How and how much we breathe affects our physiological and mental state. In this series we will investigate the quality of your breath and how it feels in your body. We will attempt to find out whether or not you have any particular breathing patterns that are not useful for your body, like tightening your neck, forgetting to exhale or restricting your inhalation, and then work on changing those patterns.

In yoga we consciously choose to enhance the natural process of inhalation and exhalation by “riding the wave of the breath”, so to speak, as we move in and out of the yoga poses and as we hold poses. This makes the practice more safe, organic and fluid. It allows us to connect to our subtle energy and link the physical and physiological dimensions. We will work on using breath to guide our movement in every practice.

Every aspect of our breathing has a certain impact on our physiology. It matters if we breathe through the nose or the mouth, one nostril or another, using accessory respiratory muscles or not, whether or not we hum, how long our inhalation is relative to exhalation, which part of the body moves when we breathe, and so on. Once we understand the impact that each of those aspects has on our systems, we can learn to regulate them and, as a result, affect our energy and physiology.

Your whole worldview is based on how you feel inside, which is mostly based on how your mind had interpreted your physiological state. The key to living a happier, more balanced life is to keep your physiology in balance and to become better at interpreting the cues from your body. Becoming more attuned to your breath and learning to regulate it helps us get better understanding of our physiological processes and, eventually, regulate them.

This series consists of 14 chapters. Each chapter introduces a specific topic that describes the way our respiratory system works, what kind of breathing patterns are optimal and how they affect our physiology. Each chapter includes an introductory video and one or several yoga practices that illustrate the points that we’ve discussed. Each chapter also features an in-depth article (or several) on the topic. We put all those articles together into a handy 99-page pdf file to give you a fuller picture of how your body works, and how you can take care of it with your yoga practice.

You can do the practices included in this series in order, or pick and choose the ones you need most. In each yoga practice we will use movement, breath and awareness to help you feel vital, resilient and strong. Each short breathing practice is meant as a quick “snack” that you can reach for at any point during your day to reconnect to your breath and become more centered.

When you follow the videos, please be sure to pay attention to small details and specific instructions—in yoga how you do movements is just as important as what you do. You will also need to move with your breath and pay attention to how your breathing feels throughout your practice. Try to stay present with your experience and never force your breath beyond your capacity. And if you experience discomfort while attempting any movement—stop, evaluate, skip it for the time being, and rest in a comfortable position for few breaths before you continue. You can try it again next time and see if your sensations change.

Hi there! My name is Olga Kabel. I’ve been practicing and teaching yoga for almost two decades. Over this period of time, as yoga had carried me over life’s peaks and valleys, I came to realize that yoga to me is not about achieving a particular physique, but more about how I handle life’s challenges, big and small, that get thrown my way. It is also about finding joy and contentment in everyday moments. To me, yoga is not just a thing to do, but a place to be—it’s a state of feeling more centered, more awake, and more aware of my experiences. This is why I practice yoga, and this is how I teach it. This is why I’ve made yoga both my profession and a way of life.

I don’t want you to miss out on the full potential of what yoga has to offer. Regular yoga practice has the power to transform any area of your life for the better. One thing that’s always fascinated me about yoga is its ability to affect change. We all know change is inevitable—our bodies and our lives go through it every single day. We cannot stop change (no matter how hard we try), but through our yoga practice, we can affect the direction of change. This redirection doesn’t need to be dramatic—even the slightest one will set you on an entirely new course. And this can show up in any area of your life, whether it’s your health, your work, your relationships, or your experiences of joy and contentment.