Understanding the Psychophysiology of Slow Yogic Breathing With Sat Bir Khalsa, Ph.D.

One of most fundamental and common breathing practices within yoga is the long, slow, deep breathing pattern.  In a number of studies of yoga practice, slow yogic breathing has been a practice that beginners often immediately begin to adopt and benefit from in their daily lives as a valuable coping and health strategy.  It has also made its way into modern Western medicine as a fairly well know relaxation practice referred to as slow breathing, abdominal breathing or belly breathing.  

Biomedical scientific research on slow breathing has begun to reveal the substantial impact it has on both mental and physical functioning.  On the physical level, it has direct impact on the autonomic nervous system, where it can reduce sympathetic activity, blood pressure and heart rate and increase heart rate variability.  It can also change characteristics of respiratory functioning including changes in the chemoreflex response and improvement in gas exchange.  Slow breathing research is also showing direct impact on the central nervous system, with positive changes in stress, emotion and pain regulation.  Clinical research is beginning to show its efficacy in disorders such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension.

About Sat Bir Khalsa, Ph.D.

Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, Ph.D. is the Director of Yoga Research for the Yoga Alliance and the Kundalini Research Institute, a Research Associate at the Benson Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, a Research Affiliate at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has conducted research on yoga and yoga therapy since 2001 and has been a practitioner/instructor of Kundalini Yoga since 1973. His research has evaluated yoga for insomnia, chronic stress, and anxiety-related disorders, and in workplace and public school settings. He works with the International Association of Yoga Therapists promoting yoga research as scientific director for the annual Symposium on Yoga Research and as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy. He is medical editor of the Harvard Medical School Special Report Introduction to Yoga, and chief editor of the medical textbook The Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care.