiful and worth studying. They echo other traditions and perspectives in their insights about living well on this planet. As an example, the yoga principle of Pranayama is similar to teachings from other comprehensive spiritual traditions: Chinese - chi/qi; Japanese - ki; Greek - pneuma; Latin - spiritus/spirare.

What Is Pranayama?

Pranayama (pron. prah-nah-YAH-mah) is a Sanskrit word with two roots: prana, meaning life force or vital energy, and ayama, meaning to extend, expand, or manage. One of my yoga mentors teaches that breathing is to bring forth the eternal cosmic vibration (meaning: its in us already!). Pranayama is the conscious practice of working with our own life force. It’s the fourth of Patanjali's eight limbs of yoga — sitting between the outer practices of physical posture (asana) and the inner practices of sense withdrawal and meditation. Breath; the bridge between body and mind, between what is visible and what is unseen.

Unlike unconscious, habitual breathing, pranayama invites us to become aware and participative in our own aliveness. It includes slowing the breath, deepening it, evening out the inhale and exhale, working with breath retention, and noticing natural pauses between breaths. Each of these practices has real, felt effects on the nervous system, the mind, and our sense of being in a body.

When I sit with folks every day, one of the most honest and helpful things I can offer is an invitation to breathe together. Something always shifts, for the individuals in the room and in the energy shared between us.

We can't think our way into the present moment. But we can breathe our way there.

Breath, Body, and the 30 Trillion Reasons It Matters

As consciousness is supported by breath, the fuel for transformation and human change is also connected to how we breathe. Connection to awareness, to self, to being, to other, to all life is the overarching aim of yoga; union. Have you considered that every cell of our bodies are affected by our breathing? (Did you know that there are 30 trillion cells in one human body? That’s 13 zeros!) Every function of our body is facilitated by breath (think: digestion, problem solving, elimination, reproduction, immunity, relating to others, processing information, reading these words ...) Also, nasal breathing is important for the dilation of our blood vessels which increases immune function. This is why you’ll hear me encouraging inhaling and exhaling through the nose (primarily) when we practice together.

Inhaling and exhaling is the most basic expression of reciprocity; it’s the foundation of individual beginning and of collective mutuality. We are practicing reciprocity as we relate to the world around us.

Pranayama & Being well in the world

When we practice intentional conscious breathing, we are helping create the container that can process and metabolize our emotions and experiences. This is something I return to again and again in my work as a therapist with individuals, couples, and families. What yoga philosophy has understood for millennia, neuroscience is now confirming: the way we breathe directly shapes the state of our nervous system, and therefore our capacity to feel safe, think clearly, connect with others, and process what feels hard.

Participants exploring a guided breathing exercise to develop a felt sense of breath within the body.

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The autonomic nervous system (the part of us that governs the stress response) is sensitive to breath.

Shallow, fast, or irregular breathing keeps the body in a low-grade state of alertness or anxiety.

Slow, deep, rhythmic breathing (especially with an extended exhale) invites what is often called the 'rest and digest' state. This is the body~mind~spirit connection made tangible. And it's available to us in every moment, with no equipment, no cost, no side effects.

In the therapy room, I see regularly what happens when breath awareness is underdeveloped: over-thinking, over-worrying, a kind of chronic living-in-the-head that cuts us off from our body's own wisdom. We lose access to the felt sense, to intuition, to the knowing that doesn't arrive through logic. Learning to notice and gently shift one's breathing pattern can begin to restore all of that; supporting anxiety, depression, grief, relational stress, and the residue of things we've been through that are held in our bodies.

There is a correlation between the quality of our breath and the quality of our life. There's an alchemy of benefits that seem to connect like puzzle pieces finally fitting together when we attend to our breath and breathing patterns; igniting body awareness, opening presence, supporting our whole lives and all our relations.

A Personal Note on Pranayama

My own learning about Pranayama and how consequential it is has been one of the most surprising and life changing basic teachings from all of my yoga learning. If you'd like to know a little more about who I am and how I came to this work, you can get to know me here. It was yoga philosophy that connected the dots for me when it came to seeing breath as life force. Learning this principle, and more importantly applying it, showed me how paying attention to my breathing is a way of attending to my own wellbeing and spiritual evolution.

Practicing yoga has been the location of concepts and experience clicking together over time.  I’m indebted to Julie, the faculty member in my teacher training program, who shared her lifetime of experience with alignment, breath, and breathwork, and to so many yoga teachers over the years whose cueing and knowledge have enriched my life and helped understandings weave and fit together. In hindsight, of course it makes sense that deeper awareness about life force energy is transformational for one’s life.

Breath truly is our most accessible resource for wellbeing. Awareness develops consciousness; consciousness fuels transformation from the inside out. 

Always, we remind ourselves that striving is not the way; we are compassionate and non judgmental in our noticing. Abide with breath and breathing – let it wake up noticing, awareness, let it guide and gently reveal.

Breath is how we Learn to Listen to our Wisdom

The intelligence of the body wakes up more and more as we begin to untangle our understanding of knowing from the head, intellect, or mental processing and re-attach it to body; to experience, to sensation. Being aware of breath means we are nowhere else; we are here, right here, in the present moment.

This is as true in a yoga class as it is in a therapy session, in a difficult conversation, or in a quiet moment before the day begins. Presence is the practice, and breath is the stepping through the metaphorical doorway. 

Where Breath Leads

If something in this resonates, I'd love to explore it with you further. My work weaves together several threads: individual therapy, couples and family therapy, clinical supervision for therapists and counselling students, yoga classes, and Enneagram work. Whether you come through the therapy door, step onto your yoga mat, or find yourself drawn to understanding your habits and response patterns through the Enneagram, the underlying invitation is the same — to come into deeper relationship with yourself and, from that grounded place, with the people and world around you.

Breath is always good place to begin.