Ujjayi Pranayama To practice Ujjayi breath or any pranayama,
We want to have a slightly more upright posture than usual.
We want to have plenty of room for our lungs to expand.
We want to take the heads of our arm bones back,
In other words,
Our shoulders back,
And open our chest.
And have our head slightly tipped forward so the back of the neck feels very long.
It almost feels like we're looking down at our lungs as we practice.
And with Ujjayi breathing and any other pranayama,
It's essential that we practice with a relaxation in our body.
So scan through your body right in the beginning and just notice if there's anything that feels tense or gripped.
Of course,
You are a little bit more lifted,
As I said.
Feel your face.
Make sure your face is totally relaxed.
Your eyes are soft.
Your tongue is soft.
Your jaw is soft.
Your lips.
And even while your chest is lifted,
The head of your arm bones are back to open your chest.
You let your arms be completely relaxed.
I suggest with your palms face up in your lap.
Make sure that your belly is soft and that softening goes all the way into your pelvic floor,
All the way through your hip sockets,
Through your legs,
Right down to the soles of your feet.
Throughout this exercise,
I'll keep reminding you to relax.
When we do pranayama,
The last thing we want is any extra tension.
With a soft face,
Soft eyes,
Soft tongue,
Just notice how your breath is right now if it feels easy or difficult,
Smooth or rough.
Also make sure that your attitude is not too serious.
Sometimes when we focus so intensely on the breath,
We become way too serious.
We want to have a vibration of lightness and easefulness in our being as we do this.
We're going to begin with ujjayi inhalation and regular exhalation.
So we're only extending the in-breath at first.
And remember,
To help extend it,
You use that vibration in the back of your throat like fogging up a mirror with your mouth closed.
So instead of it being one second or two seconds for your inhale,
It's going to be five seconds or more.
Play with extending it.
See what it feels like to make the in-breath come in gradually.
The out-breath,
The exhalation,
You just let it go.
It's totally natural.
There's no ujjayi.
Bigger inhale,
Regular exhale.
Just play with that for a few rounds.
After the next one,
Go into the resting breath.
So you let all of the ujjayi go.
You let your belly become very soft.
And just breathe normally.
Let go of any tension.
Relax your face.
Relax your tongue.
Relax that space between your eyebrows,
Anywhere where you may have started gripping.
Make sure your hands are relaxed.
Take a couple more of these resting breaths and then prepare once again.
Make sure your chest is lifted.
And now as we extend the inhalations even longer,
You'll find that your belly kind of pulls in and stays there even as you take the long inhalation because now the breath is going to be coming into your lungs.
It's going to be expanding up through your rib cage as you take this long breath.
So for this next round,
Take a few of these long inhalation,
Regular exhalation breaths and play with extending it.
Again,
Not as long as you can,
But a little bit longer.
Ujjayi inhalation,
Regular exhalation for a few rounds.
Keep your eyes soft.
Keep your face soft.
Just extending the inhalation.
After the next ujjayi inhalation,
Regular exhalation,
Go back to your resting breath.
Let go of everything,
Soft eyes,
Soft tongue,
Soft belly.
Just recover.
Come back into balance.
Now in this next round,
We're just going to do three ujjayi inhalation,
Regular exhalation breaths,
But we're going to now extend the inhalation to its end.
So we're going to see how far we can extend the inhalation and how smooth we can make that extension.
So that little vibration in your throat can help you to feel how smooth the ujjayi breath is.
Also,
When you slow it down this much,
You can spend time with the breath and really be with it,
Really become intimate with it.
So let's try that.
Three long,
Smooth ujjayi inhalation,
Regular exhalation breaths.
After the three,
You go back to the resting breath at your own pace.
Cheers.
Go back to the resting breath when you're done with your three.
Go of any tension and now as we get into the practice a little bit deeper,
We also use the resting period to notice what's happening in our energy field.
Notice what's happening in our mind.
Notice how the pranayama is affecting us.
Notice the space that is opening.
In this next round of three,
We're going to extend the inhalation even further.
This kind of breathing kind of stretches the lungs and increases your capacity.
So you'll find that as you go along you can make the breaths longer and longer.
Partly because you're taking bigger breaths but also partly because you're gaining a little bit more command and you're able to slow it down even further.
So let's try that.
Three extra long,
Extra smooth,
Extra easy ujjayi inhalation regular exhalation breaths.
Do them at your own pace and then go back into the resting breath.
You'll notice areas in your lungs that want to open that maybe you're not used to breathing into.
