Anyone who's been to a yoga class knows that working with your breath – how to become aware of it, shape it, and work with it – is often as important as the asana itself. With the breath being the vehicle for prana, the life force or vital energy, pranayama is a way of directing that energy through the body with specific breathing exercises.

In this episode, Stef Stanfield and Nicole Catenazzi discuss some of the ways to work with the breath to elicit different feelings and functions in the body, and they break down some of the barriers to pranayama practices. They also explore how getting familiar with your breath on the mat is a great stepping stone to let it live as a practice that you can draw from in your normal day-to-day.

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