The Sanskrit word pranayama means to release life energy from its bounds. When practiced correctly, this powerful form of yogic breathwork has the ability to reveal the intricate web of your thoughts, physiology, and energetic patterns, to quiet your mind and heighten receptivity, and to open you to the intrinsic radiance of Being.
On Yoga Breathing, Richard Freeman, director of the Yoga Workshop in Boulder, Colorado, invites you to learn the essential principles and techniques of pranayama, including:
• How to identify and observe your internal breath Ujjayi breathing to free prana (your life energy)
• The tree of breath practice Specific guidance for lying and seated pranayama, and much more
Every breath you take, teaches Freeman, can serve as a guiding thread into the depths of yoga, a place of freedom and immediacy of awareness that begins on the practice mat and gradually extends into each moment of your life. Yoga Breathing distills the secrets of this essential inner work into two complete home practice sessions designed to guide you, breath by breath, to greater vitality and health.
Note: Excerpted from the full-length audio course Yoga Matrix.
Richard Freeman
Richard Freeman has studied and lived for nearly nine years in India and Asia, and is an avid student of both Western and Eastern philosophy, as well as Sanskrit. He incorporates various traditions into the Ashtanga Yoga practice taught by his principal teacher, K. Pattabhi Jois of Mysore, India. His background includes Bhakti and traditional Hatha Yoga in India, Sufism in Iran, Zen and Vipassana Buddhist practice, and an in-depth study of Iyengar Yoga. Richard Freeman lives with his family in Boulder, Colorado, where he is the director of the Yoga Workshop.
