Embodiment of Spirit: Pranayama and the Philosophy of Breath

Sanni Parkkinen

Sanni Parkkinen is experienced breathing educator, breath worker, somatic coach and E-RYT 500h yoga teacher. Sanni's roots are in Hatha Yoga and non-dual Kaula Tantra. She has also studied non-dual Shaiva-Shakta Tantra and Vijnana Yoga immensely and taken several courses in Qigong and Tummo. Through these lineages combined with modern day trauma-informed understanding of the breath and nervous system, she loves to weave herself and her clients back into the web of Life. Sanni teaches subtle perception, language of breath, and embodiment of spirit (which we also can call prana or life force). Sanni has a deeply intuitive yet rational understanding of the human system, realms of experiences and metaphysics of nature. She is a vocal work practitioner and sound healing guide. Her big passion is to explore the convergences of latest research and ancient wisdom. Sanni's Breathing Unlimited™ approach to breath work is multidisciplinary, drawing inspiration from various modalities: Integrative Breathing Therapy, Buteyko Method, Breathwork, Taoism, Somatic Experiencing, Body-Mind Centering®, Movement Intelligence, Feldenkrais, Hatha, Tantra & Vijnana Yoga and various body-oriented therapy modalities. Sanni educates new breathing coaches both in Norway and Finland and holds retreats internationally ranging from therapeutic applications of breathing to more spirit-led explorations of breathwork.

Petri Berndtson

Dr. Petri Berndtson has been described as a thinker who has an immense philosophical imagination. He is among the leading respiratory philosophers of our time. He is also a researcher, lecturer, entrepreneur and meditation and breath coach. Petri works as a research associate at the Institute for Philosophical and Religious Studies in the Science and Research Center Koper (Slovenia). He taught philosophy for many years at the Lahti University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and was a guest lecturer at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts (Norway). In the field of breathwork, Petri leads workshops and gives lectures. He was, for example, an invited lecturer at “Breath Immersion: From Science to Samadhi” conference in Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in 2015 and a keynote speaker at the GIC2024 breathwork conference in the Netherlands. Petri was also one of the organizers of Respiratory Philosophy: a Paradigm Shift (the first international academic conference on respiratory philosophy) in Portorož, Slovenia in 2023.

Petri holds a master’s degree in philosophy from University of Helsinki and Ph.D. from University of Jyväskylä (Finland). He is the author of Phenomenological Ontology of Breathing: The Respiratory Primacy of Being (Routledge, 2023) and the coeditor of Atmospheres of Breathing (SUNY Press, 2017). He is an avid practitioner of mindfulness of breathing meditation and other methods of breathwork.