Breath Body

We know that the human body is an intelligent complex system incorporating physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual elements, but in yoga they break the body down even further. One of those "bodies" or sheaths, is the breath body or Prana-maya-Kosha.

Prana means energy, life force or vitality and in yoga in can be reached through our breathing practices. That's why we as yoga teachers harp about the breath. Over and over you will hear us reminding you to "breathe", or "activate ujayi breathing", or "find your ocean breath", etc, because we know that is through the breath that we can tap into this powerful prana.

Prana resides in all of us. Don't believe me? When you are feeling good in your life, happy, peaceful, grounded, and at your optimal health your prana, that energy, is at its peak and all the energy systems inside you are balanced and running smoothly. Now tell me how you feel when you have a head cold or are depressed, stressed, or just feel out of sorts. This is when your prana, that vitality, is being leached out of you. So, now you have to work at plugging up the holes to protect that energy from draining further. Is there a time when you won't have any prana at all? Yes, and this is at death. Prana enters us at birth and leaves us at death.

So prana is a very tangible thing. You can feel it in your body; you can feel it when you practice breathing techniques when you exercise, or when you embrace someone or offer kindness. You may not understand it fully, but you know it's there. So when you practice yoga in a class, maybe my class, and you hear me say over and over to breathe deep, breathe fully, you'll know why I am saying it. Because it's the breath that is key and it's the breath that will help you tap into and incorporate this beautiful and powerful energy into our lives.