Yoga and Breathwork to Improve Your Breathing

Breathing is the most natural act in the world, and yet it's often the one we forget the most.
Caught up in the pace of daily life, we breathe too fast, too shallowly, never truly filling our lungs. The result: stress builds up, energy drops, and the mind becomes agitated.

Yoga and freediving are two disciplines that, each in their own way, teach us to breathe again. One comes from the body and mind, the other from the sea. Together, they offer a complete and profound approach to the breath, a true art of living.

The breath, a bridge between body and mind

In yoga philosophy, breathing isn't just a physiological act: it's a vital energy, called prana.
Breath control, or pranayama, is an integral part of the eight limbs of yoga according to Patanjali. Through it, we learn to calm the mind, balance our emotions, and channel our inner energy.

In freediving, breath is also at the heart of the practice. Holding your breath means learning to know your limits, gently pushing them, and managing your body's signals. Freedivers don't fight the lack of air: they adapt to it, listen to it, transform it.

These two disciplines therefore converge on the same quest: a more conscious, slower, more controlled breath.

Yoga: learning to breathe in motion

Yoga offers a multitude of breathing techniques, known as pranayama, that act on both body and mind.
Here are three pranayama exercises to practice at home:

1. Complete breath (or yogic breathing)

This exercise teaches you to use your full lung capacity.
Lie down or sit comfortably. Inhale slowly through the nose, filling first the belly, then the rib cage, then the collarbones. Exhale in the same order: collarbones, rib cage, belly.
Do this for 5 to 10 cycles.
Benefit: soothes the nervous system, improves oxygenation of the body, and produces deep relaxation.

2. Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing)

Close the right nostril with your thumb, inhale through the left nostril. Close the left nostril with your ring finger, exhale through the right.
Then inhale through the right, close, and exhale through the left.
Continue for several minutes, calmly.
Benefit: balances the two hemispheres of the brain, improves concentration, and prepares you for meditation — also great before a freediving session.

3. Ujjayi (the ocean breath)

Inhale and exhale through the nose, mouth closed, gently constricting the throat (as if you wanted to fog up a window, but with your mouth closed).
You'll hear a soft, soothing, rasping sound, similar to the sound of waves.
Benefit: builds lung capacity, regulates body temperature, and creates a feeling of groundedness.

Freediving: listening to the inner silence

Contrary to what one might imagine, freediving isn't a fight against air, but a meditation suspended in stillness. The work of the breath focuses on managing the lack of air and relaxation. The goal isn't to force it, but to listen. Freedivers learn to relax before they even dive, to conserve oxygen and slow their heart rate.

Here are two exercises inspired by this discipline, accessible to everyone (even without diving):

1. The 4-8 breath

Sit comfortably. Inhale through the nose for 4 seconds, then exhale slowly for 8 seconds.
Try to make the exhale twice as long as the inhale.
Benefit: lowers heart rate, promotes heart rate coherence, and instantly calms the mind.

2. Gentle static apnea

Lie down, relax your whole body. Inhale deeply, then exhale completely. Inhale slowly again, filling your lungs fully, then hold your breath for as long as it's comfortable.
When the urge to breathe returns, release without forcing it, then take two deep breaths.
Repeat this three times.
Benefit: increases CO₂ tolerance, improves breath control, and teaches you to stay calm in the face of sensation.

⚠️ Always do this in a quiet place, lying down or seated, never in water without supervision.

Two complementary practices for retraining your breathing

One thing yoga and freediving have in common is breath retraining.
Our modern lifestyles (stress, screens, pollution, sedentary living) have taught us to breathe shallowly and superficially.
By combining these two disciplines, we rediscover a more natural, deeper, and more efficient way of breathing.

Here's how they complement each other:

Yoga loosens the diaphragm, frees up the rib cage, and improves coordination between breath and movement.
Freediving builds CO₂ tolerance, increases lung capacity, and teaches you to manage the sensations of breathlessness.
Together, they develop breath mastery, resistance to stress, and mental clarity.

This synergy improves not only physical performance, but also emotional balance. We learn to breathe differently… and therefore to live differently.

Breathing: a tool for transformation

Breathing consciously means transforming your relationship with the world.
Every inhale nourishes, every exhale releases.
The breath becomes a guide: it reveals the state of the body, the mind, the emotions. By learning to listen to it, we also learn to listen to ourselves.

Many freedivers turn to yoga to better manage their mind before a dive, while more and more yogis draw on freediving techniques to deepen their breathing exercises.
These bridges between disciplines reveal something essential: breath is universal. It connects living beings to one another, far beyond the boundaries of sport or spirituality.

The breath, an inner mirror

Yoga and freediving bring us back to the same truth: the breath is a mirror.
It reflects our inner state. When it's short, we're tense. When it's full and flowing, we're at peace.

Learning to breathe means learning to live with more ease, to find calm within movement, silence within chaos.
So, whether on a mat, by the sea, or simply in your living room, take a moment to breathe consciously.
That's often where it all begins.