A Beginners’ Guide to Ujjayi Breath
Ujjayi Pranayama (breath regulating technique) is a soft, whispering breath which you’ll also hear called victorious breath, or perhaps ocean breath. It’s compared to the sound of the wind through the trees or the waves coming to shore.
The mechanics of Ujjayi breath
With Ujjayi breath you breathe in and out of the nose with the lips sealed – no breath passes the lips. This also serves to build heat in the body. The lips gently close and although the breath is passing through the nostrils the emphasis is in your throat.
You create a constriction in the throat as if breathing in and out of a thin straw. While maintaining a closed mouth position be mindful of held tension in the teeth, jaw, throat and/or neck – let it go. You can feel the breath stroke the back of your throat as you inhale and exhale. This comes hand in hand with the audibility of the breath, compared often to the sound of waves or Darth Vader. The tone, the audibility is smooth and steady, continuous uninterrupted cycles of inhales and exhales, often you cannot tell the difference in sound between the exchange of in and out breath cycles.
Along with the even tone of breath, the length of the breath is the same on the inhale as it is on the exhale. You complete a full in-breath within the same time as you complete your out-breath. Using a metronome is a brilliant practice, if you are a musician you might have one already but if not there are some great online/phone applications that I’ve used with my students before. Set your metronome at 75 bpm, inhale for 4 beats, exhale for 4. An app that accents/ punctuates the beginning of each new cycle of breath is preferable.
With an even tone and length of breath, the last refinement is to breathe fully, deeply and completely (air volume of breath). Within each cycle you spend the entire inhale filling up and entire exhale releasing breath – at no point do you hold the breath – seamless and smooth, try not let the breath run out. Below is a video of my teacher, Kino MacGregor showing you how to practice this breathing technique.
Practice Ujjayi Breath
Sit in a comfortable seat, where your sit bones are grounded and bearing even weight on both sides. Knees no higher than hips. Stacking head over neck, neck over shoulders, 4 corners of ribs stacking 4 corners of hips. Perceive equal length in both sides of your body, spine feels lifted and tall. Chin is parallel to earth.
Rest one hand on your lap/ thigh, Palm facing up or down and the other hand at the same height and in front of your mouth, Palm facing towards you.
With your mouth open exhale into your palm, imagining you are steaming up a mirror/ glass and feeling the warm breath on your palm. On your next inhale keep the hand where it is, breathe in making that same sound. Practise this for up to 10 cycles (4 count in, 4 count out, x10). Notice if you find the inhale or exhale more difficult.
When you feel comfortable here move on to closing your mouth on the inhale but opening mouth on the exhale. See if you can maintain the sound even with the lips are sealed. Next inhale with mouth open and exhale with mouth closed, keeping sensation in your throat and the sound of breath the same. Do each for 5-10 cycles.
When you feel you want to move on from here, relax your hand and begin Ujjayi Pranayama. You might time yourself with a stopwatch for 2 minutes or chose how many cycles of breath you want to aim for (feel free to use the metronome here).
Again notice where resistance lies in the breath. Maybe you find the audibility awkward, equalising the volume of breath on both inhale and exhale difficult, or you notice the discrepancy of ease between in-breath and out-breath. Notice where you need to focus and what you need to practise on. I recommend that my students shorten the longer breath to meet the shorter breath if they are unable to stretch the breath evenly on both sides. You don’t want to feel out of breath or gasping at any point. There is absolutely NO RETENTION, it’s like a continuous sea of waves, no holding, totally fluid and seamless. Equanimous.
