On this page
These sessions work with a map the yoga tradition has used for centuries: the chakras, the nadis or energy channels, and the prana said to move through them. That map is a framework for attention rather than a description of anatomy, and the practice does not require you to take a position on it.
What these sessions are
What the tradition says is specific. Prana is described as a vital energy carried on the breath; the nadis are the channels it moves along, of which the tradition names three as principal; and the chakras are points along the central channel where it is said to gather. Practices like these are described as clearing and balancing that system.
What actually happens in a session is that attention moves through the body in a fixed order while the breath stays slow and even. Chakra Clearing Breath Flow is the longest and works up through the body point by point. Clearing the Energy Channels works with alternate nostril breathing, which is the classical practice for balancing the two side channels. Energy Recovery Flow is the shortest and least schematic.
None of this is physiology. There is no organ that corresponds to a chakra and no vessel that corresponds to a nadi, and anyone telling you otherwise has confused a traditional framework with an anatomical one. The framework is not weaker for that. It is a precise and well-tested way of directing attention through the body, which is what it is being used for here.
What people commonly report is that the sessions feel orderly and settling, and that attention has somewhere definite to go. Whether anything is being cleared or balanced in a sense that could be measured is a claim that would need clinical evidence, and nothing here makes it.
The sessions
3 sessions, 10 to 20 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Chakra Clearing Breath Flow | 20 min | Premium |
| Clearing the Energy Channels | 12 min | Premium |
| Energy Recovery Flow | 10 min | Premium |
Which one to start with
Start with Energy Recovery Flow. It is the shortest and asks the least familiarity with the map, and it is a reasonable way to find out whether this style suits you.
Take Clearing the Energy Channels if you already practise alternate nostril breathing, which the tradition calls Nadi Shodhan. It is the most concrete session here and the one with a written guide of its own on this site.
Chakra Clearing Breath Flow is the long one and the most schematic. It suits a settled hour rather than a spare ten minutes, and it is the session that most rewards knowing the sequence before you start.
How to use them
Sit upright with the spine supported. These sessions move attention up and down the body in order, and slumping muddles the sense of where you are.
Follow the order the voice gives even if a point feels like nothing. Blankness at a given point is the ordinary experience and waiting for a sensation there stalls the sequence.
Keep the breath slow and unforced throughout. Nothing in this collection wants a strong breath, including the alternate nostril session.
Practise the same session repeatedly rather than moving between them. The order is what you are learning, and it takes a few weeks to become familiar enough to stop tracking.
What usually goes wrong
Waiting to feel something at each point. Most points feel like nothing for a long time and some always will. The practice is the moving of attention, not the arrival of sensation.
Treating the map as anatomy. It is a traditional framework, and it does its job as one. Reading it as physiology sets up a claim the practice never made and cannot support.
Forcing the breath in the alternate nostril session. Nadi Shodhan is a quiet practice. If you can hear yourself breathing, it is too strong, and the retention should be left out entirely until the rest is easy.
Starting with the longest session. The long one assumes you know the sequence. Learning the map and sitting for that length at the same time is two tasks.
A map for attention
PanchPrana teaches these as a traditional framework rather than as anatomy, and the sessions work either way. Alternate nostril breathing, the classical practice at the centre of this collection, has its own written guide on the site.
Who should take care
These are slow practices and the gentlest of the breathwork collections apart from breath awareness. The cautions attach mainly to the alternate nostril session, which classically includes breath retention.
If you are pregnant, practise gently and leave out all breath holding. If you live with uncontrolled high blood pressure, heart disease, glaucoma, retinal detachment or epilepsy, take care with Clearing the Energy Channels and leave the retention out; the breathing itself is suitable, the holds are the part to skip.
If you have asthma or COPD, or a blocked nose from a cold or hay fever, ease off on the alternate nostril session, which becomes a struggle rather than a practice when one side will not pass air. The other two sessions do not depend on nostril flow.
Stop if you feel dizzy, faint, breathless or light-headed, and let the breath settle before standing. Extended attention practice can occasionally surface difficult material; if a session leaves you agitated rather than settled, stop using it and raise it with a doctor or a teacher who knows you if it continues.
See our full Health & Safety Disclaimer.
Common questions
Do I have to believe in chakras for this to work?
No. The sessions work as a structured way of moving attention through the body, and that is what you are being guided through whatever you make of the framework around it.
Are the chakras real?
They are a real and long-standing part of the yoga tradition. They are not anatomical structures, and no practice here treats them as though they were.
What is a nadi?
A channel, in the traditional account of how prana moves. Three are named as principal, running along the spine and to either side of it, and alternate nostril breathing is the classical practice for balancing the two side channels.
Is this the same as a chakra meditation?
It is the breath-led version. A chakra meditation is a sitting practice that works through the same map with attention and imagery rather than with the breath.
Why is one session so much longer than the others?
Because it works through the whole sequence point by point rather than sampling it. It is the one to come to once the order is familiar.
