How to do Bhramari Pranayama - Bumble Bee Breath
Sit comfortably in a simple cross-legged seated position, Lotus/Half-Lotus, or Hero Pose. You can even practice this sitting upright in a chair with your feet firmly planted on the floor.
Begin to withdraw your mind from the external world around you (Pratyhara) by becoming aware of the breath moving in and out of your nostrils, up and down your nasal passageways, filling and emptying your lungs.
For the first step of Shanmukhi Mudra, BKS Iyengar says: “Raise the hands to the face and the elbows to the level of the shoulders. Place the thumb-tips in the ear holes to keep out the external sounds.” It’s important that you don’t stick your fingers or thumbs into the ear canal, just press gently on the tragus, (the small cartilaginous protrusion of the outer ear near the gateway of the ear canal) to keep out external sounds.
Feel free to stay with just thumbs closing off external sound at the ears or continue on to the full expression of Shanmukhi Mudra.
For the full mudra, place your index fingers gently over closed eyelids; middle fingers to nostrils to apply gentle pressure (narrowing them to encourage longer slower, deeper breaths); ring fingers placing downward pressure to the upper lip, and pinky fingers applying upward pressure to lower lip to close your mouth. Shanmukhi Mudra has now been applied to the 6 gates (faces) of perception (ears, eyes, nose and mouth).
Inhale through the nose with a soft sound. Yogi Hari writes, “making a reverberating sound of a male bee” and BKS Iyengar simply says Ujjayi Breath.
Then deeply exhale “with a humming or murmuring sound” (Iyengar). Bhramari Pranayama is the exhale hum, the sound of the female bee.
Practice Bhramari Pranayama for six rounds and then sit quietly in stillness, noticing the effects. You can then repeat for another six rounds. I like to practice three rounds of six before I sit for meditation.
You can experiment with low, middle or high tones. Use only one tone per exhale and notice where you feel the vibrations in your body. Note that “humming” doesn’t mean to hum a tune; when you practice Bhramari Pranayama you hum one long consistent and continuous tone per exhale.
