Struggling with meditation? Try adding a Breathwork technique (Pranayama exercise)
If you’re struggling to get into meditation or with keeping thoughts at bay while sitting in meditation, rest assured: you’re not alone. Getting into the practice of meditation can be very frustrating and challenging, not only in the beginning, but at any stage. After all, even renowned Benedictine monk Pema Chödrön admitted in her books and teachings that after 30 years of meditation practice, she still struggled almost daily to let thoughts go and calm her mind.
The good news is that there are specific techniques that you can use that have a high chance of improving your meditation game. In particular, adding a breathwork exercise to your routine might be the ticket to making your meditation practice stick, or taking it to the next level. Breathwork is widely leveraged to help people to calm down, relieve stress, and concentrate their minds, and as such is an ideal companion to a meditation practice.
What we think of in modern day as “breathwork” is actually an ancient Hindu invention that is referred to as “Prāṇāyāma” in Sanskrit. Pranayama is a compound Sanskrit word that combines prana (life force) and yama (control) and is often translated as “extension of life force.”
When it comes to pranayama exercises, there are many different types, each with different purposes and benefits. Here are several that I personally have tried and can vouch for. I also continue to make use of every one of these in my own meditation routines.
Alternating Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhana)
Nadi Shodhana is the most gentle and easiest pranayama with which to begin. Unlike the others, alternating nostril breathing does not involve forcefully regulating your breathing patterns. Nadi Shodhana’s purpose is to help to cleanse your body and calm your mind.
The precise process is to use your right hand thumb and ring finger, and to alternately plug your right nostril with your thumb, and left nostril with your ring finger, breathing both in and out on each side.
Begin alternating nostril breathing by:
plugging the right nostril with your thumb and breathing into the left nostril
plugging the left nostril with your ring finger and breathing out through the right nostril
breathing in through the right nostril, with the left nostril still plugged with your ring finger
plugging the right nostril with your thumb and breathing out through the left nostril
Then, repeat the process and end by plugging the right nostril and breathing out through the left nostril.
There is no full standard for how many times to do each side, but I like to do 10 repetitions (a repetition involving breathing in and out of one side). My experience with Nadi Shodhana is that it brings a general sense of calm and openness, and is sometimes nice to do after a stronger pranayama, or when I don’t have much time, or too much mental distraction to sit and do another pranayama.
Breath of Fire (Kapalbhati) and Bellows (Bhastrika) Breathing
These two breathing techniques may sound intense, but are in actuality not so difficult for beginners to try out. They are practiced by short, intense in-or-out breaths, with the aim of raising your energy levels.
To practice Kapalbhati, or breath of fire, begin by slowly exhaling almost all of the air out of your lungs. When you reach about 10-20% air left, forcefully exhale this remainder. Your body will automatically refill some of your lungs with air, so there’s no need in breath of fire to focus on breathing air back in. As your body brings air back in at the bottom of your exhale, repeat the process and continue forcefully exhaling the air out of your lungs for another 10-20 times. Using force to breathe the air out is important to the practice, however it’s important not to use so much intensity that you feel overly strained or anxious about the level of force used. Just enough effort will do.
To practice Bhastrika, or bellows breathing, begin again by exhaling almost all of the air out of your lungs, and then proceed to forcefully inhale some air back in, and then forcefully exhale the air back out. There’s no need to try to completely fill your lungs up on the inhale - just breathe in as much as you naturally take in in a quick breath.
The traditional teaching starts by making loose fists of your hands, held at shoulder level, and simultaneously opening your hands and raising them above your head. As you raise your loose fists and open them, you breathe in. Then, you lower your hands and again make loose fists, and while doing so breathe out. As your hands come down, it’s important not to pull your hands down, but rather to let them fall by gravity and momentum.
I enjoy doing three rounds of breath of fire or bellows breathing, as well as adding a breath retention at the end of each round. I begin with a 30 second hold at the bottom (exhale) of my last breath of the round, followed by a 10 second inhale hold. Then I proceed to a 45 second exhale hold and a 15 second inhale hold, and finish with a 60 second exhale hold and a 20 second inhale hold.
After practicing breath of fire and bellows breathing and in conjunction with a subsequent breath retention, I do feel as though I have gained some energy; however for me this energy isn’t in the sense of an excited or motivated energy, but rather a calm, stoic, or “sturdy” energy. I feel as if I am ready to proceed with the day in an unhurried, but confident manner, rather than to leap headfirst into it and “get shit done.” This more calm, confident energy is like that from drinking green tea, versus drinking coffee or another higher caffeinated drink.
Additionally, during the 45 and 60 second holds, my lungs do begin to burn and I feel the need to swallow or fidget in some other way to distract myself from the feeling of my burning lungs. Sometimes I even feel a dose of anxiety well up; but when I surrender to the hold for the full period of time and ultimately breathe in, it dramatically increases the calmness that I feel afterwards. Also, during my inhale holds (those 10/15/20 second parts), an interesting and parabolic stress/relief sensation arises. I say parabolic in the sense that I experience a rapidly mounting feeling of anxiety in the first 5-7 seconds that feels as though it will only continue rising. Then, the anxiety suddenly dissipates, almost like the way the warmth from the sun coming out from behind the clouds feels. In place of anxiety, I feel a rapidly mounting feeling of relief and calm - or a rapidly declining feeling of anxiety. This happens just about every time I practice breath of fire or bellows breathing with a breath retention afterwards, and I’ve really come to enjoy it!
