Welcome friends.
Today's breath pranayama practice is the ujjayi or sounding breath.
If you are new to this,
Welcome.
It is a very common pranayama breath practice that you can use at any time.
Specifically it is a wonderful warming up breath and energizing breath if you just need that start to your day or beginning a yoga practice.
But let's just begin in corpse pose.
If you can come down to a reclining position you can do this laying on a bed,
Laying on a couch,
If you're on your yoga mat,
Wherever you find comfort.
Go ahead and find some relaxing postures,
Reclining back.
The knees can be bent,
You can be in butterfly pose,
Reclining,
Whatever feels good to you.
Softly close the eyes or have a soft gaze off the nose.
Simply notice your normal breath pattern right now.
When we begin we will start with a complete exhale.
So at the bottom of an exhale we will then draw our inhale in slowly through the nose.
And on that inhale we're filling the abdomen,
We're filling the lungs,
Being very expansive.
And then on that following exhale which starts our ujjayi sounding breath,
We contract the throat just slightly so that we have a soft hissing sound as we exhale through the throat.
So it'll sound something similar to this if you are new to this type of pranayama.
So we will inhale slowly and exhale contracting the throat in order to make that noise.
So let's take our final normal breath pattern here.
Inhale in through the nose and we will exhale completely.
On this inhale,
Inhale in slowly intentionally expanding the lungs.
Expand,
Breathing in as much as you can.
And now on your exhale slight contraction and breathe out.
And come to a normal breath.
In and out.
We will start that again for cycle two.
Inhale in slowly.
Exhale out.
Normal breath in and out.
Let's do one more.
Inhale slowly.
Expand,
Expand the ribs.
And when you are ready,
Exhale ujjayi.
And normal breath in and out.
Wonderful job.
If you would like to continue this practice,
Please feel free to continue your ujjayi pranayama here.
If you are completing your practice after just these few cycles,
You still reap the amazing benefits of warming up the body,
Oxygenating the body all throughout,
Balancing the nervous system,
And you're expelling stale air from the body.
So it's very much a purification practice as well too.
So do this anytime that you want some balancing.
You want a little bit of clarity and warming of the body.
And until next time friends,
Breathe easy.
