Yogic breathing

Most of us breathe unconsciously; the body does it without us, which is, of course, its function. In prāṇāyāma, we bring the breath into conscious awareness in order to shift toward deeper, fuller breaths. Yogic breathing is always taken through the nose, slowly and with control. It is led by the diaphragm (the dome-shaped muscle beneath the lungs) drawing air deep into the abdomen, before expanding upward through the chest. This kind of breathing is fuller, slower, and has a measurably different effect on the nervous system than the shallow chest breathing most of us default to throughout the day.