Breathwork and the Nervous System
What Pranayama breathwork actually is, how it resets the nervous system, and why spring on the Mornington Peninsula is a useful time to start paying attention to both.
Spring on the Peninsula
Winter is a time to slow and rest. September is a time to rise and renew.
It's not always dramatic. But six months of shorter days, less movement, and that particular low-grade flatness — the kind that's easy to normalise — accumulates. By September, a lot of people are carrying more than they realise they've been holding.
The traditional custodians of this country, the Boonwurrung people, have a name for this season: Pareip — True Spring. They describe it as a time when "warmth returns and life rises again — birds, plants and waterways come alive as people reconnect with travel, gathering and celebration." Their six-season calendar, developed over tens of thousands of years of close ecological attunement, marks this shift as a distinct transition: out of Beerreen, the winter season of rest, story, and gathering around fire, and into something more open. Shamanic traditions across the world carry the same understanding — spring as the moment the body, like the land, begins to surface from months of inward retreat. Yogic lineages say the same thing in different language. These traditions arrived at this independently and arrived at the same place.
The breath is one of the most direct ways to work with that transition.
This piece is about why that's true, and what a deliberate breathwork practice at The Clearing Practice in Mornington Peninsular actually involves — because it's probably not what you think it is.
What the practice actually is
What is Pranayama breathwork — and why isn't it what most people think?
Here's what surprises most people: Pranayama — the ancient yogic science of breathwork — is not about breathing hard or fast. It's not about pushing, forcing, or flooding your system with sensation.
The word itself tells you something. Prana is life force — the animating energy that flows through everything living. Ayama means to extend, to regulate, to make space. Put them together and you get something closer to the expansion of vitality than the simple act of breathing.
B.K.S. Iyengar, arguably the most influential yoga teacher of the 20th century, spent decades studying and codifying Pranayama. In his landmark work Light on Pranayama (1981), he was unambiguous about what the practice is — and what it isn't. "A correct understanding of Pranayama removes the obstacles that impede the free flow of vitality." The aim was always balance. Restoration. Working with the body's intelligence, not against it.
"Pranayama is a bridge between the gross and the subtle bodies."— B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Pranayama, 1981
That distinction matters. The breathwork practised here is nothing like the rapid techniques you might have seen online. It's steadier than that. Quieter. More deliberate. The aim isn't intensity — it's a sustained, quiet shift in how your body holds itself.
What's actually happening
How does breathwork reset the nervous system?
The autonomic nervous system has two main modes. The sympathetic — your threat response — is fast, reactive, and designed for short bursts of urgency. The parasympathetic — your rest-and-recover state — is where digestion works properly, sleep deepens, and the constant low-grade hum of anxiety starts to ease.
Most people in modern life spend far too much time in sympathetic activation. Stress, noise, deadlines, the pressure that never quite switches off. The body stops feeling safe enough to fully let go.
Breath is one of the most direct ways to shift this. Unlike most physiological functions, breathing is both automatic and conscious — you can take the wheel at any moment. Slow, intentional breathing activates the vagus nerve, the main pathway of the parasympathetic system. Heart rate slows. Blood pressure drops. The nervous system receives the signal it's been quietly waiting for: you're safe. You can let go.
This is well-supported by research. Studies consistently show that regulated breathwork reduces cortisol, improves heart rate variability, and shifts the autonomic system toward its rest state. What practitioners have understood for centuries, science now has tools to measure.
"Your vagus nerve gives us the tools to build resilience into our nervous systems."— Anna Ferguson, The Vagus Nerve Reset
If you want to go deeper
A different language for the same thing.
Traditional yoga offers a way of understanding why breath has such a profound effect on us — one that predates neuroscience by thousands of years, and maps onto it more closely than you might expect. You don't need to believe any of it. But it's worth knowing.
In this system, the body has an energetic anatomy alongside its physical one. Running through it are channels called nadis — rivers of life force. There are said to be 72,000, but three are central. Ida, the cooling, calming channel associated with the left side of the body. Pingala, the activating, solar channel on the right. And Sushumna — the central pathway, associated with stillness and balance.
Ida maps neatly onto what neuroscience describes as the parasympathetic nervous system; Pingala onto the sympathetic. A technique like Nadi Shodhana — alternate nostril breathing — was designed specifically to balance these two channels. Research on its effects on autonomic function shows that's precisely what happens.
Woven into this framework are the chakras — energy centres distributed along the central channel. Different practices work with different centres: the heart, the solar plexus, the throat. Belief isn't required here either. For many people, it becomes a useful inner map — a language for noticing what's shifting in the body, which is often harder to name in other ways.
Iyengar described Pranayama as a bridge between the gross and subtle bodies. Whether you understand that energetically or physiologically, the experience of it tends to land the same way.
At The Clearing Practice
Calm, grounded, and taught — not performed.
Breathwork sessions here are not dramatic. The goal isn't to produce an intense experience — it's to teach you something useful that you can take with you.
Each session is guided by Nick, who holds a Pranayama Breathwork Teacher certification with Yoga Alliance International. He'll introduce a specific technique suited to where you're at, walk you through it properly, and make sure it makes sense — not just in the room, but for when you need it on your own.
After four or five sessions, most clients practise independently. That's always the aim: to give you a skill, not a reason to keep coming back.
Sessions run 30 or 50 minutes. Available in person in Mornington or online via video.
Common questions
Things people ask before they book.
Is breathwork the same as Pranayama?
Pranayama is one of the oldest and most systematically developed forms of breathwork — a structured science of breath regulation from the yogic tradition. The word itself means "expansion of life force." What's practised here is Pranayama-based breathwork: specific, taught techniques rooted in that lineage, adapted for a one-on-one therapeutic context.
Can breathwork actually help with anxiety?
Yes — and the mechanism is well understood. Slow, regulated breathing activates the vagus nerve, which is the primary pathway of the parasympathetic nervous system (the body's rest-and-recover mode). Research consistently shows it reduces cortisol, lowers heart rate, and shifts the nervous system out of threat-response mode. It's not a cure, but it's one of the most direct tools available for interrupting the anxiety cycle in the moment.
What is Nadi Shodhana — and what does it do?
Nadi Shodhana is alternate nostril breathing — one of the most commonly taught Pranayama techniques. In yogic terms, it's designed to balance the Ida and Pingala nadis (the calming and activating energy channels). In physiological terms, research shows it balances the autonomic nervous system, reduces stress markers, and promotes mental clarity. It's a good starting technique for most people.
How many sessions does it take to feel a difference?
Most people notice a shift in the nervous system within the first session — the body responds quickly to regulated breath. The aim here is that after four or five sessions, you can practise independently. That's the goal: to give you a skill, not a reason to keep coming back.
Do I need to believe in anything spiritual for this to work?
No. The physiological effects of breathwork don't require any particular belief system — they work through the nervous system regardless. The traditional framework (nadis, chakras, prana) is offered as context and as one way of understanding what's happening, not as something you need to accept. Many people find it useful as a language; others simply focus on the physical practice. Both approaches get results.
Ready when you are
Spring is a natural time to begin. Not because anything needs to be dramatically wrong. Just because the season is already moving toward openness — and your nervous system might be ready to do the same.
The Pareip / Beerreen seasonal names are specific to the Boonwurrung
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