Om Som Yoga + Ayurveda Podcast

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IN THIS EPISODE

What happens in the space between your inhale and your exhale?
In this episode of the Om Som Yoga + Ayurveda Podcast, Aaron and Paige explore Kumbhaka, the yogic art of breath retention. Drawing from Patanjali's Yoga Sūtra and the Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā, this episode unpacks why the pause in the breath isn't just a gap, but a doorway into stillness, a direct experience of the quieter layers of the mind, and ultimately a path toward samādhi.

Whether you're new to pranayama or already working with breath retention in your practice, this episode will change how you relate to the space between your breaths.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE

✦ What Kumbhaka actually means - the Sanskrit root translates to pot or cup, and the ancient story of the potter that reveals why retention is the seal that holds prana in the body
✦ The two types of Kumbhaka - sahita (deliberate retention) and kevala (the spontaneous suspension that arises unbidden in deep meditation)
✦ What Patanjali's Yoga Sūtra says about the fourth pranayama - the one beyond deliberate practice that opens the door to samādhi
✦ The Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā teaching: when prana moves, the mind moves - when prana is still, the mind becomes still
✦ The science of CO2 tolerance - why the urge to breathe is not an emergency, and how building tolerance helps dissolve one of yoga's core obstacles: fear
✦ Why pranayama is about breathing less, not more - and how stillness in the breath creates the conditions for stillness in the mind
✦ Kumbhaka and the three doshas - how vāta, pitta, and kapha types should each approach breath retention for safe, nourishing practice

TEXTUAL REFERENCES

✦ Patanjali's Yoga Sūtra: pranayama as external, internal, and restrained movement - and the fourth kumbhaka, kevala, as the spontaneous pathway to samādhi
✦ Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā: "When prana moves, the mind moves. When prana is still, the mind becomes still."

TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE

This week, rather than rushing through the turn between inhale and exhale, simply notice the pause. No counting, no control - just linger in that space for a moment. Feel the stillness that already exists between your breaths. That is Kumbhaka in its most natural form. Start there.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Do you tend to hold your breath in daily life without realising it? Or have you ever experienced that moment in meditation where the breath just suspends on its own? Share in the comments below - we read everything.

SHARE & CONNECT

Thank you for listening to the Om Som Yoga & Ayurveda Podcast.

Please share this episode with someone it might support, and connect with us on social media or via our website.

Instagram: @OmSom.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga

We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs.

We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.

HARI OM

PRACTICE WITH US
✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translation
https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
✦ OmSom App (free) — yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online community
Search OmSom in the App Store
✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma
https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026
https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training
https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto

IN THIS EPISODE
Aaron sits down with Simon Borg-Olivier, a man whose practice predates most of the modern yoga industry, for a conversation about coming home to natural movement and natural breath. Simon shares the unlikely path that led him from underwater swimming in Malta, to a Tibetan lama in his late teens, to weight training and gymnastics injuries, and finally to a stretch class where an Iyengar substitute teacher changed everything. From there, the conversation turns toward the principles he has spent four decades refining: moving where you don't bend easily, leaving alone the places that already are, and treating your practice as a work-in rather than a workout. Expect to have a few of your assumptions about flexibility, core engagement, breath retention, and even what "advanced" practice looks like gently turned upside down.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
✦ Why hypermobility is not flexibility and why bending where you already bend easily is one of the most common (and quietly damaging) habits in modern yoga
✦ The difference between a workout and a "work-in" and why one leaves you depleted while the other leaves you energised
✦ How Sthira Sukham Āsanam ("firm but calm") translates into the actual mechanics of the abdomen, the diaphragm, and the breath
✦ Why most people are unknowingly stuck in fight-or-flight through chronic abdominal tension and what that does to immunity, digestion, and reproduction
✦ The science (and tradition) of Jālandhara Bandha, head down, neck back, and why it matters for pranayama
✦ Why Simon teaches less stretch, less tension, less breathing, less thinking, less eating and what we gain on the other side of less
✦ The simple Five-Region Reset, fingers/shoulders, neck, pelvis, core, face, that you can drop into any practice, any time, anywhere

TEXTUAL & LINEAGE REFERENCES
✦ Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali — Sthira Sukham Āsanam (II.46), and Simon's note on the Siddhis appearing in the third chapter (Vibhūti Pāda) - a reminder that supernatural breathing is not the first step
✦ The 8 Limbs - Yama, Niyama, Āsana, Prāṇāyāma - and why most of us are still working at the foundation
✦ B.K.S. Iyengar - Simon's first formal yoga path in the early 1980s
✦ Yoga Synergy - co-founded by Simon and Bianca Machliss, one of Australia's oldest yoga schools
Cross-traditional influences - Tibetan teachings received in his late teens, Japanese Aikido, and Chinese Qigong and martial arts woven into his Five-Dimensional Flow framework

FIND SIMON
Website → https://simonborgolivier.com
Membership (free + paid tiers) → https://healthhappinesslongevity.co

SHARE & CONNECT
Thank you for listening to the Om Som Yoga & Ayurveda Podcast.
Please share this episode with someone it might support, and connect with us on social media or via our website.

