Prana and Apana: Absorption and Creation

Prana is often called a mystical life-force that is invisible, abstract, hard to grasp. Yes, it is that. But it’s also something far more real: it’s happening right now, in every single cell of your body.

Two things happen constantly in every cell of your body. It’s absorbing nutrients, oxygen and eliminating waste products, and yes, even deeper down, spent creative tissues. This isn’t something you consciously control. If either side of that exchange breaks down, for example, if a cell stops absorbing properly, or stops releasing its waste, the result is dysfunction, toxicity, and eventually cell death.

The inward pull is prana vayu. The outward release is apana vayu. The prana vayu absorbs and nourishes the apana vayu purifying and releasing. Neither works without the other.

There’s a deeper layer here too. Hatha yoga places the meeting point of prana and apana in the pelvic region, at the svadhisthana chakra. This is the place where consciousness first takes on physical form. The principle is simple: everything starts as consciousness, and life itself is what happens when prana and apana meet inside a body.