Why does vyana have no seat?

Because its function is distribution. The other four are located where their work happens; vyana's work happens everywhere.

What practice suits it?

Whole-body movement and the rest at the end of a session, when what the practice produced spreads out.

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Fifth of the five winds

Vyana

Vyāna · व्यान

The wind without a seat. Vyana moves through the whole body at once, coordinating the other four and distributing what samana has processed out to the smallest branches.

pervading circulation coordination distribution

Seat: The whole body; no single location
Direction: Outward in all directions
Governs: Circulation, coordination, movement of the limbs
Coordinates: The other four winds
Its sheath: Pranamaya kosha
Its aura layer: The etheric body

What it does

Vyana is the only one of the five without a location, which is the point of it. It reaches everywhere the others do not: the limbs, the skin, the periphery, and the coordination between one function and another.

In the classical descriptions it is what makes the body a single thing rather than a set of processes running in parallel.

When it is disturbed

Poor vyana reads as things not connecting: coordination that feels off, cold hands and feet, a sense of the body being assembled from parts. The Ayurvedic literature associates it with circulation, and the modern habit of sitting still for eight hours is the most reliable way to interfere with it.

The correction is not subtle. Move.

Working with it

Whole-body practice rather than targeted breathing: sun salutations, walking, shaking the limbs loose, and the closing rest at the end of a session, where the effect of everything done before it distributes.

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Feeds from

Samana

The navel wind whose work vyana distributes.

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Its sheath

Pranamaya kosha

The sheath the winds compose.

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Its layer

The etheric body

The field layer nearest the skin.

Frequently asked questions

: Because its function is distribution. The other four are located where their work happens; vyana's work happens everywhere.
: Whole-body movement and the rest at the end of a session, when what the practice produced spreads out.