Master Your Mood With Yogic Breathing

Yogic breathing techniques, or Pranayama, is addictive. It is easy to misjudge the power of your breath by dismissing this practice as sitting and doing nothing. It’s a deceptively simple-looking and subtle practice, from the outside. But within, you are working with a world of wonderful possibilities that can help you map and chart your mood.

Working The 4 Corners of Your Breath

It’s easy to take breathing for granted. Our yoga practice teaches us to watch and listen to our breath, to be awake to the flow of life force inside us. If you watched your breathing, very carefully, you might notice that the breath has 4 distinct parts. The inhale and its pause builds energy and heat, while the exhale and its transitional pause creates a soothing and cooling effect on the body and mind.