Why is one of the five winds also called prana?

Because the word does double duty: prana is energy in general and also the specific inward wind. Texts say prana vayu when they mean the second.

Is prana the same as breath?

Breath is its most obvious vehicle, not its definition. The texts are consistent that prana moves in things other than air, which is why food and impressions belong to the same wind.

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First of the five winds

Prana

Prāṇa · प्राण

The wind that brings things in. Seated between the throat and the diaphragm, moving inward and upward, responsible for the inhale and for everything else that arrives: food, sensation, impression, attention.

inward reception chest inhalation

Seat: The chest, from throat to diaphragm
Direction: Inward and upward
Governs: Inhalation, swallowing, reception of sense impressions
Its centre: Heart chakra
Its opposite: Apana
Its sheath: Pranamaya kosha

What it does

Prana vayu is the wind of intake. The inhale is the obvious case, but the classification is wider: swallowing food, taking in what the senses deliver, and the attention that goes out to meet an impression are all described as prana moving.

That width is deliberate. In this scheme, being fed and being interested are the same operation at different scales.

Excess and deficiency

Too much prana reads as overstimulation: taking in more than can be processed, a diet of impressions with no digestion behind it. Too little reads as flatness, poor appetite in every sense, breath that stays high and shallow.

The classical remedy in both directions is the same, which is to lengthen the breath and let the diaphragm do its work.

Working with it

Full, slow inhalation with attention at the sternum. Sit upright, let the lower ribs widen, and count the inhale longer over several minutes without straining the end of it. The complementary practice is to stop taking things in for a while: fewer inputs, less reading, closed eyes.

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Its opposite

Apana

The downward wind it is meant to meet.

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Its centre

Heart chakra

Anahata, seat of the wind of intake.

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Its sheath

Pranamaya kosha

The sheath the five winds compose.

Frequently asked questions

: Because the word does double duty: prana is energy in general and also the specific inward wind. Texts say prana vayu when they mean the second.
: Breath is its most obvious vehicle, not its definition. The texts are consistent that prana moves in things other than air, which is why food and impressions belong to the same wind.

Vaju

Apana

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