Pranayama, one of the core practices of yoga, is often translated as “control of life force” or “breath control”. This is so because ‘prana’ means life force or breath, and ‘yama’ means control or restriction. (See the footnote below for a detailed grammatical explanation of the meaning of pranayama). While this is probably the original historical meaning, it is worth noting that the original practice of pranayama was simply breath retention. In that context, the phrase “breath control” was simply descriptive.

However, over the centuries the number of pranayama techniques has expanded greatly. A worthwhile question to ask is whether thinking of all pranayama techniques as breath CONTROL aids us in deriving more benefits from the practices, or whether it actually may limit their benefits.

One can actually interpret pranayama just as accurately as the contraction of ‘prana’ and ‘ayama’.  Ayama is the opposite of control, namely extension, though this is probably not the original meaning. This possible alternative interpretation has prompted yoga anatomy educator Leslie Kaminoff to call pranayama the ‘unobstruction of the breath’.

If this distinction seems like intellectual wordplay to you, it is not. If you think of pranayama as “breath control”, you are likely to approach its practice in a controlling, forceful manner that may actually be detrimental to fostering the effects that pranayama techniques are designed to create. What are those effects? Glad you asked.

Pranayama is most beneficial when it stimulates and calms simultaneously

All the pranayama techniques I have looked at in terms of their physiological effects have simultaneous stimulating and calming effects. I am convinced that this balanced quality is essential to the practices’ beneficial effects. If you practice pranayama with a strong emphasis on control, you are likely to shortchange the calming effects of the practice. Practicing with an emphasis on control can actually create detrimental effects, including anxiety, mood swings, nervous ticks, and aggressiveness.

(Both Pattabhi Jois and BKS Iyengar thought pranayama instruction incredibly important. However, both stopped teaching pranayama to groups later in their careers. They chose to do this probably because they saw detrimental effects in some of their students, and wanted to be able to monitor them more closely than they could in a large group setting. Both Jois and Iyengar also tended to use rather aggressive words in their instructions, which may have encouraged their students to practice pranayama with too much emphasis on control and force).

How can performing pranayama with an emphasis on control contribute to such mental conditions as anxiety? The explanation is that the breath lies at the intersection of body, conscious mind, and unconscious mind, and thus has a direct effect on all three.

The connection between conscious mind, the subconscious, and the breath

To understand this connection a bit better, it helps to know some anatomy and physiology. Breathing is a physical act created by the contraction of skeletal muscles (primarily the diaphragm). In general, skeletal muscles are under conscious control. The body has two other types of muscle, smooth muscle (in the walls of internal organs), and cardiac muscle (in the heart). These latter two types are under subconscious control. What makes the breath special is that when you don’t think about breathing, your breath—and the contractions of the muscles that create the breath—are under subconscious control, despite the fact that they are skeletal muscles.

The part of your nervous system that regulates your breath as well as the other body maintenance functions is called the autonomic nervous system (ANS), because it functions autonomously from the conscious mind. What is interesting about the breath is that you ARE able to influence your breathing consciously without much effort when you do remember your breath. (In contrast, influencing, for example, your heart rate consciously is quite challenging.) The ability to consciously influence the breath turns out to be the key to the power of the breath over the mind, because it allows us to use the breath to affect the subconscious mind.

How can we take advantage of this fact? Bear with me a bit longer. As part of its function of maintaining the body’s equilibrium (or homeostasis), the ANS is responsible for deciding when to up-regulate your nervous system (making you more alert, and in the extreme case triggering the stress response), and when to down-regulate (calming you, and in the extreme, triggering lethargy and depression).

How we can use the breath to influence the subconscious

What does this have to do with the breath? The connection between the breath and the autonomic nervous system is a two-way connection: Not only does the ANS regulate the breath, but the way in which you breathe directs the ANS, either up-regulating or down-regulating your ANS. Let that sink in for a minute. What this means is that through breath awareness and the conscious modification of the breath, you can use your body’s skeletal muscles to manipulate your autonomic nervous system, either increasing your alertness, or increasing relaxation, depending on your current needs.

How does that work in actuality? On the most basic level, a slower breath, lower in the torso (i.e. a belly breath) has a down-regulating effect. A faster breath, higher in the torso, has an up-regulating effect. We call a breath high up in the upper chest a paradoxical breath, because this way of breathing makes no use of the diaphragm, the primary and most efficient muscle of the breath. More to the point, breathing that way strongly and continuously triggers the stress response and thus chronically floods your system with stress hormones. (In case it isn’t obvious, breathing this way habitually is very bad for your health and lifespan.)

