To Ujjayi, or Not Ujjayi

As an Ashtangi you are familiar with the audible sound of Ashtanga practice, the ujjayi breath. I’m often asked how one breathes “like that.” My usual response is that I don’t teach anyone how to breathe. This usually creates confusion because the person asking hears the ujjayi sound in the room.

My main reason for not teaching anyone how to breathe is so that the ujjayi process can evolve naturally as a result of experience and not an external idea,or suggestion of how one should breathe. Experience has shown me that the ujjayi sound is not an intellectual process but a state of being.


Every asana, vinyasa and sequence of asanas changes the breath in a different way. Each asana focuses the breath in different parts of the body and restricts it in others. These changes magnify the physiological effects of the postures as well as shift the experience of one’s awareness and concentration. For example, the breath and awareness for Samasthiti is quite different from that of Kapotasana. One would not pump the breath in Samasthiti as strongly as they would in Kapotasana, it would be a waste of effort. We have all been next to somebody who, from the beginning of their practice, is loud and aggressive with their breath. They pump and work the breath as if they are executing one of the most difficult asanas while they are going through a simple sun salutation.


The Ashtangis who present themselves to me with such exaggerated breathing patterns, on the average, tend to be those who were instructed to breathe 'like that' or to breathe like their neighbor. More often than not, they were instructed to breathe that way in a led class from the very first day. Introducing the idea of controlling the breath without first learning the simple ins-and-outs of how to move and breath (vinyasa) with awareness and comfort seems faulty.

Most people are not aware of how they breathe while sitting still much less when they are first starting a yoga practice. The first thing students need is to be given the chance to acclimate to the effects of the practice and how to monitor and control the mental and physical effort that goes into discovering the basic concept of vinyasa(breath coordinated movement). Without this, they mentally and physically constrict the breath because they are trying to duplicate something that they don’t feel or understand for themselves. This is what leads to exaggerated breathing.


Thanks for reading. We’ll continue exploring this subject in the next post.