Sudarshan Kriya is a rhythmic breathing technique developed by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji.
It harmonises the body, mind, and emotions by aligning breath with natural rhythms, helping reduce stress, fatigue, and mental chatter while enhancing clarity and emotional resilience.
The first ever breath we take announces, “I am here.”
The last breath we take whispers, “I am ready to go.”
Breath is the soul’s quiet language.
For over fifteen years, I moved through life with quiet determination. Navigating challenges, chasing victories, and making choices that shaped me in ways I’m still learning to name.
But last year, something shifted. The pace, the pressure, the performance, it all began to feel like too much. Not in a dramatic collapse, but in a slow, steady unravelling. I wasn’t broken. I was simply done with pretending I wasn’t tired.
And sometimes, tired is sacred. It’s the body asking for stillness. The soul asking for truth. So I paused. I asked the Universe for a new way forward, one that would help me shed the mask of composure and meet the version of myself I hadn’t yet known.
That’s when Swathi’s Instagram posts appeared on my feed, gentle, luminous, and quietly insistent. They pointed me toward Sudarshan Kriya, also known as SKY.
Curious and hopeful, I enrolled in the offline Happiness Program by The Art of Living. Over three days, for just 2-3 hours every day, my excellent teachers, Deep and Sanil, taught us the SKY breathing technique, a structured rhythm of breath designed to calm the mind and restore inner balance. Alongside it came gentle conversations about life, emotion, and clarity.
Breath. Prana. Saans.
30 minutes a day. 40 days of practice.
That’s all it took to begin.
SKY felt like an elder’s hand on my head, a warm cardigan on a cold morning, a quiet hug from someone who truly sees you.
Each breath softened the mental noise. Boundaries felt natural. Calm settled in. I began to unfurl, softly, slowly, surely, back to myself.
It didn’t offer answers; it dissolved the questions I never needed to ask. In its stillness, clarity arrived. And with it, a quiet knowing: I was the answer I’d been chasing.
I had given. I had done. I had shared. Now it was time to turn that generosity inward.
My breath became my anchor. Sudarshan Kriya, my guide.
Each inhale whispered, You are safe. Each exhale reminded me, You are whole.
Sudarshan Kriya didn’t fix me. It gave me a rhythm to return to. The breath became a language, one that didn’t need words, only presence. Inhale: grace. Exhale: release.
Some days, the practice feels like prayer. Other days, like rebellion. But always, a homecoming. A quiet choosing of myself.
Before SKY, my mornings began with a flood of calls, messages, emails, and expectations, accompanied by exhaustion.
After SKY, they begin with breath. Just breath.
This journey, just 30 minutes a day for 40 days, became the most intimate conversation I’ve ever had with the Universe. The transformation was subtle, yet profound.
The first breath I took said, “I am here.”
Forty days later, I whispered back, “I am home.”
And this breath, this becoming, is only the beginning.
I’ll share what it opened next, soon.
If you’ve been carrying too much, ask yourself: what would it feel like to let the breath carry some of it for you?
Sangachaddwam
Breathing itself is an art as you have beautifully described. It is said number of breaths we take in our lifetime is fixed so one must breathe slowly and deeply. All in all a nice article.