Box Breathing (Sama Vritti) and Uneven Box Breathing (Vishama Vritti)
These breathing techniques can be a little more challenging for beginners to explore, given that they require the practitioner to regulate their breathing patterns. By controlling the in-and-out breaths as well as introducing some breath holds, box breathing techniques bring benefits of mind concentration and also anxiety or stress relief.
Practice Sama Vritti, or box breathing breathing in four steps:
1) inhale for a specified amount of time, such as 5 seconds
2) hold your in-breath (i.e. with all of that air in your lungs) for that same amount of time: 5 seconds
3) exhale for 5 seconds
4) hold your out-breath (i.e. with little or no air in your lungs) for 5 seconds
Repeat the four steps for a duration of time, such as 5-10 minutes.
Vishama Vritti, or uneven box breathing simply involves changing the amount of time that you perform each of the four steps. A common approach is to use a ratio for each step in relation to the inhale. For instance, if you used a ratio of 1:4:2:1 seconds (inhale:inhale hold:exhale:exhale hold), you could do a 4 second inhale, 16 second inhale hold, 8 second exhale, and end with a 4 second exhale hold.
My experience with box breathing is that it gradually becomes more challenging the longer that I do it and also warms up my body temperature, particularly when the steps are 7 seconds long or more. As with the breath holds following a breath of fire or bellows breathing round, I also feel the need to fidget to distract myself from the breath holds by swallowing, scrunching my eyebrows, or shifting my seated position around. Yet, sticking with a good 10-20 minute practice of box breathing and uneven box breathing leaves me feeling very calm and grounded.
Tummo / Wim Hof - Breath Retention
This breathing technique focuses on long periods of holding your breath, and was actually traditionally done in order to raise the practitioner’s body temperature, and also to increase your overall stability or control. Tummo breathwork is an ancient practice, but in contemporary times was re-popularized and re-branded as the Wim Hof method, used by the Dutch “iceman” and journalist, who holds many records for cold weather immersion and survival.
Tummo pranayama involves a controlled and slow type of hyperventilation (breathing deeply in and out through your mouth), followed by a breath hold or retention.
The precise process is to breathe in and out through your mouth around 30 times. On your final out breath is when you begin your breath hold. It may seem counterintuitive to breathe out, rather than in before the breath hold; however, when you breathe in you put more pressure on your lungs than when you breathe out. The act of hyperventilation saturates your blood with oxygen, so you don’t need to worry about keeping oxygen in your lungs as you hold your breath. The act of hyperventilating will eventually make your whole body buzz and tingle intensely, which can be pretty alarming at first. Yet don’t worry if your chest, arms, or head begin to buzz - that’s part of the process. You may also feel lightheaded and your hearing may go slightly out and summon a ringing sensation during the breath retention, but that’s to be expected in this practice, too.
Typically in Tummo or wim hof, there are 3-5 rounds, each with an increasing duration of breath hold. I like to do three rounds of 60 seconds, 90 seconds, and then finally 120-150 seconds, depending on how I’m feeling.
From my experiences, Tummo breathwork is hands down the most powerful breathwork that you can do and leaves you feeling radiant and blissful, with hardly any thoughts in your mind; however Tummo sits on the more advanced side of pranayama and can also stir up some very powerful bodily sensations that may unnerve you if you’re new to breathwork. So, work up to this one after trying a couple other pranayamas, or start with a shorter total breath retention. If you’re new to Tummo, then try 20 seconds, 40 seconds, and 60 seconds.
The Ravi Shankar Pranayama Breathwork
Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar invented the method of pranayama breathwork in 1981, which makes use of several rounds of 3 stages of repeated breathing.
The precise process involves 3 rounds of breathe in and out
20 times at long intervals (about 2–4 seconds for a full in and out breath)
40 times at a medium interval (about 1 second for a full in and out breath)
40 times at a short interval (about 2 full in and out breaths in 1 second).
Like Tummo, the Ravi Shankar pranayama breathwork method saturates your body with oxygen and so you may feel a slight tingling in your chest, arms, or head, but nowhere near as strong as in Tummo.
From my experiences, the Ravi Shankar pranayama breathwork is the most enjoyable pranayama to do as it does not involve the stress of breath holding, while still providing the blissful feeling of Tummo. The Ravi Shankar pranayama breathwork leaves you in a very calm state where thoughts don’t often interrupt, and this state of relaxation and bliss you will likely find enables you to extend your meditation. Try adding a few minutes onto the end of this practice, or even doubling how long you stay after completing a Ravi Shankar pranayama breathwork exercise and see how it feels.
Sri Sri’s guidance in doing this pranayama encourages yogis to lay down after completing the exercise if they feel the desire, and after completing the full practice, to slowly and gradually move your attention to focus on each of the seven chakra regions in your body. “Bringing your attention” means different things for different people, but for me it means envisioning a point sitting at the physical location in my body of each chakra and imagine feeling full and not wanting for whatever each chakra represents.
At the base of your spine/tailbone is the root chakra, or Muladhara, which represents the center of your survival instincts.
Behind your genitals is the sacral chakra, or Swadhisthana, which represents the center of your sense of wellbeing.
Behind your navel is the solar plexus chakra, or Manipura, which represents the center of your doing energy.
Behind your heart is the heart chakra, or Anahata, which represents the center of your love.
In your throat is the throat chakra, or Vishudda, which represents the center of your communication
Between your eyebrows on your forehead is your third eye chakra, or Anja, which represents the center of your intuition.
Top of your head is the crown chakra or Sahasrara, which represents the center of your spiritual consciousness.
Stay tuned for more musings on meditation and how to live mindfully in modern society!