Prāṇāyāma — Systems of breath coherence

What it is

The breath goes on without you, but you can guide it. Through it you act on what usually escapes the will — the rhythm of the heart, the level of alarm. It is the handle the body holds out to you, and the method makes it a door in its own right, alongside the body and the mind.

What the tradition calls prāṇa is the energy that body, mind and emotions all draw on: vitality, or vigour, as we might say today. In the square of the four dimensions, it is the fourth side, the side of Kriya, the path of inner action, which works on energy directly, through the breath and structured technique. High and steady, energy makes the other three sides run better.

At the studio, Prāṇāyāma is practised as a system rather than as an isolated technique; hence its subtitle, “Systems of breath coherence”. Each classical form is transmitted as it was designed, with its sequence, its pace and its precision, without blending or simplifying. That exactness is what makes it work.

What it asks of you

First session

The Upa Yoga introduction, where everyone begins: an empty stomach, and an hour.

Prerequisites

No flexibility, no equipment, no belief, no experience of breath work.

Transmission

The full forms are learnt from a teacher, in person.

Regularity

A mandala: forty to forty-eight consecutive days of practice.

Your condition

Pain, an injury, pregnancy: tell us before the first session, and talk to your doctor.

This page gives no breathing instructions, and that is deliberate. The work is subtle: a teacher first sees what you cannot, and adjusts before an error settles in.

What practitioners report

What practitioners describe first is a breath that comes into balance, and attention with it. Then they speak of energy: it leaks away less into tension and restlessness, and stays available for what they choose to do. They also say they notice sooner what is building up: the jaw tightening, the voice rising. These are reported experiences, not promises; they come with regularity rather than with long sessions, over the course of a mandala.

We present these practices as tools for prevention and wellbeing — not as medical treatment.

What the research says

A systematic review brought together fifteen studies on slow breathing — fewer than ten breaths a minute, as these studies define it. It reports higher heart-rate variability and lower anxiety. The sentence on our home page rests on it: “Slow, regulated breathing measurably raises heart-rate variability and lowers anxiety.”

Two limitations, stated plainly. Most of the studies it brings together are small. And they concern slow breathing in general, not the classical forms transmitted at the studio; they shed light on the breath, not on our teaching in particular.

Many studies are small: we present them as promising, not as settled.

Starting at the studio

At the studio, 50 rue de la Clef, place Monge, Prāṇāyāma follows the same path as every practice. You begin with the introductory session of Upa Yoga; the breathing forms are then transmitted by a teacher over a short programme, and practised at home for one mandala.

The path

1. iBegin where you are. An introductory session of Upa Yoga. You need no flexibility, no equipment and no belief — only an empty stomach and an hour.
2. iiLearn it properly, in person. The full form is transmitted by a teacher over a short programme. The geometry is subtle; learnt from a book or a screen, a small error becomes a habit.
3. iiiPractise for one mandala. A cycle of forty to forty-eight consecutive days — about the time a new alignment needs to settle into the body. This is where the reported changes appear.
4. ivGo further, or simply keep up the practice. Deeper practices, silent intensives, or the Agora — where the same attention is turned outward, onto questions no one can answer alone.

Hear about the opening sessions⟶

The place

Address

50 rue de la Clef — Place Monge, 75005 Paris See the map ⟶

Schedule

The timetable is being drawn up. See the schedule ⟶

For a first session

An empty stomach, and an hour. No flexibility, no equipment, no belief.

Contact

bonjour@studioetre.fr
+33 6 52 30 71 00 · WhatsApp