Pranayama & Mindfulness

'Pranayama is the heart of Yoga. Yoga is lifeless without Pranayama’. (BKS Iyengar 2012)

Pranayama are yogic breathing practices and can be wonderful tools for managing mental health symptoms. These practices directly affect the Pranamaya Kosha or the energetic layer of your being. So if you are feeling mentally or emotionally unbalanced breathing practices can help so much to lift heavy emotions and thoughts.

Learning how to breath well, evenly and in a peaceful and balanced way can have incredible impact upon mental wellbeing symptoms. ‘Breathing deeply immediately relaxes the body because it stimulates the vagus nerve, which runs from the neck to the abdomen and is in charge of turning off the ‘flight or fight’ response. (Brindle 2019)

Yogic breathing practices tell the vagus nerve to become more regulated, and this effects the mind because, ‘The vagus nerve has been described as largely responsible for the mind-body connection.‘(Zimmerman 2019) The breath being intimately linked with the mind makes pranayama a wonderful way to bring balance to the mind without focussing on the mind itself but rather on the breath. This kind of focus is very helpful for people with mental health issues.

‘Stimulating the Vagus nerve activates your ‘relaxation response’, reducing heart rate and blood pressure.’ (Harvard Health 2019) And these benefits are exactly why practicing pranayama and including pranayama in our yoga posture practices can increase all of the positive effects we are looking for. Traditionally yogis who have been able to control the breath to such an extent so as to elongate life, and pranayama is considered to be a longevity practice, and essential for a long and healthy life.

Mindfulness for Mental Wellbeing
Mindfulness can be understood as a state of simple, deep awareness of the present moment. One of the many benefits of Yoga is ‘Mindfulness’, a kind of ‘knowing yourself’ which can lead to better management of mental health triggers and symptoms.

Mindfulness-Based therapies are very popular in mental health treatment, and have their roots directly in Buddhist Psychology, which has some of the most detailed descriptions of mind that we have today. ‘…research suggests that mindfulness-based approaches can be helpful to patients with problems as diverse as chronic pain, psoriasis, cancer, health anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, stress, generalised anxiety disorder, psychosis and bipolar disorder…’ (University of Oxford 2018)

The quality of attention that we use while being mindful is a non-judgemental, compassionate and gentle awareness, in the present moment. This quality of this attention is called Maitri as described by Pema Chodron (2016);
This gentle approach to yourself in meditation is called Maitri. This is translated as “lovingkindness,” or just “love.” In terms of meditation, we learn to be kind, loving, and compassionate toward ourselves.

Developing loving-kindness and self-compassion has incredible benefits for mental health resilience and recovery. From Scientific American Mind (2012);

Research is showing that this gentle, nonjudgmental approach helps individuals bounce back even after major crises. For example, in a study in press at Psychological Science ( ), ‘scientists found that newly divorced people who spoke compassionately toward themselves adjusted significantly better in the following 10 months than those who spoke more harshly, with self-compassion outperforming self-esteem and even optimism as a predictor of good coping.’

Using mindfulness is an incredible relief to those who live with mental health issues. To be compassionate with ourselves even when we are feeling confused, overwhelmed, or vulnerable and in pain, is a difficult and incredible life-time practice. Done over time this mindful, loving-kindness strengthens the state of peace within us, even if we have a mental illness.