Breath Training and Pranayama

“Without the breath there is no yoga!” This saying emphasizes the importance of working with the breath in entering the deeper aspects of our being. Breath work has two stages—breath training and pranayama. Rolf describes the three steps within breath training that prepare us for pranayama: awareness of the breath, a relaxed sense of the mechanics of breathing, and the mind relaxing and becoming the observer of our own relaxed nervous system. He concludes by mentioning some of the types and benefits of pranayama.