UJJAYI PRANAYAMA

The Ujjayi pranayama or “success breath” or “ocean breath” or “loud breath” can help settle your mind and body when you are feeling irritated, frustrated or overheated. It has a soothing and cooling effect.

The origins of the word “Ujjayi” are not known but its one interpretation is “leading to success” or "victorious." This breath allows you to stay focused and avoid unnecessary mental friction. Ujjayi creates a cooling influence at the back of the throat and has a balancing effect on both the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

Ujjayi breath is recommended when you feel yourself aggravated or upset and you will soon notice a prompt soothing effect. Ujjayi has a calming effect on the body and helps the mind to remain focused. It is also advisable while performing yoga poses to help stay focused as you move from one asana to the next. Ujjayi breathing is also useful while doing aerobic exercises. Olympic athletes have added Ujjayi to their trainings in order to enhance respiratory efficiency. If you perform Ujjayi pranayama while doing cardiovascular workout then you will feel how rapidly it reduces wear and tear in your body.

TECHNIQUE

Ujjay Pranayama

Sit in Padmasana and take a slightly deeper than normal breath. Inhale and exhale deeply through the mouth. On exhalation begin to tone the back of your throat, slightly constricting the passage of air so as when you breathe out it sounds like you are snoring. Imagine that you are fogging up a pair of glasses. The outflow of your breath is through your nose with your mouth loosed. Another way to get the hang of this practice is to first exhale the sound “haaah” with your mouth open. Now make a similar sound with your mouth closed, directing the outflow of air through our nasal passages. This should result in the desired breathy snoring sound. This is where the name of the breath comes from because it sounds like the ocean.

Once you are comfortable with exhale start applying the same technique of toning the throat to the inhales, gently constricting your throat as you inhale.

Another way to think about Ujjayi Breath is to visualize your throat as a garden hose, with the breath passing through like a trickle of water. If you put your thumb partially over the opening of the hose, you increase the power of the water that is coming through. This is the same thing you are doing with your throat during Ujjayi breathing. The air that comes in through your constricted throat is a powerful, directed breath that you can send into the parts of your body that need it during yoga.

When you are able to control the throat on both the inhale and the exhale, close the mouth and begin breathing through the nose. Continue applying the same toning to the throat that you did when the mouth was open. The breath will still make a loud noise coming in and out of the nose. This is Ujjayi breath.

Remember your breath should be both long and smooth. The sound of Ujjayi is created by gently constricting the opening of the throat to create some resistance to the passage of air. Gently pulling the breath in on inhalation and gently pushing the breath out on exhalation against this resistance creates a well-modulated and soothing sound, something like the sound of ocean waves rolling in and out.

BENEFITS

Ujjayi Pranayama raises body heat the sound vibrations calm and focus the mind, letting you relax more. It also helps reduce high blood pressure and slow down heart rate. Alternatively, it can also be used to raise the blood pressure and heart rate. This however depends on whether you are practicing the Ashtanga (method of yoga involves synchronizing the breath with a progressive series of postures) style of forceful Ujjayi or the meditative style of slow and soft Ujjayi. Ujjayi also helps in effectively curing pain reduction, insomnia and migraines. Most remarkable benefit of Ujjayi Pranayama is that it performs internal purification, activation and energizing along with outer control and conditioning all at the same time. Ujjayi Pranayama cures heat in the head as well as lung diseases like asthma, tuberculosis. It also improves digestive capacity and enhances functioning of the respiratory systems. Ujjayi is most effective for asthmatics as it corrects and strengthens the condition of the lungs and bronchiole linings.