There are a large number of specific breath exercises in yoga that either down- or up-regulate the nervous system. At the same time, some intentionally create a sense of equilibrium between the two extremes (like Nadi Shodhana). But even the pranayama techniques that are specifically designed to up- or down-regulate do it in a moderated way. I assume this is a design feature to avoid the negative side-effects of going too far in either direction. Thus these moderated pranayama techniques avoid the depressive side-effects of too much down-regulation, and the chronic stress symptoms of too much up-regulation (at least when done correctly). :)

Up- and down-regulation are misleading terms

How does that work? The terms up- and down-regulation are convenient descriptive terms that are easy to understand and remember. However, using these two terms gives the impression that we can only do one of these things at a time. The impression is that if we up-regulate, we can’t down-regulate, and vice versa. Western medicine textbooks still claim that this is accurate. But the ANS actually has two separate branches. One is in charge of up-regulation (the sympathetic NS), while the other is responsible for down-regulation (the parasympathetic NS).

Both branches do inhibit the other branch when they activate. Typically up-regulation means a decrease in down-regulation, and vice versa. But if you look at the physiology of pranayama techniques you notice that they have the interesting effect of always balancing one with a bit of the other. Put another way, all pranayama techniques appear to stimulate the sympathetic AND the parasympathetic NS at the same time (again, when done correctly). 

You can up- and down-regulate at the same time

As I said, Western medicine does not generally acknowledge that this is possible. However, when you describe your state after a yoga class as an “energized calm”, you are describing this dual effect. We also now have peer-reviewed studies that show that stimulating both branches of the ANS simultaneously is actually possible, and that pranayama techniques do exactly that. (See for example N.K. Subbalakshmi, et al. “Immediate effect of ‘nadi-shodhana pranayama’ on some selected parameters of cardiovascular, pulmonary, and higher functions of brain.” Thai J of Physiol Sciences. 2005 Aug;18(2):10-16.)

What’s truly remarkable is that the yogis that created these pranayama techniques centuries ago were able to fine-tune them without an understanding of the underlying physiology. They did this simply by experimenting and carefully observing the effects of their experiments. They retained the techniques that were beneficial, and presumably discarded others that were harmful.

Pranayama doesn’t have to be complicated

We will focus this week on specific and sometimes intricate pranayama techniques. However, it is valuable to remember that at its most basic, the practice of pranayama is simply becoming aware of your breath and making it more delicious. If it feels agitated, slow it down and move it into the belly; if you feel lethargic, move the breath higher in the torso through a gentle toning of your abs. In addition, coordinating your breath with your movement is a simple breath technique that deepens body-mind integration. It also increases serenity and wellbeing. This is true in your asana practice, but also while you go about the other activities of your life.

Footnote: Sanskrit word contraction rules

A long ‘a’ and a short ‘a’ in Devanagari, the writing system used for Sanskrit, are two different characters. I will write a long ‘a’ as ‘aa’, and a short ‘a’ as ‘a’ in the following explanation. Pranayama has 3 long and one short ‘a’, and I will thus write it here as praanaayaama.

If you understand Sanskrit word contraction rules you know that ‘praanaayaama’ cannot be a contraction of ‘praana’ and ‘yaama’. That is because the second ‘a’ in ‘praana’ is short, while the second ‘a’ in ‘praanaayaama’ is long. The second ‘a’ in praanaayaama can only be a long ‘aa’ if the second word that makes up ‘praanaayaama’ starts with ‘a’ or ‘aa’. This is because to make a long ‘aa’ out of a final short ‘a’ when you contract two words you need to add either another short ‘a’ or a long ‘aa’ to create the long second ‘aa’ in praanaayaama).

So the second word in praanaayaama must either be “ayama’ or ‘aayama’, and cannot be ‘yama’, which means control. ‘Ayama’ is actually the opposite of ‘yama’ and means expansion or extension. ‘Aayama’ on the other hand means strong control (the prefix ‘aa’ emphasizes the word that follows). While praanaayaama is probably the contraction of ‘praana’ (breath) and ‘aayama’ (strong control), I suggest that it might be more useful to think of it as the contraction of ‘praana’ (breath) and ‘ayama’ (extension). When I think of praanaayaama as “extension of breath”, rather than “breath control”, I find that I get more out of the practice. I invite you explore this week whether that might be true for you as well.