Pranayama is not just mechanical, it has a heart component. Just like a relationship, if you ignore someone they ignore you, but if you create an interest in someone then there is an energy flow that goes back and forth. In pranayama you’re doing the breathing but you’re also remembering that this oxygen molecule that you’re taking into your body came thru billions of years of evolution and amazing experimentation. It’s the total epiphany of I CAN. All the blocks that have tried to stop this evolution, then finally the ingeniousness of creation giving you the ability to exchange gases with trees. The remembrance of this and developing the appreciation of this is what opens up the pranayama.