Ujjayi pranayama is a breathing practice that can help improve positivity and reduce stress
A yogic breathing exercise that helps to balance and bring calm is ujjayi pranayama, also known as ocean’s breath. This technique can encourage the mind to become more focused, aid concentration, and improve positivity. It can also help to reduce stress and anxiety, generate internal heat, and reduce respiratory problems.
How to practise Ujjayi Pranayama
- Sit in a comfortable seated position, tall and upright, straight spine, with relaxed shoulders and face. Your eyes can be open or closed.
- Sit for a moment, breathing at your regular pace, and allow your body and mind to relax.
- Now take a deep breath in through your nose. As you exhale, round your mouth and flow the breath up along the throat and out through the mouth – just as you would when fogging up a mirror – making a “HA” sound.
- Practise this breath flow for a couple of minutes and concentrate on feeling how the air travels through the throat and out through the mouth.
- Once you’re comfortable with this breath, you’re ready to do ujjayi breathing. Close your mouth and repeat the flow described above, but this time when you come to exhale, do so through your nose. On the exhalation, you will observe a gentle ocean sound as the breath flows up along the curved back of the throat.
- Try to keep the breathing ratio as one second on the inhalation and two seconds on the exhalation (1:2).
- For beginners, it’s best to limit your practice of the ujjayi breath flow technique – in through the nose and out through the nose – to no longer than five minutes. Observe how your mind and body feels afterwards. Longer lengths of time can be practised when you have gained more experience.
Now, whenever you find yourself in a situation when you’re feeling anxious and stressed, instead of letting it get the better of you, practise some ujjayi breathing.
