• An immersive guide to the ancient Indian tradition of pranayama that traces its evolution from shamanic and Vedic roots to modern yoga practices
• Integrates classical teachings with modern science, including anatomy and neurology, to explain the holistic benefits of pranayama
• Offers detailed physical and energetic preparation, including asanas, bandhas, and cleansing methods, plus instruction in over 25 pranayama techniques
Pranayama, the ancient yogic art of conscious breathing, holds profound potential to transform your physical health, mental clarity, and spiritual awareness. Current research into the respiratory and nervous systems helps illuminate the holistic benefits of this tradition.
In this book Mark Stephens presents an accessible and comprehensive study of pranayama. He details its roots in the pan-Eurasian shamanic tradition, the Vedas, Upanishads, early Buddhism and Jainism, and its fullest development through tantra, hatha yoga, and contemporary breathwork. Stephens offers systematic instruction for foundational practices, such as posture refinement, nasal cleansing, and pelvic floor activation. He also teaches advanced techniques for cultivating presence, interoception, and spiritual insight.
Stephens shows how pranayama can benefit you across your lifespan, and he highlights its applicability to a range of health conditions, including pregnancy, ADHD, PTSD, long COVID, asthma, and other respiratory ailments. He shows how breathwork can deepen meditation, enhance intimacy, and restore our innate breathing rhythms that are often lost due to stress and social conditioning.
Uniting ancient wisdom and contemporary science, Breathing offers an immersive and empowering path to transform your body and consciousness. Mark Stephens is the author of five bestselling yoga books, including Teaching Yoga and Yoga Therapy. Practicing since 1991 and teaching worldwide since 1996, he has studied and practiced in the ashtanga, Iyengar, and tantra traditions and has engaged deeply with yoga histories and philosophies, somatic psychology, and evidence-based sources. He has trained yoga teachers and therapists for three decades and served as the "For Teachers" columnist for Yoga Journal for two years. He lives on California's central coast. 1
The Roots of Pranayama
The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE, GITANJALI
It is easy to imagine how in our earliest existence as humans the breath must have seemed profoundly mysterious. We surely observed the first breath of a newborn infant and associated it with life and just as surely observed a person's last breath and associated it with death. This would have made us deeply curious about the breath and breathing, just as we were curious about the daily appearance of the sun, seasonal changes in light and weather, and the growth and withering of plants and people across the span of their lives. Without fully understanding the nature of things, including the nature of the breath and breathing, we no less tried to explain them, often mythologizing and ritualizing them, even as we came to understand them fairly well.
Breathing is one of the few things in our autonomic being that we can directly affect and immediately feel with great or subtle effect. Even when mysterious, we discover that we can control it, albeit with definite limitations. Without assistance, we cannot consciously hold the breath in or out for hours or days, which some ancient to modern yogis have claimed to do.* Yet, in the realm of what we can control, the effects can be profound. This is the connection of prana, pranayama, and life.
BREATH AND BREATHING ACROSS CULTURES AND TIMES
The idea that breath matters in every aspect of life has deep roots in human experience and cultures. Across diverse places and times, breath has been intimately connected with life, spirit, and well-
