“Do I breathe through my nose or my mouth during yoga?”

I got asked this by a client recently. Wonderful question because knowing how to breathe is essential for optimising your yoga practice.

It is advisable to breathe in and out through the NOSE (as long as it’s comfortable and your nasal passages aren’t blocked!)

Why?

Western Scientific Perspective:
➡️ Nasal breathing allows you to center the mind and to take deeper, fuller breaths, because you have to engage your diaphragm more than in mouth breathing. This helps to control the heart rate and regulate the nervous system, thus helping to regulate the stress response.

Yogic perspective:
➡️ Prana (energy) cannot be absorbed from the air during mouth breathing. Prana is only absorbed via the sinuses during nasal breathing.

Both perspectives seem plausible to me 👍

What are YOUR thoughts?