Go ahead and just embrace that.
Make sure you're breathing into the back of your lungs and the tip tops of your lungs,
Those upper lobes.
After your three breaths,
Go back to the resting.
Let go of any tension but then also enjoy the state that you're cultivating.
Feel how your regular breath is becoming smoother,
Easier.
Let's do one more round of the ujjayi inhalation,
Regular exhalation at your own pace but make these extra long,
Extra smooth and really hang out in the inhalation.
Like be there,
Experience it on your own.
You you you you you Sometimes the challenge in pranayama is we become so relaxed and so spacious that we start to space out.
So as you come back into the resting breath,
Stay here.
Keep that lift in your chest.
If you want to lift your head and let your head move around to avoid neck tension or move your body a little bit,
It's fine.
During the resting breath,
You're recovering but stay here.
Keep feeling your breath.
Keep feeling your inner state.
You We'll do a couple of rounds with regular inhalation and ujjayi exhalation but you'll find that after you've already done some of these ujjayi inhalations,
Your inhalation is going to be fuller.
That's fine.
It's good to start with a nice full inhalation when you're doing this.
What makes it ujjayi is that you don't just let the exhalation go with one big gust the way that we usually do but you use that same little glottis control in your throat to let it go gradually.
We're going to breathe through the nose and just play with it at first.
Do a few rounds.
Regular inhalation,
Ujjayi exhalation and like we did before,
Don't try to make it as long as you can.
Just make it longer than usual on the exhalation.
Try that for a few rounds now.
Again that vibration gives you a way to monitor how smooth,
If you're gripping,
If you're forcing.
Do one more of these regular inhalation,
Ujjayi exhalation and then go to your resting breath.
Resting breath.
Your belly is relaxed,
Your face is relaxed.
You're just breathing normally but noticing what's happening in your inner state.
Notice how it's affecting your mind.
Notice the space that you're creating within.
After the next resting breath,
We're going to do another round of three ujjayi exhalations with regular inhalations and now we're going to extend the exhalation to be a little bit longer.
Again,
You're not going all the way but you're playing with slowing it down more.
At your own pace,
We're going to do three and go back to resting breath.
Keep your eyes soft,
Keep your tongue soft,
When you're back in the resting breath,
Stay here.
Feel the natural breath,
How it's becoming refined and smooth.
In this next round of three breaths,
We're going to extend the exhalation to its end.
The exhalation is slow and long as you can make it.
And when you get towards the end,
It may feel like you're squeezing out the last bit of breath.
Go ahead and play with that without forcing it.
Let's do three of those now.
Long,
Smooth,
Easy exhalations with regular inhalation at your own pace.
Nice and easy with the inhalation.
Sometimes when we squeeze the breath out,
We want to gasp for breath.
Just keep it all nice and easy.
As you extend the exhalation,
Be there,
Notice it,
Enter it completely.
Enter those three,
You go back to the resting breath,
Relax your face,
Relax your belly.
Now we're ready to put the inhalation and exhalation together and practice a few rounds of full ujjayi breathing.
But as we did before,
We're not going to begin with the slowest,
Longest breaths that we can do.
We're going to make them slow,
We're going to make them long,
But we're not going to push to the maximum in these first rounds.
Just play with how it is to do a long,
Smooth,
Slow inhalation with a long,
Slow,
Smooth exhalation.
Nice and easy.
Do three of those at your own pace and then go back to the resting breath again.
Remember,
Lift your chest,
Tip your head forward,
Soft eyes,
Soft tongue.
Three full ujjayi breaths.
Friends,
Family,
Friends.
Uniding.
When the three are completed,
You go back to the resting breath for two to three,
Maybe four resting breaths to recover.
And then go back into Ujjayi and this time extend a little bit deeper,
But with an attitude of easefulness.
We're not pushing.
Making a little bit longer,
A little bit slower.
Do three more at your own pace now.
Don't strain anything.
Don't stress anything.
Nice and easy.
After those three,
You go back into the resting breath.
After a few breaths to recover,
Then go back into three more Ujjayi breaths in and out.
And do a few rounds like that at your own pace.
Three Ujjayi breaths.
A handful of resting breaths.
Three more Ujjayi breaths at your own pace.
Two more.
Back into the resting breath and completely let the pranayama go.
You can relax your posture.
Just notice the space that the Ujjayi breath has created within you.
Rest in that space.
Rest in the spaciousness that the pranayama has cultivated for you.
Rest in the spaciousness that the pranayama has cultivated for you.
