Spirit & Science
Old practices. New questions.
Breath has been part of spiritual traditions for generations, from yogic practices to chanting and meditation. People have used it to focus attention, connect with the sacred and explore their inner experience.
For me, Spirit & Science brings that history into conversation with what we’re learning now. Research is exploring how breath, sound and rhythm affect the body and mind. Here, you can explore both ways of understanding the practice.
Explore the connections
Choose your lens.
Open a topic, then choose Spirit or Science. Each gives you a different way into the same practice.
Rhythm
A steady place to return.
Spirit: experience and tradition.
Spirit Meaning & tradition
A repeating breath gives your attention somewhere to land. You notice the beginning, the turning point, the return. Some days that can feel grounding. Other days it simply makes you more aware of how busy your mind has been.
Yogic traditions describe breath through ideas such as prana, or life energy. You might connect with that language, or prefer to think about presence and attention. There’s room for either. The rhythm is something you can explore without arriving with a particular belief.
Science What research measures
Breathing carries on automatically, yet we can also choose to change its pace. Researchers study how different patterns relate to mood, breathing rate and other signs of physiological arousal. The pattern matters: a slow, extended exhale is a different experience from active breathing or a hold.
Inside the study
In a 2023 randomized study, people practised one of three breathing exercises or mindfulness meditation for five minutes a day over a month. Breathwork, especially exhale-focused cyclic sighing, showed greater improvements in mood and reductions in breathing rate than the meditation comparison. It’s encouraging evidence for a specific practice and routine, and a useful starting point for further research.
Voice & vibration
Feel the sound from within.
Spirit: experience and tradition.
Spirit Meaning & tradition
Humming brings sound into something we usually do quietly. You can feel the vibration as well as hear it, which gives your attention another place to rest. There’s no need to make a beautiful sound or perform for anyone.
Sacred sounds such as AUM carry their own history and meaning in Hindu traditions. For someone who connects with that background, chanting may hold a devotional or reflective place in practice. For someone else, a simple hum may be enough. Those are different relationships with sound, and both deserve room.
Science What research measures
One interesting finding comes from small studies of the nose and sinuses. Researchers measured much higher nasal nitric oxide levels during humming than during a quiet exhale. The explanation they investigated was the movement of air between the sinuses and the nasal cavity.
Inside the studies
The often-repeated “15 times” figure came from a study of ten healthy people. A follow-up found that the increase changed with repeated humming and recovered after a quiet interval. The finding is specific to nasal gas exchange during humming; that scope helps us understand what was actually measured.
Music & synchronization
The pulse. The pause. The possibility.
Spirit: experience and tradition.
Spirit Meaning & tradition
Music is a big part of how I understand this work. After years of DJing, bringing rhythm into breathwork felt like a natural connection. The sound helps shape the journey, from the more active parts to the places where there’s room to settle.
A shared beat can give a group something to follow together. You may find yourself paying less attention to counting and more attention to the experience. The feeling might be uplifting, reflective or surprisingly ordinary. You don’t have to force it to become something bigger.
Science What research measures
Music can affect more than mood. In a small laboratory study involving musicians and non-musicians, researchers measured changes in breathing, heart rate and blood pressure while people listened to different music. Faster tempos were associated with more physiological arousal, and the pauses between tracks were an important part of the response.
Timing and space are useful things to think about when shaping a session. The beat can provide a clear breathing cue, while changes in the music help mark a transition. Following a musical count gives us a practical way to explore rhythm together, while leaving room for different personal responses.
Music and cardiorespiratory responses · study, 2006Stillness & intention
Leave room for not knowing.
Spirit: experience and tradition.
Spirit Meaning & tradition
After movement, sound and guided breathing, a quieter moment gives you room to notice what’s there. It might be ease, emotion, restlessness, or very little at all. You don’t need to turn it into a breakthrough.
Reflection can continue in the closing circle. Sometimes putting an experience into a few words helps you understand it. Sometimes listening is enough. The invitation is to take something useful with you, without having to match anyone else’s experience.
Science What research measures
Stillness can create space for attention and reflection, although there isn’t one simple measurement that captures what “integration” means to everyone. Research on meditation and relaxation looks at particular practices and outcomes, so the details of each study matter.
A little more context
In the breathing study described above, mindfulness meditation and the breathing groups both showed improvements in mood and anxiety measures. A month of daily practice is different from a few quiet minutes after a group session. It gives us a reason to keep exploring the quieter parts of practice, alongside the more noticeable techniques.
SOMA videos
A little wonder. A deeper breath.
Explore 16 SOMA Breath videos in their own space, with episode introductions and full write-ups a click away.
Explore the SOMA video libraryWords with roots
The language behind the practice.
These words come from distinct Indian spiritual and yoga traditions.
Learning a little about where these words come from adds depth to the practice. Their meanings belong to living traditions, and each offers a different way to think about breath, attention and experience.
Kumbhaka · The pause
Kumbhaka is the Sanskrit term used for breath retention in pranayama. It names a pause in the breathing cycle and has a place in yogic approaches to breath and concentration. Understanding the term is one way to appreciate the tradition behind the practice.
Bandhas · Traditional locks
Bandhas are traditionally described as locks in yoga. Named forms include Mula, Uddiyana and Jalandhara. Traditional accounts connect them with directing prana, or life energy. That language belongs to the philosophy of the practice and gives context to how these techniques have been understood.
AUM · Sacred sound
Om, also written AUM, is a sacred syllable in Hindu traditions, with layered meanings connected to consciousness and ultimate reality. Its spiritual significance deserves respect beyond its use as a sound or vibration in a modern class.
Soma · A name with ancient roots
In Vedic literature, Soma is associated with a ritual drink and a deity. Hymns describe it through the language of sacred experience. The name has a long cultural history; the modern SOMA Breath method is a separate, contemporary practice.