Glossary
Pranayama
PrāṇāyāmaPronunciation: prah-nah-YAH-maปราณายามะ
Pranayama is the deliberate control of the breath — its length, its pace and its pauses — used as a practice in its own right rather than as an accompaniment to movement.
The word joins prana, the breath or vital energy, with a root that means both to extend and to restrain. Both meanings are accurate: pranayama practices lengthen the breath and they regulate it. In practice that means counted inhales and exhales, deliberately slow breathing, alternate nostril work, retentions after an inhale or an exhale, and faster techniques that are nothing like calm.
What it is for is direct access to the autonomic nervous system — one of the few levers you can pull consciously. A longer exhale than inhale reliably slows the heart and shifts you towards rest; fast, forceful breathing does the opposite. That is why pranayama is used before stillness, before sleep, and also before difficult physical work. The traditional texts treat it as more important than posture, and place it between the physical practice and meditation.
In a KEO session, the first eight to ten minutes are almost always breath: slow nose breathing, often with the exhale counted longer than the inhale, before any movement at all. Sound sessions use the same opening lying down. If you ever leave a session with one thing, Ben would rather it was this than a posture.