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These sessions attach a deliberate warmth to the breath, directed at yourself or at other people. Most beginners find the first few uncomfortable, and that discomfort is ordinary rather than a sign the practice is not for you.
What these sessions are
The physical instruction is the same across all three: attention rests at the centre of the chest and the breath is felt as moving through that point. What varies is what you are asked to bring with it.
Breath of Gratitude works with something specific you are glad of, held lightly and returned to on each breath. Compassion Breath Flow turns toward difficulty, either your own or someone else. Loving Kindness is the classical practice the tradition calls metta, directing goodwill outward in widening circles.
These are breath-led rather than phrase-led, which is what separates them from a sitting loving-kindness meditation. A metta practice works mainly through repeated phrases and takes longer. Here the breath carries it, and the sessions are short enough to use on a weekday.
The tradition places practices of this kind at the centre of ethical training rather than treating them as relaxation. What people commonly report is that generating warmth deliberately feels false at first and stops feeling false somewhere in the second or third week. Whether any of it changes how people behave is a question for evidence, and no claim is made here.
The sessions
3 sessions, 10 minutes. Every session in this collection needs Premium. Four other breathwork collections have a free session in them, and the free tier covers twelve guided sessions across the app.
| Session | Length | Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Breath of Gratitude | 10 min | Premium |
| Compassion Breath Flow | 10 min | Premium |
| Loving Kindness | 10 min | Premium |
Which one to start with
Start with Breath of Gratitude. It is the most concrete of the three, because it works with something specific rather than with a general warmth, and concrete is much easier at the beginning.
Compassion Breath Flow is the one to take when there is something difficult to sit with. It is not a comfortable session and it is the most useful of the three on a hard day.
Loving Kindness here is the short breath-led version. If you want the full sitting practice with the phrases and the widening circles, that belongs in a meditation session rather than a ten-minute breath practice.
How to use them
Sit upright with the chest open rather than collapsed. A slumped posture makes the centre of the chest hard to find, which is most of what these sessions are asking for.
Start with someone easy. Every teacher of these practices says the same thing, and every beginner tries to start with the difficult person. That comes much later, if at all.
Let it be mechanical at first. Going through the motions is the way in, and waiting to feel sincere before practising means never starting.
Keep the sessions short and frequent. These build by repetition rather than by duration.
What usually goes wrong
Starting with the person you find hardest. It is the most common mistake in this kind of practice and it usually ends the practice. Begin with someone you already feel warmly toward.
Waiting to feel it before doing it. The feeling follows the practice rather than preceding it. Several weeks of going through the motions is the ordinary path, not a failed attempt.
Turning gratitude into an inventory. Listing everything you ought to be grateful for is a task. One thing, held on the breath, is the practice.
Using compassion practice to talk yourself out of a feeling. Compassion is not a way of deciding you should not be upset. A session that ends with you still upset and less harsh about it has worked.
Warmth, on the breath
PanchPrana keeps these short and breath-led so they fit into a weekday, and the awkwardness of the first fortnight is expected rather than a sign to stop. They sit alongside the emotional healing collection, which covers the same ground more slowly.
Who should take care
These are gentle practices with no forceful breathing, and the cautions here are less about the body than about what deliberately generated warmth can surface.
If you are pregnant, these are generally suitable practised gently and with no breath holding. If you live with high blood pressure, heart disease, glaucoma or epilepsy, keep the breath easy and leave out any hold. If you have asthma or COPD, keep the breath within a comfortable range.
If you are grieving, or living with depression, take care with practices that direct kindness at yourself, which can bring up grief or self-criticism rather than warmth. That is a known and ordinary response. Keep sessions short, and ease off or skip them if they reliably leave you worse.
Stop the session if you feel dizzy, faint or breathless, or if distress rises rather than settles, and come back to ordinary breathing. If self-directed kindness is consistently painful rather than awkward, that is worth raising with a therapist or a doctor rather than practising through.
See our full Health & Safety Disclaimer.
Common questions
Is this the same as loving-kindness meditation?
It is the breath-led version and it is shorter. A full metta practice is a sitting meditation built on repeated phrases, and this collection carries the warmth on the breath instead.
What is metta?
A Pali word usually translated as loving kindness or goodwill. The classical practice directs it first at yourself, then at someone close, then outward in widening circles.
It feels fake. Am I doing it wrong?
No, and nearly everyone reports it. Deliberately generated warmth feels manufactured because it is being manufactured, and that generally eases after a few weeks of practice.
Do I have to include myself?
The classical instruction starts there, and many people find it the hardest part. Starting with someone else and coming to yourself later is a reasonable adjustment.
Why is this in the breathwork library rather than meditation?
Because the breath is doing the work. These are ten-minute practices anchored at the chest, not seated meditations with a phrase structure.
