One of the first yoga books I ever read was Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Svātmārāma. It was in this book that I read about pranayama for the first time. I read about it with interest but, alas, I stopped paying attention to the breath and instead became completely absorbed by the physical side of yoga. At the time, no one, mentor or teacher, could explain to me the importance of properly including pranayama in my practice.
It was only when I started practising Ashtanga Yoga that I began to understand the strong relationship between asanas and the breath. Still, at this stage, I was only using Ujjayi breath (the Ashtanga approach) or Nadi Shodhana without really understanding why. I knew they were supporting my asanas and sun salutations by generating heat or settling an active mind, but that was all. No one had taught me the foundations for practising these techniques safely. I was using them somewhat blindly, without being shown the why or the how. Something was missing, and I decided to explore several classical and less classical methods of breath control.
As a Western culture, we are mostly driven by the body, by physicality and performance. In many yoga studios, this idea of the strong and capable body is cultivated through fast-paced and dynamic yoga styles which include breathing techniques not for their subtlety but for the physical energy they generate. I am not saying this is wrong, but outside the physical practice, breathwork and pranayama have health benefits and purposes that people at every age can draw on: correct breathing is therapeutic in ways that extend well beyond the mat.
At the start of each breathwork training I have held, I asked ten students whether, in the past twelve months, they had experienced any anxiety or stress that was disrupting their day-to-day life or sleep.
The answers were striking: seven out of ten students had experienced, with varying degrees of intensity, panic attacks caused by fear, anxiety disrupting their sleep, or difficulties breathing properly.
I also asked them why they had decided to attend. Some wanted support with mental health challenges such as depression or stress. Some were managing serious health conditions. Some recognised that they were not breathing correctly and were in discomfort. From this small group alone, the breadth of need was clear.
Beyond these courses I have also heard from pregnant women preparing for labour, yoga teachers wanting to offer pranayama in their classes, and, perhaps most surprisingly, deep-sea divers looking to use their breath more effectively.
What I want to show here is that by using the breath in various ways, we can make a significant difference to our health and well-being. By learning to control our breathing in a voluntary and conscious manner, we can draw on a personal set of tools to regulate our energy and state of mind. The exercises involved do not need to be especially yogic or spiritual: attending to the quality of the exhalation, or practising alternate nostril breathing to settle the nervous system, are both good examples.
It is worth remembering that our first contact with life, on leaving the womb, is a breath: reportedly an unpleasant first sensation as oxygen reaches the lungs for the first time, but the beginning of something we carry, mostly without thinking, for an entire lifetime.
Somehow, we have lost the ability to breathe well and take the breath for granted. We interfere with the natural and spontaneous functions of our lungs. Our modern habit of constant activity and hurried movement is restricting our ability to breathe correctly. The danger is that many of us have developed poor breathing patterns, become accustomed to them, and are therefore unconsciously resistant to change.
In order to learn to breathe correctly for good health and vitality, we need to start somewhere, and this is why my training is methodically and thoroughly designed to take students through the different stages of breathwork and pranayama.
My aim is to offer tools, techniques, and ideas to anyone wanting to develop their understanding and personal experience of the breath. This kind of work takes time. It can be slow, and it calls for patience, self-observation, and some self-kindness.
Since this training began, more than 200 graduates have completed the programme: yoga teachers, therapists, counsellors, nurses, physiotherapists, and many with no professional background at all, drawn simply by a genuine interest in the breath. Their varied experience and contexts have shaped how the training has developed over the years. It now runs as a 60-hour foundation programme or a 100-hour advanced course, both accredited by Yoga Alliance Professionals UK and delivered live online, making them accessible wherever you are based.
If you want to study breathwork and pranayama in depth, whether to teach others or to develop your own practice, full details of the programme are below. Explore the Breathwork and Pranayama Training →