breath work

noun

variants or breathwork

ˈbreth-ˌwərk 

: conscious, controlled breathing done especially for relaxation, meditation, or therapeutic purposes

Yoga is a 5,000-year-old physical and philosophical discipline from India that joins the mind and body together through breath work, or pranayama, and postures, or asanas.

—Hilary E. MacGregor

Some general principles of breathwork are: make your breathing slower, deeper, quieter, and more regular whenever you think about it; deepen the exhalation phase of breathing by squeezing more air out of the lungs at the end of each breath … and keep your attention on the breath more of the time.

—Andrew Weil

Examples of breath work in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Kundalini yoga is focused on calisthenic movements, breath work, and chanting. —Olivia B. Waxman, TIME, 23 Oct. 2024

Aidan Lyon, a philosopher at Leiden University in the Netherlands and the author of Psychedelic Experience: Revealing the Mind, has argued that breath work, meditation, and even engaging with a piece of art could count as psychedelic experiences. —Shayla Love, The Atlantic, 20 Oct. 2024

Yoga consists of three parts—the physical poses (asana), meditation (dhyana), and breath work (pranayama). —Cory Martin, Verywell Health, 23 Sep. 2024

The flow through the movements is seamless, requiring concentration, control, and breath work. —Angelica Bottaro, Verywell Health, 13 Aug. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1922, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

breath work

noun

variants or breathwork

: conscious, controlled breathing done especially for relaxation, meditation, or therapeutic purposes

Western practitioners believe yoga's deeply relaxing breath work allows the body's healing abilities to take over.

—Norine Dworkin, Psychology Today