UJIAYI BREATH
Sit upright in a comfortable position and take a few normal preparatory breaths. Now inhale and exhale through your mouth, making a long liab” sound on each exhalation, as if you were trying to steam up a mirror. Notice how this feels in your throat. Close your mouth, inhale normally through your nose and try to replicate the sound liah” while exhaling through your nose.You should be making a gentle hissing noise, similar to the one you hear when you put a shell to your ear to listen to the sea. Do this a few times. Now try to make roughly the same sound when you iihale as when you exhale. The sensation is slightly higher upui your throat on the inhalation than on the exhalation and die sound is of a slightly different quality. Do this for a few more breaths and then relax and return to breathing normally again. As you become more familiar with ujjyi breathing. check that each breath you take is of equal length. that your inhale same length as your exhalations (count silently to yourself). that there is no hint of strain or tension in your jaw or tongue. no change in pressure as you breathe and no gasping or sighing sounds.
At first you may feel that you have to concentrate hard to maintain ujjayi breath and that it requires effort to breathe in this way. However with regular practice, ujayi breath becomes automatic and you will find you can easily maintain it throughout your yoga practice.
Sit upright in a comfortable position and take a few normal preparatory breaths. Now inhale and exhale through your mouth, making a long liab” sound on each exhalation, as if you were trying to steam up a mirror. Notice how this feels in your throat. Close your mouth, inhale normally through your nose and try to replicate the sound liah” while exhaling through your nose.You should be making a gentle hissing noise, similar to the one you hear when you put a shell to your ear to listen to the sea. Do this a few times. Now try to make roughly the same sound when you iihale as when you exhale. The sensation is slightly higher upui your throat on the inhalation than on the exhalation and die sound is of a slightly different quality. Do this for a few more breaths and then relax and return to breathing normally again. As you become more familiar with ujjyi breathing. check that each breath you take is of equal length. that your inhale same length as your exhalations (count silently to yourself). that there is no hint of strain or tension in your jaw or tongue. no change in pressure as you breathe and no gasping or sighing sounds.
At first you may feel that you have to concentrate hard to maintain ujjayi breath and that it requires effort to breathe in this way. However with regular practice, ujayi breath becomes automatic and you will find you can easily maintain it throughout your yoga practice.
