
Easing Into Pranayama
I’m grateful for this opportunity to ‘put down into words’, some long-standing thoughts & ideas on a nebulous (to me) topic, pranayama, and how to begin the study of this topic. What is ‘pranayama’? One definition is “Rhythmic control (ayama) of breath”.

Sri NandaKumar, with permission from BKS Iyengar Yogashala, in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. © Veun Chin.
My hope is that, by the end of reading this, you’ll be more interested in your own journey into pranayama; even looking forward the next ‘space’ in your life to start this practice.
My name is Gary Wong, and I’ve been studying Yoga for over two decades now. I also teach at the Iyengar Yoga Centre of Victoria and enjoy sharing my own learnings with my students.
My personal journey in the Iyengar Yoga tradition of pranayama began early on. In fact, I originally came to Iyengar Yoga looking for pranayama and meditation and philosophy.
I was eager for a pranayama class from day one, but in our tradition, beginners start with asana class. A more accurate statement would be ‘beginners start with the first stages of Astanga Yoga’, as defined by Patanjali in Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, yama, niyama, and asana.
In this treatise (II.46 – II.49), BKS Iyengar translates as follows:
“Asana is perfect firmness of body, steadiness of intelligence and benevolence of spirt. Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached. From then on, the sadhaka is undisturbed by dualities. Pranayama is the regulation of the incoming and outgoing flow of breath with retention. It is to be practiced only after perfection in asana is attained.”
One possible takeaway from this is that students of ashtanga yoga must MASTER asanas, such as the lotus pose in the picture below, before even attempting any pranayama.

BKS Iyengar, our Guruji, in padmasana
However, if we picture our Guruji, BKS Iyengar, as a master of asana, then we may be surprised to learn that even such a master struggled to begin his pranayama practice.
Guruji has written that “You can take comfort from the fact that however poor your own pranayama is, it can scarcely be worse than mine was for the first few years. I would wake up around four o’clock in the morning and have coffee with my wife. Often, I would go right back to sleep…. Fortunately, I had the assets of courage and determination in the face of repeated failure.” [Light on Life, page 69].
In my home practice, I added a separate pranayama practice. This would wax and wane over the months and years, with glimpses of understanding and then the inevitable backsliding. This continued even after I became certified and started teaching.
Although I had initially been confident that I was ready for, and even eager for, pranayama, in reality my regular pranayama practice was hit-and-miss. Missing a dedicated pranayama practice was much easier than missing an asana practice.
At the same time I was harshly judging myself for skipping pranayama practices, I began to notice that my teachers would often say things like “.. with an inhale, raise your arms”, or “on an exhale, extend to the left”. Without calling it pranayama, they were teaching basic breath awareness during the asanas. As practitioners it’s important that we learn not to hold the breath in asana. Instead of concentrating on the breath at the beginning, we focus on what’s happening in the asana. As we energize the body, the asana slowly improves and the breath finds its way. Seated twists are some of the first poses in which we learn to watch the breath and adjust the asana with the breath.
At the very start of the class, after sitting for the invocation, “with an exhale, lower your head” might be heard. At the very end of class, during savasana, there might be some quiet attention to breathing.

Johanna in supta virasana

Britta in utthita hasta padasana

Gary in adho mukha vrksasana
As asana practice improves, there are opportunities at every turn, to deepen our observation of, our connection to, and our integration with, the breath.
In my own journey, I find ways to practice rhythmic control of the breath in the classes I take, in the classes that I teach, in my home practices, and even in my day to day ‘off the yoga mat’ moments. This makes me less judgemental of myself when I invariably ‘fall off the wagon’ and must restart my independent pranayama practice.
If you are a yoga student unsure of how to start your pranayama practice, here’s a simple suggestion: Incorporate breath awareness in all aspects of your asana classes, whether or not the teacher explicitly calls it out. Start this at your very next yoga class, or at your very next home practice.
This is a simple way to ease into the practice of pranayama. Easing in involves being able to settle down and relax the senses and the nervous system; a challenge in our culture these days.
To ease in, you don’t need complete mastery of asana to start this. In fact, Patanjali’s “complete mastery” may simply mean that your mind is undisturbed in the asana.
It may be less about ‘touching your toes’ in the paschimottanasana, and more about sitting on height with straight legs apart and using a strap around the feet, all while accepting of yourself in this asana with your mind at peace.
Then with long uninterrupted practice, you will be ready for a regular and independent pranayama practice.

Marlene in seated pranayama
I believe that any student of yoga struggling with pranayama, can ease into a practice at any time. It doesn’t require physical mastery of the asana, simply a quiet undisturbed mind, and the recognition that it is important. In fact, the full definition of pranayama is actually “Rhythmic control (ayama) of breath. The fourth stage of Yoga. It is the hub around which the wheel of Yoga revolves”. [Light on Pranayama, page 277]
“Wherever space and stillness is created, prana flows” BKS Iyengar

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