hi everyone and welcome to yoga with adrian i am adrian and today we are going to learn a basic breath that we do in yoga called the ujjayi breath it’s also referred to as the victorious breath but it’s an audible breath an internal sound that we can use to anchor the busy mind in on also really widely used in flow yoga which is quite popular these days and just a beautiful breath because it’s energizing and calming all at once so hop on the mat and let’s learn ujjayi okay so to begin we’re going to come into a comfortable seat of your choice this can be in a chair this can be against a wall we can come into sukhasana the easy pose a nice comfortable place where we can find a little bit of ease and perhaps a little bit of a lift in the heart here as we learn ujjayi breath peeling my skin up off my mat there sorry looping the shoulders forward up and back find that lift in the heart and just notice your natural breath here the natural ebb and flow close your eyes if you want just first bringing our attention to the natural breath then we’ll begin to deepen the breath by taking a nice sweet inhale in through the nose and exhale let it out through the mouth so i’m inhaling completely through the nose and then i’m relaxing my jaw and almost creating a ha sound as i breathe out let’s try it again inhaling through the nose exhale sound breathe out now sometimes we’ll ask students to bring their hand up inhale in through the nose and exhale feel the breath as you exhale out it’s a warm breath inhale cool air in exhale with sound out now we can release the hand ditch the hand and practice that just a couple more times inhale full breath in through the nose exhale open mouth huh there’s an image of maybe fogging up the window here drawing a little heart or i love you or writing a secret message so inhale in through the nose and exhale fogging up the window here as we breathe out so ujjayi is an audible breath granted this can be this is an internal breath so an internal sound i do think it’s nice to be in public class and hear the sound of the person’s breath next to you i think it’s inspiring and the breath is something that connects all of us but this is uh it doesn’t have to be a really loud sound in the end this can be a soft internal sound that we can use in yoga to allow the mind to anchor on so a soundtrack for our practice because ultimately our goal for yoga is to synchronize the breath of course with the movement and we can use this ujjayi breath to quiet the mind letting the mind literally anchor in this breath practice or this pranayama ujjayi so now taking it a step further we’re going to do the exhale but with the lips closed the jaw will stay relaxed but i’m going to bring my awareness now to the back of the throat this is sometimes referred to as the darth vader breath and i love that because it’s so true it’s this darth vader sound as we breathe in and out it’s a slight restriction in the back of the throat a hissing sound if you will uh where we let the breaths kind of swirl around in the back of the throat on the inhale and the exhale out so it’s a little bit hard to explain but let’s just try practicing ujjayi breath here now with the lips closed so we’ll inhale deeply in through the nose finding that sound that restriction in the back of the throat and exhale same thing as we did before but now with the lips closed let’s try it again inhale so for beginners it’s easier um to practice with the mouth open and you might want to mid mid exhale close the lips just to get a sense of how to transition to the ujjayi with the lips closed so for instance i’ll inhale in i can release the hand inhale in exhale start with the mouth open and midway close the lips really feeling that breath swirl around on the back of the throat just seeping through a little bit there now it’s easier to find that hissing sound that ujjayi’s sound in the back of the throat on the exhale but it’s a little bit more difficult to connect to it on the inhale this is where that darth vader image really comes in handy so let’s practice just a couple times finding that sound really letting the mind anchor on the sound of the breath here here we go nice steep inhale in and exhaling let it grow let it evolve let it come to the body in time so there’s no need to force it again this is really a tool for you to anchor internally the mind with the sound of that um internal breath or a soft soundtrack if you will of the practice so you don’t have to be the loudest one in the room oh that’s what i’m trying to say here so enjoy ujjayi here we go foreign Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQrsJ-yZWV8
