In this episode of Wellness, Questioned, Katie and Annabel explore the complexities of breathwork and its commercialisation in modern wellness practices. Throughout the episode they discuss how traditional practices like Pranayama are often simplified and sold as one-size-fits-all solutions, potentially stripping away important context and lineage. The conversation also touches on the importance of understanding individual breath needs and the impact of breath practices on anxiety and sports performance.

(0:48) Exploring breathwork and Pranayama
(4:40) Modern practices losing cultural context
(9:45) Breathwork in yoga and sports
(15:03) Teaching breathwork
(22:08) Practical advice for breathwork
(24:07) Season Three Wrap-Up

Welcome to Wellness Questioned, a podcast looking at how to navigate the wellness industry well, hosted by Katie Gordon and Annabel Lee. In each episode, they cover a different aspect of wellness and self-improvement, looking at ethics, scandals, and red flags.

Come and join us as we explore how to do wellness, well.

Follow us on Instagram @wellnessquestioned

Meet the hosts:

Katie Gordon - Katie is a yoga teacher, coach, parent and founder of Every Body Studio. She used to work in publishing but now gets to read books for fun. She loves yoga and some forms of wellness, but is admittedly pretty cynical about most of it. However, she is willing to put aside her scepticism for anything that involves lying down, or that could end in a nap.

Katie's work focus is on psychology and mental health support, and she uses an evidence-based approach to yoga, mindfulness and breath-work. She likes coffee, red wine and almost anything to eat.

Check out her work @everybody_studio and @helm.collective on Instagram.

Annabel Lee - Annabel is a writer, communications consultant, speaker and professional over-thinker. She loves all things wellness and is up for trying (almost anything) but often wonders if it’s really working, or if it's just nice to wear some yoga pants. She used to work for PR agencies but quit after having a couple of babies. Annabel trained as a yoga teacher in 2017 but had to quit that too because of a hip injury, although she has remained fascinated by the world of wellness.

Annabel has written for publications including Red, Stylist, Metro and Glamour with a focus on health, wellbeing and work. She loves oat milk lattes, Selling Sunset, dog walks without her children and white wine spritzers.

See more from her @annabellee.co on Instagram.