Instagram: @OmSom.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga

We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.

HARI OM

PRACTICE WITH US
✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
✦ OmSom App (free) — yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store
✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto

IN THIS EPISODE
What does it really mean to live from the heart?
In this episode of the Om Som Yoga + Ayurveda Podcast, Aaron and Paige dive deep into Hridaya (hṛdayam) the spiritual heart at the centre of all yogic and Vedantic tradition.
Drawing from the Chandogya Upanishad, the Katha Upanishad, and Patanjali's Yoga Sūtras, this episode explores one of the most profound teachings in all of yoga philosophy, the idea that within the tiny cave of the heart lives the infinite self, equally as vast as the entire cosmos.If you've ever wondered what yoga teachers mean by "coming to the heart," or felt confused by the idea of heart-centered living, this episode is for you.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE
✦ The three layers of the heart - physical, emotional, and spiritual - and how yoga teaches us to move through all three
✦ The Sanskrit root meaning of hṛdayam: the give, receive, and circulate at the centre of all human experience
✦ The teaching of Daharākāsha from the Chandogya Upanishad, the doorway within the heart that is no larger than your thumb, yet contains the entire universe
✦ Why Anahata (the heart chakra) is not the same as Hridaya and why this distinction matters in your practice
✦ What Patanjali says happens when you meditate on the heart: knowledge of the mind (and why that's the ultimate siddhi for modern life)
✦ The Āyurvedic view of the heart: hṛd basti treatment, ojas, the 8 drops of vital force within the heart, and abhyanga over the heart marma
✦ How to stop seeking ease outside yourself, and begin to inhabit the cave of the heart as your true home

TEXTUAL REFERENCES
✦ Chandogya Upanishad: Dahara Vidyā (the knowledge of the inner space)
✦ Katha Upanishad: "Smaller than the smallest, greater than the greatest, the Self is hidden in the cave of the heart"
✦ Patanjali's Yoga Sūtra, Chapter III: the samyama of Hridaya and the arising of knowledge of the mind

TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE
This week, instead of meditating in your head, consciously drop your awareness into the heart. Sit in the cave. Let your mantra or breath or visualisation arise from that place, not from the screen of the mind.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION
What came up for you in this episode? Have you ever experienced that deep stillness at the heart, even for a moment? Share in the comments below. We read everything.

SHARE & CONNECT
Thank you for listening to the Om Som Yoga & Ayurveda Podcast.
Please share this episode with someone it might support, and connect with us on social media or via our website.
Instagram: @OmSom.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga
We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.
HARI OM

PRACTICE WITH US:
365 Sadhana Sangha
https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma
https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026
https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training
https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto

ON THIS WEEK'S EPISODE:

We unpack one of the most misunderstood teachings in yoga, "citta vritti nirodhah". Most people hear citta vritti nirodhah and think yoga is asking them to stop thinking. So they try to force the mind quiet. Then the mind gets louder.

This week, Aaron and Lina explore the second Yoga Sutra and what it actually means to settle the mind. This is not an episode about suppression. It's about space. The mind doesn't respond to force. It responds to stillness being allowed, not imposed.

DEFINITION & ETYMOLOGY:

Citta Vritti Nirodhah (चित्त वृत्ति निरोध)
Citta: the total field of the mind, including perception, memory, and cognition
Vritti: fluctuations, waves, or movements of the mind
Nirodhah: cessation, a natural settling

Together: the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.
The key word is natural. Nirodhah does not mean suppression. It points to stillness that arrives when agitation is removed, not forced out.

