Pranayama consists of two words from Sanskrit: prana and ayama. Prana is the vital force that we all have inside of us. It’s our life energy – without that we can’t live. According to medical science, we are inhaling oxygen as the necessary source for being and staying alive. Obviously, this is correct, but in a spiritual way we are believing, that oxygen is only the substrate that allows us to take prana inside of our body. Ayama means extension. So combined, Pranayama means the extension of prana, the extension of our vital force. When we are doing the breathing exercises, we are always focusing on 3 parts: the inhalation, the exhalation and the break in between. Our goal in Yoga is to expand all 3 parts. In a spiritual way, we’re working on Samadhi with this, but also physically the breathing exercises are very beneficial.

Join our classes to find out more about Pranayama and its benefits. Pranayama is part of our Yoga Teacher Training courses as well as in our Yoga Retreats, as it is an important part of true and traditional Yoga.