You can create bliss within seconds just by imagining yourself filling your head with the vibration of a calming “hmmm” for 1, 2 or even 5 minutes. This is called Brahmari Breath. The benefits of this breath include inducing calmness, creating sound vibrations for concentration, and enabling us to get in touch with the primordial universal hum.

I will teach Brahmari Breath to my client who cannot fully participate in asana practice due to mobility issues due to osteoarthritis. She also has insomnia. During our first session I will teach the method, she will practice it nightly, and we will meet a week later to review her progress.

The client is a divorced 65-year-old female who wears a EKG monitor and has difficulty with mobility. She also has broken sleep patterns. She has normal respiratory functioning.

I planned to teach the client Bhramari Breath, bringing fingers to specific places on the face with the thumbs closing off the ears, inhaling completely through both nostrils, and exhaling producing the humming sound of a bee, repeating this exercise for two to three minutes, soothing the nerves and calming the mind. Client would repeat this practice at home nightly, make observations, and we would review her progress a week later.

I used Hatha Yoga to teach the Bhramari Breath to introduce calmness so that the client might improve her sleep patterns in order to get restful sleep with the result of hopefully also having more energetic days.

I asked the client how her week was going, and then proceeded to sit in a chair and instructed Bhramari Breath to her. She was very receptive to the practice and followed instructions completely. We spent 25 minutes doing a short Hatha Yoga class incorporating the Bhramari Breath.

I asked the client to do Bhramari Breath each evening, to observe how she felt before and after doing the exercise, and to write down any observations so that we would discuss them at our upcoming meeting in a week.

I applied the extended plan and the client practiced Bhramari Breath five out of seven nights just before retiring, sometimes sitting in a chair and sometime lying down in bed just before doing her meditation before sleep. She did feel calmer doing this practice that put her in a place that was other-worldly, but did not always experience a restful sleep and did not know why.

I suggested that next time she did Bhramari Breath, instead of doing the exercise with her normal breathing pattern, that she inhale using a three-part breath so that her exhalations would be longer. I also suggested that she vary her pitches while exhaling to see how differently she might feel doing so. I also noticed that in not doing the Bhramari Breath with her, I was able to consciously observe her doing the exercise.

The only challenge I noticed was the client’s lack of success in having a restful sleep. It is my hope that by utilizing my suggestions of using a three-part breath while doing Bhramari Breath, along with trying varied pitches while exhaling, it might benefit her in this area.

I felt very comfortable working with this client in all areas of the process.

I would not change anything as the client was very receptive, followed instructions, and was very communicative about how she felt going through the process.

I am content with the outcome with this client and hope that my suggestions might help her to arrive at more restful evenings of sleep in the future, with renewed energy upon awakening.