One of many pillars of our Vinyasa Yoga courses is our breath.
The ability our breath has over our physique, thoughts and spirit is inspiring; it’s additionally very important to our yoga apply. It helps us create that stunning state of stream as we transfer by means of our apply. Even in essentially the most difficult energy vinyasa courses breath is the undercurrent that guides us. It additionally helps us faucet into our parasympathetic nervous system which calms our physique’s physiology. Linking breath with motion will loosen up a stressed thoughts and permit one to ease right into a calmer state of being. The end result on the finish of sophistication is a harmonious, balanced vitality.
In our vinyasa courses, we use a respiratory approach referred to as Ujjayi breath (pronounced oo-jai). You might have heard of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. This textual content is broadly thought to be the authoritative textual content on the 8 limbs of yoga. In his 196 quick sutras or ‘threads’, there are 3 which reference the bodily apply of yoga, (asana). Sutra 2.46 states that our bodily postures ought to stability effort and ease. How do we all know if we’ve discovered that stability? The state of our breath can provide us an enormous clue!
The pranayama breath apply of Ujjayi ought to have two qualities: It ought to be lengthy, and it ought to be easy. Ujjayi is also called the ‘victorious breath’ and has a sound just like ocean waves. The advantages vary from calming our our bodies to cleaning our vitality channels (nadis) to selling psychological readability and focus. It’s mentioned to refresh our pranic vitality, or in different phrases, our life pressure!
In our Vinyasa courses, you’ll fairly often hear our lecturers encourage you to search out your Ujjayi breath in the beginning of sophistication. So! The way to discover this implausible breath approach to boost your asana apply.
This breath entails constricting your vocal cords partially and it’ll really feel just like whispering. When practising Ujjayi our throat muscle groups of the glottis barely constrict, in order we breathe by means of our nostril, there’s a refined whispering sound resulting from this slight constriction on the base of our throat.
Think about whispering to somebody, however with out really talking the phrases out loud. Or equally, think about attempting to fog up a mirror with out opening your mouth. These are two easy methods to really feel this slight constriction. Protecting that, merely begin to breathe by means of your nostril a 4-count inhale, and a 4-count exhale. You have got discovered Ujjayi.
The difficult half could be staying dedicated to Ujjayi all through your complete apply, particularly in moments of problem like facet plank or after your twentieth chaturanga! However the stunning factor about your breath is it may act as a gauge all through your apply to find in case you are pushing your self an excessive amount of, or not sufficient!
When you can maintain a gentle cadence of Ujjayi breath simply all through your apply, it is perhaps an indication which you can discover your edge and problem your self somewhat extra! In case you are continuously dropping your breath, gasping for air or solely respiratory very shallowly, you may be pushing your self too laborious. We should always should work to maintain our breath regular, however we shouldn’t be pushing our our bodies on the expense of our internal peace. Protecting our Ujjayi breath lengthy and easy helps us keep in our parasympathetic nervous system which accesses the a part of ourselves that’s calm, regular, and peaceable.
On the finish of our apply, Ujjayi helps us depart with that equanimous, balanced, easeful vitality. It additionally provides us one thing to deal with as we transfer by means of the apply. When the thoughts wanders, recommit to that lengthy, easy Ujjayi high quality of your breath. It should aid you anchor your thoughts again into your physique and the current second.
One other stunning lesson that the traditional knowledge of yoga items us is that no effort in yoga is ever wasted. Even should you solely apply this breath for a couple of moments, it is going to aid you discover somewhat extra presence, and turn out to be calmer.
“The rhythm of the breath occurs 22,000 occasions a day. Whenever you spend just some of those occasions in delight and marvel, it begins to rework the opposite 99.999% that you just take as a right.“
– Radiance Sutras
Written by Katie Tetz
Studio Enterprise Supervisor | Ever Inspiring Author & Yoga Trainer for Energy Dwelling Australia
