The Breath-Mind Connection: An Introduction to Pranayama

Breathing and mind are closely connected. Ayurveda says that breathing is the physical part of thinking and thinking is the psychological part of breathing. Every thought changes the rhythm of breath, and every breath changes the rhythm of thinking. When one is happy, blissful, and silent, breathing is rhythmic.

If one is disturbed with anxiety, fear, or nervousness, the breathing is irregular and interrupted. Ancient Vedic seers (rishis) discovered this intimate relationship between breathing and mental activity and uncovered the art of pranayama. Pranayama equals prana plus ayam. Ayam means “to control,” prana is “breath.” By controlling the breath, we can control mental activity.

The Secret of Pranayama The rishis also found an intimate relationship between the right and the left breath cycle. You may have noticed that sometimes you breathe more easily through the left nostril, and sometimes your breathing shifts more to the right nostril. This shift happens about every 45 to 90 minutes. Just as the right side of our body is governed by the left side of the brain and vice versa, breathing better through the left nostril activates the right hemisphere of the brain, and breathing better through the right nostril activates the left brain.

The left brain is associated with male energy, the right with female energy. The left brain is for logical thinking, investigation, inquiry, aggressiveness, competition, and judgment. Whenever we are judging, investigating, and so on, our right breath cycle is dominant and our left brain hemisphere is operating. Exactly opposite, when the right hemisphere is acting and the left breath cycle is working, we have female energy, which is associated with love, compassion, intuition, art, poetry, and religion.

So when an artist is drawing a picture or a poet writing a poem, he or she is using some part of the right brain. And when the scientist is working in the lab, investigating and solving a problem, at that time he or she is using some part of the left brain. The secret of pranayama is the secret of handling the male and female energy operating in our nervous system. In Alternate Nostril pranayama, when we inhale through the left nostril, we charge the right brain.