Pranayama is a Sanskrit word that refers to the practice of controlled breathing techniques in yoga.
It regulates the flow of prana or life force energy in the body and is an additional step we can add on before meditating.
Why would we do this? Because it takes some of the stress-releasing responsibilities off the meditation itself, which means you go can deeper quicker.
So rather than spending half the meditation in shallow thoughts, it might only be a couple of minutes.
If you’ve come across the huge rise in breathwork practices over the last few years, this is a way to get some of the benefits of moving energy around the body via the breath, which will help the un-stressing process.
It’s best practised for for three minutes straight before meditation so would extend the 20 minutes by three minutes – not forgetting two minutes of sitting in silence at the end!
You could add it to every meditation if you wanted or only do it when you have more time and somewhere appropriate to do it. You might not feel comfortable doing it on the bus – although I know people who have!