On this eight weeks online course, you will be given one or two breath practices each week to experiment with.
We will meet every week as a group every Thursday to discuss these practices, as well as other aspect of pranayama practice that may be relevant. You will be able to ask questions directly and to receive individual guidance on your pranayama practice.
Attending the online class is highly recommended, however, if you miss a class, a recording of it will be available.
Although this may change depending on the needs and wishes of the course participants, the following is an outline of what will be covered in this course. (Click on the session title to access the online support material. This is not accessible ahead of time).
Session 1: Breathing with mindfulness: anapanasati
We will be starting by revisiting Anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing mediation), exploring how this practice can complement and enrich active breath practices such as pranayama.
Session 2: Practicing with the timing of the breath
We will explore both Sama vritti and Visama vritti rhythms and discuss the pro and cons of various approaches to different breathing rhythms.
Session 3 and 4: Practising with the movements of the breath
For the following two weeks, we will explore different ways of working with the movement of the breath.
This session will include Ujayi and Kapalabati practice, as well as an exploration of bandhas.
Session 5: Breathing for balance
On this session, we will explore the essential practice of Nadi Shodana and talks about swara yoga.
Session 6 and 7: Finding stillness in the breath
For the next two sessions, we will return to the rhythm of the breath and look at the benefits of kumbacha (retentions) and at various ways of introducing these into our practice
Session 8: Devising your own pranayama practice
We’ll look at how to put it all together to devise a breathwork practice that can help us to stay balanced in a world severely out of balance.