Prana & Yoga: Reconnecting with your Life Force

Prana and yoga working in harmony may be the key to powering up your practice, whether you're looking to curb your anxiety, have more get up and go or improve your mind-body connection.

Energetic awareness in your yoga practice has very practical benefits

What is Prana?

In a yoga context, prana is the life force or vital energy which is distributed through our energy body (AKA Pranamayakosha, the second of the five koshas). It enters with your breath, which is why yoga breathwork is known as Pranayama- it's the primary way of influencing how we experience prana.

If you want to think of it in a more science based or modern way, you can think about prana as literal energy distribution through your body. Respiration, metabolism, energy production, the processes which animate you and happen at multiple levels of your being- from conscious breath to cellular energy production and the use of ATP molecules to power all action and movement.

How does Prana work in the body?

In the yoga tradition, prana is described as being contained in 72,000 Nadis or energy channels which are distributed throughout your energy body. Your energy body broadly correlates with your physical body, although it also extends outside of it into the aura which you may also think of as your electromagnetic field or 'personal space'.

The Nadis connect with the 'wheels' of the chakras to keep the life force energy flowing freely and properly. When we do a practice which focuses on a particular chakra or set of chakras, we are actually aiming to balance the flow of prana through the chakra, rather than just the chakra itself.

Fascinatingly, scientists are finding evidence which agrees with the concept of prana as the flow of vital energy in the body when studying mitochondria and energy production in the human body. Ancient yogis fine tuned their inner senses to understand our energy systems, and as we increasingly fine tune our external observations, they begin to agree.

In the yoga tradition prana is further divided into five vayus or distinct flows:

Prana vayu - inward, intake, associated with the breath and food (air element)

Apana vayu- downward, elimination, menstruation, detoxification (earth element)

Samana vayu- balancing, processing, associated with digestion (fire element)

Udana vayu- upward, growth, associated with expression (space element)

Vyana vayu- circulation, distribution (water element)

How do we work with Prana in our yoga practice?

When we move our bodies we work with prana, so technically all yoga asana practices already target prana. You may feel open and balanced when you come out of yoga class, as the movements and practices you just did helped to extend the flow of prana throughout your body.

Broadly speaking, the more prana you have to work with and the more freely it flows through your energy channels, cells and tissues, the better you will function on the levels of all koshas (body, energy, mind, intuition and emotion).

To bring more prana in, we work with the prana vayu via the breath. We have an incredible variety of breath practices at our fingertips as yoga practitioners, developed by yogis over thousands of years, which may not only energise us but also calm us, help us feel contented or even deal with physical and psychological stress.

You work with prana too when sensing into your body and feeling your heart beating, your blood flowing more or less freely as you come in or out of a pose, your tissues shifting or settling as you do so. You connect your mind with prana as you notice it, and consciously directing your breath to a particular area in a pose is a very powerful way of directing and opening up the flow of prana. If you've done this in a posture you may have found a physical or mental shift followed and enabled you to experience the posture in a new way.

Why does Prana matter for mental health and wellbeing?

Free flow of energy is important for physical health, as restrictions and blockages in energy can result in tightness, pain and knock on effects for other body systems and processes. It goes without saying that physical and mental health are deeply interconnected too.

From a yogic point of view, stress and anxiety are associated with agitated energy and depression or low mood with subdued and sluggish energy. You may have experienced this when stressed and feeling like sparks are flying off you, or when low and feeling like you just don't have what it takes to connect with the world. Getting prana flowing freely and at appropriate levels will always support better mental health and wellbeing from this perspective. An experienced yoga teacher will consider the pranic quality of yoga practices and how they work for students in a class, especially if stress relief, managing fatigue or mental health support are key goals.

How can Prana take yoga practice to the next level?

An awareness of prana and yoga can help you to consciously harness your prana or vital energy more during your yoga practice as well as during your daily life.

Develop more energy by focusing on yoga practices such as pranayama which get more prana into your body- particularly if you are prone to low mood or lacking motivation. Even when you're feeling great, pranayama keeps things topped up and supports you in regulating your nervous system.

In your yoga asana practice, awareness of energy flow and consciously directing it using your breath may lead to improvements in movement, flexibility, relief from habitual tension and just an overall feeling of a more open and steady practice.

Improving your awareness of prana gives you better information about your energy levels both on and off the yoga mat which you can use to decide your course of action- whether that's options to take in yoga practice or generally to improve your energy and avoid physical or mental burnout.

Want to develop your connection with your prana?

Check out the Pranayama guides on the blog here

Contact Emmalene for a no obligation chat about 1-1 work and building your custom yoga practice to build, balance and support your prana 🌟