Buzzing into Calm: Mastering Brahmari Pranayama for Inner Peace

Brahmari with Shambavi mudra

Overview

Brahmari is a vocal meditation that resembles the buzzing of a bee and helps to open and balance your throat chakra. – Swami Saradananda

In this breath practice, you make a buzzing sound as you exhale, which naturally lengthens your exhalation and creates a calming effect. – Nina Zolotow

Purpose / Effects

Brahmari is said to:

Clear the mind and bring a sense of inner peace.
Soothe anxiety by lengthening the exhalation.
Improve concentration, memory and confidence.
Prepare for meditation.
Stimulate and purify the visshudha (throat) chakra, leading to an improved ability to listen and communicate truth.
“Helps to banish feelings of self-doubt as well as the urge to gossip.” (Swami Saradananda)
May alleviate throat problems such as hoarseness and a weak voice.
A number of sources recommend it for women in labor.

SIMPLE & USEFUL PREPARATION FOR MEDITATION

The Bee is very useful preparation for meditation and is a simple, straightforward tool that can be used to relax the autonomic nervous system. For teachers and health professionals, this is a gentle, extremely useful practice that can easily be taught to virtually anybody. – Swamij.com

ALSO MAY HELP WITH ANXIETY, ADHD OR OCD

One of my favorite practices for initiating my own meditation practice is Bee Breath, but it has many applications for achieving and sustaining a balanced emotional and mental state. Try this practice if you or your students and clients suffer from anxiety, ADHD, or OCD. You will find it will cut through the tangle of distracting thoughts. You will feel calm and at ease and be able to focus. – Amy Weintraub

EXPELS TOXINS

If you practice brahmari during hay fever or a common cold it may make you momentarily sneeze, which expels toxins too. We are so polite and British when it comes to sneezing, but the real blessing with sneezing is your body is expelling toxins away from you in great force!

– yogasphere.eu

SUPPORTS SPEECH & COMMUNICATION

It is highly recommended as a practice if you are a singer, teacher or someone who has to speak in public — or if you simply would like to improve your speech and communication skills. – Swami Saradananda

Instructions

Sit comfortably with back tall, head erect, shoulders and neck relaxed.
Take a few natural breaths.
Keeping mouth and lips gently closed, inhale through nostrils, drawing base of tongue back.
Exhale slowly through nostrils, making a deep buzzing sound in throat like a bee or the sound of the letter M (a humming sound) until you need to inhale.
“Because the lips are closed, you will not hear the ‘zzz’ sound. Instead, you will hear a ‘swarm’ of bees in your throat.” (Amy Weintraub)
Listen to the sound and feel the vibration.
Be aware of the feeling of vibration in the skull, nasal passages, throat, mouth, cheeks and lips.
For more detailed instruction: While exhaling, push the upper abdomen in, keeping chest relatively still; while inhaling, allow lower ribs to flare slightly with diaphragm’s movement.
Repeat: Inhale through nose, then hum like a buzzing bee with exhale.

Amy Weintraub suggests the following script when instructing someone new to bee breath:

Sit in a comfortable position with the spine erect.
Make the sound of the bee.
Continue making the sound of a bee but close the lips.
Now tuck the chin lightly and begin to feel the vibration in the throat.
Now, draw the back of the tongue to the back of the throat as though you were attempting to get a popcorn kernel husk from the throat.

DON’T FORCE

The longer you sustain the humming exhalation, the more relaxing the Bee Breath is likely to be — but forcing the breath beyond your capacity can have the reverse effect, causing even more stress. So don’t force yourself to maintain any particular speed. Inhale whenever necessary, and let the buzzing sound last as long as it is comfortable. – Yoga Journal

FROM MASTER SWAMI RAMA

While seated in a tranquil posture, the yogi begins to breathe through both nostrils slowly, gradually increasing his respirations and making them more and more frequent, until he is bathed in perspiration. Then he inhales through both nostrils, making a noise like the male bee, and swallows the breath and suspends it, following kumbhaka with a slow expiration. This practice is preparatory to rasananda yoga samadhi. – Swami Rama

Mudras

This breath practice is often taught with a mudra to encourage pratyahara (withdrawal of senses).

Amy Weintraub shows photos and instructions for two such mudras on her site.

Take Care

See General Cautions for more information.