Natural Breathing - Or passive breath observation, simply involves taking notice of our breath, not forcing it to do anything different than what it’s already doing. It’s the organic flow of our inhales and exhales.

 

Our natural breath is a great indicator of what’s happening in the present moment. If we’re in a more relaxed state, we may notice that our breaths are naturally deep, with slow inhalations and exhalations. On the other hand, if we’re in more of an anxious state, we may notice that our breaths are shallow, as we quickly breathe in and out.

 

When relaxing into a practice, take notice of the pace of your inhalations and exhalations. Don’t try to change them, just bring awareness to them. 

 

As we move from natural breathing to controlled breathing, or pranayama, we’ll begin to observe ourselves on a deeper level.

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Practice: Find a comfortable seat with your back straight, shoulders away from your ears. Spine and neck elongated, chin tucked slightly, eyes can be opened or closed, and start to bring awareness to your breath. Whether your breath is deep or shallow, don’t allow yourself to judge it, just breathe. Simply acknowledge it. In these beginning moments of natural breathing, we’re removing the mental disruptions (chitta vritti) and any judgment, while creating a calm mind for meditation and ultimately preparing for our practice. (See minutes 0 thru 1:12 in video above)

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Deep Breathing: When in a heightened situation and/or state of mind, deep breathing can completely halt overwhelming feelings and emotions that arise.

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Practice: Find a comfortable seat with your back straight, shoulders away from your ears. Spine and neck elongated, chin tucked slightly, with your eyes closed. Take a deep inhale through your nose...….and exhale it all out through your mouth. Repeat 3-4 times. If you’re wondering how to gauge what ‘deep’ is, try counting to 4 or 5 as you deeply inhale and then let it all go during your exhale (your exhale will typically be much longer.) Do this as many times as it takes to start slowing your heart rate down. (See minutes 1:12 thru 1:53 in video above)

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Ujjayi Breath - This method is the first pranayama technique I was taught in the yoga studio. It was described to us as ‘building a fire’ throughout our practice. Ujjayi is the breathing technique that we can rely on to get us from one challenging posture to the next.

 

We would begin each class in an active child’s pose, bringing awareness to our natural breath, followed by deep inhalations through the nose and equally deep exhalations through the mouth. We’d then move on to our Ujjayi breath for several minutes to start ‘building that fire.’

 

As our practice progressed, we would use this breath to continuously warm our bodies and to give ourselves a sense of focus. Whenever our thoughts wandered, we could rely on our Ujjayi breath to get us back to the present moment. As we moved through the poses, we used this breath to flow from pose to pose, flowing breath to movement for a beautifully harmonious, albeit intense (and VERY warm!) practice.

 

Ujjayi breath is the core of any Vinyasa practice. 

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Practice: Begin in a seated position or in an active child’s pose, eyes can be opened or closed, and start by slowly inhaling through your nose as you evenly exhale through your nose, creating an ocean-like sound in the back of your throat. Keep the breath steady, rhythmic, balanced, and strong. Slowly inhaling through your nose and deeply exhaling through the nose as you feel the heat building in your body. Inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your nose. (See minutes 1:53 thru 3:14 in video above)

 

Nadi Shodhana Breathing – This breathing technique is also called alternate nostril breathing technique and has many benefits, including:

 

• Increasing oxygen flow in the body

• Regulating the nervous system

• Reducing stress and anxiety

• Balancing the left and right feminine and masculine energies

• Enhancing concentration

• Keeping clear and balanced respiratory channels

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This particular breathing technique can work wonders for easing stress and anxiety! Since it’s much more involved than the previous techniques, I invite you to visit the website below to best learn how to accurately perform this technique.

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Practice: (See minutes 4:46 thru 6:00 minutes in video above)

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Lion’s Breath - This is a fun one! For Lion’s breath, we LET IT ALL GO!! It’s extremely therapeutic, we don’t need to repeat it many times because we’ll feel the benefits instantly, and it will definitely put a smile on your face after just a few rounds. 

 

It’s an energizing breathing technique that opens the throat chakra (chakras are lines of energy along our spine), boosting our confidence, thus allowing us to experience less stress.

 

Practice: Find a comfortable seat with your back straight, shoulders away from your ears. Spine and neck elongated, chin tucked slightly, eyes open. Take a deep breath in through your nose and exhale forcefully out of your mouth making an ‘ahhhhh’ sound, sticking your tongue out and stretching it down toward your chin. (See minutes 6:00 thru 7:21 in video above)

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