KEY CONCEPTS & INSIGHTS:

• Thoughts are not the problem. The agitation feeding them is. Sensory overload, stimulation, and constant doing all churn the surface of the mind.
• The mind is like Lake Manasarovar beneath Mount Kailash. When the winds blow, the moon's reflection scatters. You cannot smooth the lake with your hands. You wait for the wind to settle.
• Yoga Sutra 1.4, vritti sarupyam itaratra: at other times, we identify with the movements. When the mind is unsettled, we mistake the thoughts, the story, the role, for our actual self.
• The goal is not just stillness but recognition. When the mind clears, the seer (drastuh) abides in its own nature. We remember we are the one watching, not the one thinking.

TEXTUAL SOURCES:

The first four Yoga Sutras of Patanjali form a single sequence:
• 1.1 Atha yoganushasanam: now, the teaching of yoga. Yoga only happens now.
• 1.2 Yogas citta vritti nirodhah: yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.
• 1.3 Tada drashtuh svarupe vastanam: then the seer abides in its own true nature.
• 1.4 Vritti sarupyam itaratra: at other times, there is identification with the movements.

PRACTICAL INTEGRATION:

• Use the breath as your anchor. It is always internal, always present. Slow it down and let it draw you inward.
• Allow pauses to arise naturally in practice rather than forcing a hard stop. When stillness appears, stay with it.
• If your mind was busy in meditation, ask: who noticed? That noticing is the observer. You are already there.
• Consider what is agitating the mind before trying to calm it. Sometimes the first step is reducing external input, not increasing internal effort.

Reflection: What happens when you stop trying to quiet the mind and simply let it settle on its own?

SHARE & CONNECT

Thank you for listening to the Om Som Yoga & Ayurveda Podcast. Please share this episode with someone it might support, and connect with us on social media or via our website.

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@OmSom.yoga⁠⁠
Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠OmSom.yoga⁠⁠

We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We’d love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey. 

HARI OM

PRACTICE WITH US:
365 Sadhana Sangha
https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma
https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026
https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training
https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto

ON THIS WEEK'S EPISODE:

Some people breathe deeply but the breath gets stuck. The lungs fill, but there is no distribution. Prana arrives and goes nowhere.

This week, Aaron and Selenna explore Vyana Vayu, the prana of circulation, integration, and adaptability. Not about breathing bigger. About letting the breath spread. This episode covers what vyana is, why it holds all other pranas together, and how its presence or absence shows up in the body, the practice, and daily life.

DEFINITION & ETYMOLOGY:

Vyana Vayu (Sanskrit: व्यान वायु)
Root: vyah, to spread, pervade, or expand outwards in all directions
Vyana moves nourishment from the centre to the periphery
Non-directional, unlike prana vayu (inhale) or apana vayu (exhale). It is the fullness between the parts.
When depleted: cold extremities, pallor, fatigue, disconnection from the limbs.

KEY CONCEPTS & INSIGHTS:

• The Prashna Upanishad story: the five pranas argue over which is most important. Each leaves the body to test its necessity. When prana vayu departs, all the others follow. Vyana is the integrating force that knits them all together.
• Vyana is synergy. A movement in the hand travels through the wrist, elbow, and shoulder. A slow practice flows into quiet Savasana, into calm pranayama, into still meditation. Vyana makes practice holistic rather than fragmented.
• Prana can be received without being distributed. Building energy without vyana is like filling a pipe with no outlet. Stuck prana is useless.
• Vyana is adaptability. Ease moving between conversations, environments, and states. In practice, the capacity to meet yourself where you are.
• Stillness without vyana becomes stagnation. Vyana allows you to enter stillness when needed and move out when the time comes.

TEXTUAL & TRADITIONAL SOURCES:

• Hathayoga Pradipika: vyana vayu governs circulation, peripheral movement, and integration of bodily systems. Imbalance presents as fatigue, poor circulation, or disconnection from the limbs.
• Prashna Upanishad: without vyana, the other pranas cannot act in coordination.

PRACTICAL INTEGRATION:

• Practices that cultivate vyana: lateral bends, backbends, spinal rolls, Surya Namaskar, inhale retentions.
• Vyana Vayu Mudra: touch the thumb to the index and middle fingers at the fingertips, ring and pinky fingers extended. Use when feeling stuck, fragmented, or disconnected. Also supports circulation to the extremities in cold weather.
• In daily life: rigidity in social situations, difficulty transitioning between tasks, or feeling like different parts of life are disconnected are signs of depleted vyana.

Reflection: Where are you receiving nourishment but not letting it move?

SHARE & CONNECT

Thank you for listening to the Om Som Yoga & Ayurveda Podcast.
Please share this episode with someone it might support, and connect with us on social media or via our website.

Instagram: @OmSom.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga

We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.

HARI OM