Reclaiming Our Right To Wellness, One Breath At A Time

When Niraj Naik faced an autoimmune disease that wasn’t responding to conventional medication, his doctors gave him two choices: surgery to remove his colon and leave him dependent on a colostomy bag; or join a risky clinical trial for an untested drug.

These choices left Naik feeling disempowered; neither option gave him the power to take control of his health and well-being. Sadly, Naik isn’t the only person to be cornered into decisions that disempower them from taking charge of their own health.

A Pharmacist Disillusioned with the Domination of Modern Medicine

Modern medicine domination has trained society to place our health and wellness entirely into the hands of others. We have been taught to rely on doctors telling us what’s wrong with us. We then rely on them telling us what we need to undergo, or swallow, to fix our problems.

For someone who trained and worked in the medical field as a pharmacist, Naik’s personal health situation left him disillusioned by the domination of modern medicine and how it robs people from having control over their own wellness.

He knew this wasn’t the vision that the forefathers of medicine had. Hippocrates, widely recognised as the “Father of Medicine”, had famously said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

The very notion that one’s food choices were the central concept of medicine showed that Hippocrates meant to empower people to take charge of their own health. Yet, today, modern medicine has evolved into the exact opposite of that vision, disempowering millions of lives. Naik knew something needed to change.

Finding the Balance: Blending Ancient Wisdom with Modern Science

After an encounter with a trusted family friend who encouraged him to study the ancient paths to wellness, and driven by the motivation to feel empowered over his own health, Naik embarked upon a journey of profound healing.

He learnt from people who had great success in curing themselves or others from chronic illness. He studied and learned to implement natural treatments including Ayurvedic practices, Pranayama, and dietary advice. He studied methods like meditation, and Yoga, self-hypnosis and NLP and discovered how Pranayama breathwork accelerates and amplifies the results of these methods.

Naik even discovered the powerful techniques of sound and music therapy as tools for reducing stress and promoting physical and emotional healing. As someone with a lifelong love for music and experience as a DJ at festivals around the world, Naik was delighted to discover how he could merge these ancient practices of breathwork with modern tracks crafted with brain-syncing beats to deepen results.

Furthermore, Naik applied his scientific medical training and understanding of the human body to all the ancient knowledge of healing. He was fascinated by how much evidence there was that explained or supported these ancient modes of healing.

It took him about six months to break free from the burdens of his illness without medication with this newfound knowledge. He was also ready to share his journey and discoveries with the world so others could become empowered to reclaim their own wellness. That was how SOMA Breath was founded.

Sparking a Global Movement for Breath

SOMA Breath was founded as a global, holistic school and community that combines various breathing techniques based on Pranayama with music, dance, and meditation that even the busiest person in modern society can access and enjoy. Their mission is to empower people with knowledge, tools, and techniques to make positive and lasting change in their lives.

The breathwork techniques taught in SOMA Breath are the core Pranayama sequences that have the most scientific evidence to support their function. With an understanding of how each breathwork techniques work, SOMA Breath instructors have the skills to arrange the breathwork techniques into a personalised sequence to meet their individual objectives. There is no one size fits all, and that’s been a key factor in SOMA Breath’s widening success and impact.

Since SOMA Breath was founded in 2016, thousands of SOMA Breath practitioners have reported total life transformation results such as healing chronic pain or illness, managing stress and reducing anxiety, increasing confidence and self-esteem, and awakening to their soul’s purpose and authentic self.

The SOMA Breath tribe is not led by a single “guru”, not even Naik himself. From the very beginning, Naik wanted to make sure that everyone had an equal opportunity to empower themselves with this knowledge to reclaim their own wellness. That’s why anyone in the SOMA Breath tribe can train to become an instructor. Today, SOMA Breath has over 800 instructors leading SOMA Breath workshops around the world.

With schools like SOMA Breath, anyone can reclaim their right to wellness—one breath at a time. Most importantly, people can now be empowered to take charge of their own health by learning how to balance ancient healing wisdom with the evidence of modern science.