Niraj Naik
Level 1 · BasicsLongevity BasicsThe foundations — breath as medicine: using the breath to shift state, build resilience and reconnect the body and mind.
Live Beyond · A Great Mind on the Quest

Niraj
Naik

Breathwork & the breath as medicine
Known as “The Renegade Pharmacist” · founder of SOMA Breath

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Niraj Naik is one of 100+ experts in the Live Beyond Project — a father & son quest for longevity.

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SOMA Breath
Founder
“The Renegade Pharmacist”
His story
Breathwork
Breath as medicine
Longevity Basics
Where breath lives
Who is Niraj Naik

The breath as medicine

Niraj Naik is known as “The Renegade Pharmacist” — a former community pharmacist who, after his own health crisis, turned away from dispensing medication and toward the body’s own tools for healing. Today he is the founder of SOMA Breath, a breathwork school that has taught the practice to people around the world.

His work sits squarely in Longevity Basics on the Longevity Map, in the branch Marek keeps returning to: the breath. Structured breathing — rhythmic, conscious, deliberate — is one of the simplest and most powerful tools we have to shift our state, lift our energy and build resilience. It costs nothing and it’s always with us.

Niraj’s story is also a Live Beyond story in miniature: someone who found, in the plainest of practices, a way to reclaim his own health — and then made it his mission to share it.

Breathwork SOMA Breath Breath as medicine Resilience Longevity Basics
Niraj Naik — portrait coming, shared with his permission
Portrait coming · with permission

On the quest

Where we met

Niraj is a breathwork teacher I wanted in this project because he lives what the basics teach: the breath is free, it’s always with you, and used well it changes everything. His photo is coming — shared with his permission — and we’ll add more of his story here.

Pharmacist
Before
Dispensing medication — until his own health crisis.
The turn
A new path
From pills to the body’s own tools.
SOMA Breath
Founder
Teaching the breath as medicine worldwide.

“The breath is the one tool you always have with you — free, and endlessly powerful.”

— Niraj Naik, —
In his words

Breathe, and heal

“Structured breathing pulls you out of stress, lifts your energy, and builds resilience — and it costs nothing.”

Niraj Naik · On the breath as medicine

The breath is the free, always-available medicine — the fastest way to change your state.

Niraj Naik

You don’t need a prescription to breathe well. You need a practice, and the willingness to do it.

Niraj Naik
In his own words

Straight from the interview

A short note on why breathwork earns its place in Longevity Basics — and on Niraj’s journey from pharmacy to the breath.

From pills to the breath

Niraj’s nickname — The Renegade Pharmacist — captures the turn at the centre of his story: a pharmacist who, after his own illness, stopped looking to the shelf and started looking to the body. Breathwork became the tool that helped him reclaim his health.

“He looked to the body, not the shelf.”

— · from the interview

Breath is state

A few minutes of structured breathing can move you from stress to calm, from foggy to focused, from depleted to energised. It works on the nervous system directly and fast. That’s why breath sits in Longevity Basics: high impact, zero cost, always available.

“Change the breath, change the state.”

— · from the interview

Share it

Having found the practice, Niraj built SOMA Breath to teach it — the same instinct that drives the whole Live Beyond project. The basics are meant to be passed on: to friends, to family, to anyone ready to breathe.

“The basics are meant to be shared.”

— · from the interview
Connect & follow

Explore Niraj’s work

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@nirajnaikofficial
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Niraj Naik is the founder of SOMA Breath. Connect with him on LinkedIn. His portrait — shared with permission — is coming to this page.

From the conversation

Niraj Naik, in his words

Niraj Naik’s page is being finished — his own photo and words are on the way, with his permission. For now, the theme of his work in Marek’s words:

On the breath

Marek Piotrowski“Breathwork is amazing — there’s great science behind it, and you just need to start doing it. Simple breathing pulls you out of stress, lifts your focus, and takes only minutes a day.”

On sharing it

Marek Piotrowski“People like Niraj take the plainest practice — the breath — and build a whole way of helping others from it. That’s exactly the spirit of Longevity Basics.”

More passages from the full interview will be published here.

Continue the quest

More minds on the quest

Niraj Naik sits in Longevity Basics on the Longevity Map — the breath. Explore the rest of the cast on the People page.

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