BKS Iyengar describes pranayama as “conscious breathing—not deep breathing. Prana means energy or life force and pranayama is the channelling of energy within the body.”

If you observe your normal breath – just watch it, without controlling it — you will notice that it’s irregular, shallow, and difficult to pay attention to. Just as we turn our attention in asana to how the big toe stretches, or how the shoulder blade moves, in yoga we turn our attention to the breath with intention. Then, we can tap into the energetic force that supplies the organs, muscles, skeleton, circulatory, digestive, and reproductive systems with live-giving constituents.

Pranayama has 3 movements: the inhalation, the exhalation; and the retention. Each aspect of the breath is a potential for inquiry and experience of the next step of the journey inward. II.52 Pranayama removes the veil covering the light of knowledge and heralds the dawn of wisdom.