To study for eighty hours over five to six months is a commitment I wasn't expecting to love as much as I do.
I've been fascinated with breath since I read James Nestor's book, but I was hungry for more depth than the weekend breath courses I'd seen on offer. I wanted something that could overlay my yoga teaching and meditation with ease, a training I could live inside rather than visit.
What a pranayama teacher training actually involves
The teaching is predominantly your own practice. You have to live it and feel it before you can teach it, and that's true in a way I didn't fully understand until I was inside it. Each month, when we meet, we add something. Maybe a breath hold, a kumbhaka, or a change of ratio from 1:1:2 to 1:2:2. We've developed a dedicated daily practice and each time we meet, it gets refined and measured.
It's a small group, which has made sharing experiences easier. Among us there have been periods returning for the first time in years, digestive changes, clearer meditations, serious chest infections, which our teacher explained as the body purging old matter from the deeper parts of the lungs. Greater lung capacity. Stronger resilience in work-life pressure. It's been fascinating to watch each of us move through differently.
Why breath ratios and breath holds take months to learn properly
One of the big lessons is that you have to actually be in it when you practice. Sitting down and rushing through it like a box to tick is pointless. It requires presence and a willingness to adjust as needed. For some in the group, that meant acknowledging it was going to ask more than they could give it right now, and forcing it wasn't dedication, it was self-sabotage. Learning when to honour that was its own steep lesson.
In week one, I was a little disappointed. The breath practices covered were largely familiar, having been a student of this teacher for years. But by month two, I understood that knowing what something is called and actually doing it correctly are not the same thing. Another thing that social media has quietly distorted for us. I decided to be dedicated, to stay in tune with myself, to feel into each practice and let it develop over time. I'm so glad I did.
What changes physically after months of daily pranayama
The difference in my mood has been real. My ability to move through difficult moments has changed. My relationship with my breath, and through it with my own body, has shifted in ways I couldn't have imagined. On the days I don't practice, the difference is noticeable in every cell.
Over these last five months, I've practised almost every day. I now feel connected to myself in a way I couldn't have predicted. Each breath, each heartbeat, a small measure of how I'm doing. An invitation to slow things down when I need to, to energise when required, and best of all to soften when stillness is what's needed.
Why pranayama affected me more than asana
My meditation practice has deepened too. After pranayama, I don't just feel ready to meditate, I want to. My asana practice has taken a back seat, and I've made peace with that. The effects of pranayama are deeper, longer-lasting, and wider-reaching.
I'm grateful for this guided path into these practices. I only ever share once I've lived something myself, and after these months, I'm genuinely excited to start weaving breath into yoga classes, meditation sessions, and dedicated breathwork spaces.
How one practice can change everything.
