This is part 2 of a 3 part series on the layers of consciousness. Breath is not just respiration. It’s a key to shaping time, transforming energy, and aligning our inner and outer lives. This post dives into the subtle body and its role in creative effectiveness.
These layers of consciousness I refer to are called koshas in the yogic system.
And in the non-dual system, we use the koshas to ground our attention—to give us an entry point into that which has no opposite.
There’s the Anamaya Kosha, Pranamaya Kosha, Manomaya Kosha, Vijnanamaya Kosha, and Anandamaya Kosha.
You’ll notice that each layer of consciousness contains the words maya and kosha.
Maya means illusion. Kosha means layer or sheath.
This refers back to the idea that every way we can experience reality here is actually an illusion.
We notice them nonetheless, because that’s the physical structure of our life here on Earth.
What makes them illusions is that everything we experience in these layers has some kind of opposite.
And whatever has an opposite exists within duality.
Whatever is real has no opposite.
Let me explain these layers more clearly.
The Anamaya Kosha is the illusion of the physical body—the layer of physical sensation.
The physical body can feel hot, cold, relaxed, tense, heavy, light, stuck, fluid, pleasurable, painful.
Every sensation that can be noticed in the physical body has a counterpart.
So if there’s a part of my body experiencing pleasure, there is probably also a part of my body that knows pain.
We begin to experience a non-dual awareness not by bypassing pain or clinging to pleasure,
but by holding them both simultaneously.
Welcoming both.
The Pranamaya Kosha is the illusion of the breath body—the layer of energy.
Prana can mean breath, but it can also mean energy.
As we practice yoga through the physical postures, over time, something opens.
You start to feel energy—maybe in savasana, maybe in stillness.
You might notice tingling in the palms or the soles of the feet,
a wave of warmth through the heart,
a buzzing up the spine,
a spaciousness at the crown of the head.
Aliveness.
The reason this word prana can mean both breath and energy is because the two are deeply connected.
Even more advanced yogis develop the ability to influence this energetic layer through breath.
Breath becomes a portal to time.
Holding the exhale—suspending breath—can create a sense of stillness,
like time stretching out.
Breathing alternately through the right side and the left, or front and back,
illuminates how we’re inhabiting the energetic field of the body.
Letting attention fill the space of the breath shows us what’s resisting that attention.
And sometimes, that’s all it takes.
Noticing a block is enough for it to shift.
But if we resist the block, try to avoid it, try to relax it away, it usually stays.
Yoga, here, becomes a practice of welcoming.
Welcoming awareness. Welcoming sensation.
Welcoming what’s uncomfortable instead of needing to change it.
This builds capacity.
This expands our ability to be with what is.
The “good” and the “bad.”
The light and the dark.
It expands our ability to inhabit ourselves—
and eventually, to inhabit a reality that is bigger than ourselves.
The purpose of physical yoga is to prepare the body for breath practices.
And the purpose of breath practices is to increase the body’s capacity to hold energy.
Think of it like this:
You are an electrical wire.
If the wire is frayed or thin in places, there won’t be as much energy that can move through.
You won’t be able to hold as much power.
You won’t have as much impact.
We build the wire in two main ways.
One way is through breathwork.
One breath exercise strengthens this wire effectively—
it makes it thicker, more stable, more able to channel energy.
That practice is called Anuloma Viloma.
To practice Anuloma Viloma, you breathe through alternate sides of the body using Vishnu Mudra.
Vishnu mudra represents a preserving energy, as Vishnu is the Hindu god who preserves and sustains.
Anuloma Viloma involves internal retention—holding the breath in—
while applying locks at the root and the throat
to circulate energy through the torso.
Part of what energizes Anuloma Viloma is a mantra, which translates to: Thy will be done.
We use Sanskrit for this because Sanskrit is an ancient vibrational language—pre-colonial, rooted in the body. Sanskrit isn’t symbolic. It vibrates.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
Thy will be done.
So, practicing Anuloma Viloma, at the top of the breath, you hold it while applying the locks. Relax into the holding, and say it to yourself slowly.
Notice where the vibrations of these words/sounds go in your body.
Notice where they stay—even after the sound is gone.
Even in the spaces between the words.
Take time.
To be curious. To connect.
The second way to build the wire is by aligning words, thoughts, and actions. And that is the topic of the next article.
Curious about how breathwork and creative energy intersect? Colors Make Shapes offers experiential workshops that help you move from burnout to brilliance. Let’s connect.
© 2025 Andrea Merello. All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce this content without permission.
