How to Do Yoga Ugai or Ujjayi Breathing

Ujai breathing is an audible, powerful, and heat building breath in yoga. In Sankrit ugai means victorious. This type of breathing during yoga has the benefit of heating up your body from the inside out, focusing your (perhaps busy) mind on the audible, soothing sound of your breath, and simply making you breathe more fully.  That last one is perhaps the most important part!

Our bodies function so much better with oxygenated blood pumping through our bodies.  Breathing strengthens your lungs and heart. Numerous studies show that full breathing relieves pain, assists with weight loss, strengthens your immune system and brings relaxation to your body and clarity to your mind. It relaxes tension and releases toxins and carbon dioxide (which is the natural waste of your metabolism).  All of this is facilitated by your breathing!

“Ok, I want to breathe,“ you say! “I want to breathe more deeply.” Good!  Let's do it.

Easy Steps to Start Ugai Breathing

So how do you do ugai breathing?  It's simple really.  Sit in a comfortable position with your hips supported enough that you can sit with a straight spine. That may mean sitting on the edge of a blanket with your hips are raised up. If you can't sit up easily you can do ugai breathing laying down, sitting in a chair, or in standing position with your arms at your sides.  Anyway really, at first we just want to keep your body position simple so you can focus on your breath, notice it, and begin to deepen it easily.

Begin by breathing in and out through your nose. At first just notice your breathing, do not try to change it. Let it be as it is and notice if it is short and choppy, or if it's a long and easy breath. If it is short and choppy, take a minute to have some compassion for yourself. You have been handling a lot, you have been worried, you got scared; you forgot briefly to breathe deeply. Just let that go and commit into breathing deeply now and be proud that you are committed! Roll your shoulders down your back to let your body fall into a natural, aligned position. Clench your hands and your feet and them let them go.  Relax.

Now start elongating your inhales and elongating your exhales.  You can count silently, Inhaling 1, 2, 3…count as you are inhaling up to 8….Exhale 1, 2, 3….up to 8.  So make certain that you Strrreeetch out your breath so it last for that long count. To create the ugai sound, now bring a slight constriction into the back of your throat. (Almost like you are fogging up a mirror but with your mouth closed the entire time.) Nothing too tight, you're just closing off of the very back throat to produce an ocean-like sound. Keep breathing, stretching your breath to your 8 count on both the exhale and inhales, listening to your sound of ugai breathing. Let your mind rest on that ugai breathing.  Let your mind be soothed by this meditation of focusing on the breath.

You may notice after just a few minutes that your mind starts to calm down, to slow down. You may feel more level, calm, certain of your world and yourself. Yogic breath work is invaluable. So important in fact, that if all you do is incorporate deep breathing into your life, even without a lot of physical yoga, you will experience great benefits.

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