Energy Breath Work

The science of Pranayama Yoga, which is the art of ‘deep breathing with focused intent’ is an ancient practice. It has been known for thousands of years, in many cultures that deep breathing, in its many different forms, is very beneficial to our health and wellbeing. Why is this? What is happening in terms of subtle energy as we breathe?

The energy body is a full-body subtle energy or bio-energy body framework which forms part of our biological energy anatomy. One of its many functions is to act as an energy-exchange system to supply our bodies with a fresh supply of subtle energy from the exterior. It is similar to our respiration system involving the lungs, diaphragm, trachea and mouth/nose. In fact, it is intricately linked to the respiration system as respiration is the process which creates energy in our material body (using oxygen and glucose) which powers our whole bodies. In the energy body, there is a special energy pump which is connected to the diaphragm and as we breathe in air with our lungs, we are at the same time, sucking in subtle energies from the outside. Once in the energy body, the energy is circulated around using the chakra pumps and the vessel-transport systems.

By performing deep-breathing exercises, we are giving our energy-circulation system a strong work out. It is important to keep our bodies functioning to a high level and can be likened to our blood vascular circulation system. By performing physical exercise such as running or cycling, we are stressing the vascular system and therefore it grows stronger. At the same time, we are increasing the flow of blood around our heart, veins and arteries, which blows out any blockages. Exactly the same is happening in our energy body as we perform breathing exercises. The main energy diaphragm pump, the chakra pumps and the transport vessels are being used vigorously which strengthens them and blows out any stuck energy blockages.

The stuck energy blockages are created by our past psychological traumas. When we feel an emotion, a corresponding emotional energy is created and is circulated around our bio-energy anatomy systems. When the emotion is negative, for example fear, anger or hatred, the vibrational frequency of the energy is very low. Low frequency subtle energies are very viscous and tend to get stuck in our chakras and energy vessels. This has the effect of clogging up our system and reducing the efficiency of our emotional cycle. If we get stuck in long term patterns of negative emotions, for example, the repression (holding in) of emotions due to childhood traumas, or long term feelings of resentment and anger towards a person or group of people, or living in constant anxiety (this is very common),  these blockages can get very large and almost permanent. It can be very difficult to get over these psychological issues when the energy blockage remains. This is the up-and-coming field of energy-psychology. It is possible to remove all of our blockages through using the science of Pranayama Yoga - Energy-Breath Work.

When learning the art of energy-breath work, we must always start with the basics and increase the level of complexity very slowly, to give ourselves time to adjust. This is similar to our physical fitness, we would not try and run a marathon without training for months beforehand to slowly increase our physical fitness.

We have given a progression of exercises (1-4) in the below list.