The Thing You’re Already Doing (But Not Paying Attention To)
Right now, you’re breathing. You’ve been breathing since the moment you were born, and you’ll keep breathing until the moment you die. It happens whether you think about it or not, whether you want it to or not.
But here’s what Yogananda understood, and what yogis have known for thousands of years, there’s a massive difference between breathing that just happens and breathing you consciously direct. The first keeps you alive. The second can change the entire state of your mind.
“Breath is the cord that ties the soul to the body. When that cord is loosened by the practice of pranayama, one begins to experience a freedom that cannot be known in any other way.”
– Paramahansa Yogananda
The Sanskrit word “pranayama” breaks into two parts: prana (life force or vital energy) and yama (control or regulation). So pranayama literally means “control of the life force.” And the primary vehicle for that control is the breath.
Not because the breath is magical in itself. But because breath and mind are so deeply linked that controlling one automatically controls the other. This isn’t metaphysics, you can test it in the next sixty seconds.
Breath and Mind: The Connection You Can Feel Right Now
Think about what happens to your breathing when you’re anxious. It gets shallow, rapid, concentrated in the upper chest. Your body is preparing for danger, and the breath reflects that.
Now think about what happens when you’re deeply relaxed, that state just before sleep, or the feeling after a long warm bath. The breath is slow, deep, originating from the belly. The exhale is longer than the inhale.
Here’s the insight most people miss: this relationship works both ways. Your emotional state affects your breath, but your breath can also affect your emotional state. If you deliberately breathe the way a calm person breathes, your nervous system responds as if you are calm. The body doesn’t know the difference between genuine relaxation and the breathing pattern of genuine relaxation. It responds to the pattern.
Yogananda taught this principle repeatedly:
“The restless mind can be stilled by the practice of pranayama. When the breath is calm, the mind is calm. When the breath is restless, the mind is restless. Therefore, the yogi should first learn to control the breath.”
– Paramahansa Yogananda
This is why pranayama isn’t just a breathing exercise. It’s a mind exercise conducted through the body. And it’s an ideal entry point for anyone who finds sitting meditation too difficult, because it gives the mind something concrete and physical to do.
Why This Matters Right Now
I started practicing pranayama during a period when my mind was particularly unruly. Sitting meditation felt like wrestling an octopus, the harder I tried to concentrate, the more agitated everything became. A friend suggested I try breathwork before meditation, and the difference was immediate. Not dramatic, I wasn’t levitating or seeing visions. But the volume of mental chatter dropped noticeably. Like going from a crowded restaurant to a quiet library. Same mind, different atmosphere.
That’s what pranayama does. It changes the atmospheric conditions inside you. And in calmer atmospheric conditions, everything else, meditation, concentration (even just being present in your daily life) becomes easier.
Practice One: Diaphragmatic Breathing
Before anything else, you need to learn where your breath should originate. Most people breathe into their chest, using only the top third of their lung capacity. Diaphragmatic breathing, belly breathing, uses the full lung and activates the parasympathetic nervous system (the “rest and digest” branch) rather than the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) branch.
How to do it:
Sit comfortably in a chair or on the floor. Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly, just below the navel.
Breathe in slowly through your nose. Direct the breath downward, you should feel the hand on your belly rise while the hand on your chest stays relatively still. Imagine filling a balloon in your lower abdomen.
Breathe out slowly through your nose. Feel the belly fall. Don’t force the exhale, just let the air release naturally, like a balloon slowly deflating.
Continue for two minutes. Inhale for a count of four. Exhale for a count of six. The longer exhale is important, it’s what signals your nervous system to shift out of stress mode.
That’s it. If this is the only technique you ever learn, it will serve you well. Two minutes of diaphragmatic breathing before a stressful meeting, before bed, or before meditation can shift your state measurably.
Practice Two: Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhana)
This is one of the most widely practiced pranayama techniques across virtually every yoga tradition. It balances the flow of energy through the two main energy channels (nadis) that run along either side of the spine. Yogananda’s tradition refers to these as the ida (left, cooling, calming) and pingala (right, warming, activating) currents.
When these two currents are balanced, the mind becomes naturally still. You don’t have to force concentration, it arises on its own.
How to do it:
Sit with your spine straight. Use your right hand, place your thumb on your right nostril and your ring finger on your left nostril. Your index and middle fingers can rest lightly on your forehead between the eyebrows, or you can fold them toward your palm, whatever feels comfortable.
Step 1: Close your right nostril with your thumb. Inhale slowly through the left nostril for a count of four.
Step 2: Close both nostrils (thumb on right, ring finger on left). Hold the breath gently for a count of four. Don’t strain, if holding feels uncomfortable, skip it.
Step 3: Release your thumb, keeping the left nostril closed. Exhale slowly through the right nostril for a count of six.
Step 4: Keep the left nostril closed. Inhale through the right nostril for a count of four.
Step 5: Close both nostrils. Hold for a count of four.
Step 6: Release the ring finger, keeping the right nostril closed. Exhale through the left nostril for a count of six.
That’s one complete round. Start with five rounds, which takes about three to four minutes. Work up to ten rounds as it becomes comfortable.
What to Expect
The first time I tried alternate nostril breathing, I felt slightly ridiculous. Sitting on my floor with my finger on my nose, counting to four, feeling like I was playing some kind of nasal instrument. But about two minutes in, something shifted. The mental noise quieted. Not completely, but like someone had turned it down a few notches. By the end of five rounds, I felt genuinely different. Settled. Present. As though I’d been looking at the world through smudged glasses and someone had cleaned them.
Don’t be discouraged if one nostril feels more blocked than the other. That’s completely normal, the body naturally alternates which nostril is more open throughout the day. The practice works regardless. And over time, you’ll notice the flow through both nostrils becomes more balanced.
Putting It Together: A Ten-Minute Sequence
Here’s a simple daily practice that combines both techniques. Ten minutes total. Do it before meditation if you meditate, or on its own if you don’t.
Minutes 1-3: Diaphragmatic breathing. Sit, place your hands on chest and belly, and breathe deeply from the diaphragm. Four counts in, six counts out. Just settle into the rhythm.
Minutes 4-8: Alternate nostril breathing. Remove the hand from your belly, bring the right hand to your nose, and do seven to ten rounds. Keep the breathing smooth and unhurried.
Minutes 9-10: Sit with your hands in your lap, eyes closed, breathing naturally. Don’t control the breath anymore, just observe it. Notice how different the natural breath feels now compared to when you started. Notice the quality of your mind.
That’s the practice. Simple, portable, requires no equipment, and produces a noticeable shift in mental state almost immediately.
The Deeper Purpose
Pranayama in Yogananda’s system isn’t an end in itself. It’s preparation. The calm mind produced by breath control becomes the foundation for deeper meditation, just as a still lake reflects the sky more clearly than a choppy one.
But even if you never go further, even if pranayama is the only practice you ever adopt, you’ll have gained something profound. The direct, embodied knowledge that you are not at the mercy of your mental state. That you have a tool, as close as your own breath, that can shift anxiety into calm, agitation into stillness, chaos into clarity.
You’ve been breathing your whole life without thinking about it. Try thinking about it, deliberately, patiently, ten minutes a day, and notice what changes. The yogis have been saying it for millennia: master the breath, and the mind follows.
Your next breath is already on its way. The only question is whether you’ll let it happen to you, or whether you’ll meet it with awareness.
