Mas­ter class at Thrive Yoga

In addi­tion to the mate­r­ial that I have accu­mu­lated on Art of Living’s breath­ing prac­tice, there are other sources for this method of practice.

• Cul­ti­vat­ing Prana by Robert E. Svo­boda. A elo­quent essay about the inter­re­la­tion of prana with body and mind. “Prana is the energy that dri­ves life, the power that ani­mates the body, enlivens the mind, spurs the soul. Prana is life’s inspi­ra­tion, its foun­da­tion, its tenac­ity; it is the sure hand on the tiller, the wise voice of good coun­sel, the urge to health and har­mony that craves to turn our bod­ies into havens where we can take shel­ter from the storms of the hec­tic mod­ern world. Prana is at work at every instant in every cell of every liv­ing organ­ism, seek­ing ever to deliver us from dis­ease and con­firm us in health, but only in those few peo­ple who are genet­i­cally fated to be healthy does prana auto­mat­i­cally reg­u­late its momentum. “
• BrainEnergy’s advice on breathing.
• Amy Weintraub’s excel­lent site on yoga ther­apy for well­be­ing. Her work starts from the foun­da­tion of breath­work, includ­ing Art of Liv­ing. Her audio CD, Breathe to Beat the Blues is a great intro­duc­tion to pranayama prac­tice. Her book, Yoga for Depres­sion, is really a gate­way in to the heal­ing power of bodywork.
• Breath of God: the breath­ing prac­tices of pranayama by Judith H. Lasater
• Den­nis Lewis is the author of sev­eral books and a CD set on breath­ing. Authen­tic Breath­ing is not yoga but part of the stress reduc­tion approach through breath­ing. Other links on breath­work. Please note that the site seems to have a real slow response time.
• Yoga breath­ing exer­cises from Amnol Mehta, with videos.
• Yoga Journal’s Pranayama section
• Yoga + Joy­ful Liv­ing Pranayama section