As a breath coach and yoga teacher, I am often asked what the difference is between Breathwork and Pranayama. For me, they are not one and the same. Let's take a quick look at how we define both terms. While Pranayama is described relatively clearly as a thousands of years old method, the term Breathwork can be interpreted more freely.
Pranayama
Most modern Breathwork techniques have their roots in Pranayama or other ancient traditions. From these traditions have emerged well-known breathing modalities such as Oxygen Advantage, Wim-Hof Breathing, Active Consciousness, Buteyko, Holotropic Breathing, Box Breathing, 4/7/8 Breathing, and many more.
Pranayama is the fourth of the eight limbs of Raja Yoga. The term pranayama comes from Sanskrit and means "control or expansion of the life-force (prana)" and aims to improve the body's ability to hold and increase prana in the body. You accomplish this by controlling your breath with certain breathing exercises. What is also special about the practice of pranayama is the importance of the spiritual and energetic level with the background of the thousands of years old philosophy of yoga.
Breathwork
Breathwork, for me, is an umbrella of all kinds of methods, techniques and philosophies that use the breath as a tool for change-work for body, mind and spirit.
Breathwork of any kind, that is, working with the breath as a tool and thus also pranayama, is in summary the conscious use of the breath to achieve an improvement in physical and mental health, energy levels, performance, relaxation and emotional well-being. All of this assuming the appropriate breathing techniques and methods.
Now the question of what are the differences and similarities between Breathwork and Pranayama is like asking how food and fruit differ. I say that all pranayama is breathwork, but not all breathwork is pranayama. In the same way, all fruit is food, but not all food is fruit.
If you want to delve deeper into the subject of breath, you can't avoid dealing holistically with various Breathwork modalities.
Skillfully combining and integrating them into your breath practice is the key to successful results.
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