“It’s so powerful. I couldn’t believe it. REALLY deep slow breaths are an amazing way to find calm!” she said. I loved the look on her face.
We were kicking off a new yoga program recently and presenting the benefits of yoga, and the breath. There are many benefits that come with a yoga practice, 38 in fact, according to a Yoga Journal article. Many of these benefits are the same benefits that you experience from other aerobic activities. But with yoga, one of the biggest differences is the importance of the breath and the impact that the control and awareness of the breath bring to your overall whole being.
The most basic breathing in yoga is call the Ujjayi (pronounced oohj-JAI-yee) translated as victorious breath. The word is Sanskrit and the according to B.K.S. Iyengar, a grandfather to the yoga world, the prefix uj mead upward or superiority in rank, blowing or expanding.
“It conveys the sense of pre-eminence and power. Jaya means conquest, victory, triumph or success. Ujjayi is the process in which the lungs are fully expanded and the chest puffed out like that of a proud warrior.”
This kind of breath is also called ocean breath or Darth Vader breath. Why because the processes of closing the throat slightly and then breathing in and out through the nose has that ruling waves sound or that sound of Darth Vader breathing. (Who knew he was a yogi!)
To practice the ujjayi breath, inhale and exhale with your mouth open and make a haa sound as if you were trying to fog a mirror in front of you. Then make that same haa sound as you inhale again with your mouth open. This helps get the sound of making that haa. Then try this same thing with your mouth closed. The haa is made because the throat has to close down slightly. If you’re doing it you’ll hear that ocean or Darth Vader sound.
This constrained breath has a positive effect triggering the body’s rest and restore system. This is awesome. You can feel it within just a few breaths. It is a sense of calming and release. A sense of getting grounded and being okay.
She was right. The breath is powerful. It’s there for you in any moment. Practice ujjayi during your yoga practice and in that staff meeting, in the grocery store line, at the dentist AND especially when you are exhausted and your son shares that he needs a Magellan costume for tomorrow morning at school.
Just breathe. Everyone will benefit.
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