What Yoga Therapists Should Know About the Anatomy of Breathing

Abstract

The emerging field of Yoga therapy offers its practitioners a singular opportunity to provide the public with accurate and useful information about breathing. In this article, I summarize the four most common confusions about breathing, based on a review of how breathing is described and taught in Yoga literature. To dispel each of the common confusions, I present anatomical information, analogies, and images. This anatomical information can inform the practice of Yoga therapy, as illustrated by principles from the Yoga therapy tradition of T. Krishnamacharya and T.K.V. Desikachar.