Many Yogis consider the breath to be a powerful and essential part of one’s yoga practice. When a yogi can control their breath, they can control their prana or life force energy, which governs all that they think, feel and do. One of the best breathing techniques you can use to create a calm and peaceful mind is Sama Vritti Pranayama. This is a simple but highly effective yoga breathing exercise that can be practiced by just about anyone at just about any time. Mastering this technique will help center your mind to improve your meditation and yoga. Practicing this breath also creates a foundation for learning the more advanced pranayamas.

What is Sama Vritti Pranayama?

Sama Vritti Pranayama is a yoga breathing exercise that is also known as the equal breath or box breathing. Sama means “equal”, and vritti means “mental fluctuations”, so Sama Vritti Pranayama translates as “equal mental fluctuation breathing”. Samavritti pranayama is a ratio breathing technique that uses a set length of equal inhalations, exhalations and breath retentions. The main goal of this technique is to reduce mental chatter and distractions.

The benefits of Sama Vritti Pranayama

The main benefit of this pranayama practice is to equalize, harmonize and balance the prana flowing through the body’s nadis or energy channels. This four-part breathing technique is primarily practiced for calming and balancing the mind and body to reduce mental stress and worry. The conscious use of the diaphragm to increase the flow of air into the lung is a great way to improve your ability to breathe deeply and to bring oxygen to the lungs. Sama Vritti can also help slow down the heart rate, increase oxygen to the brain, and reduce anxiety. People who practice this yoga breathing technique regularly will find they are more focused and are able to experience deep, restful states of relaxation.

Using kumbhaka (breath retention)

An essential part of the Sama Vritti Pranayama it the practice of holding the breath after the inhalation and exhalation. Kumbhaka is a Sanskrit word which translates as “breath retention”. We practice kumbhaka to strengthen our breathing, to stabilize our senses, to increase inner awareness, calm the mind and energize the body. It is important to never hold the breath past the point of discomfort. Advanced yoga students can add one or more bandas with kumbhaka to intensify the practice.

Cautions and contraindications

While Sama Vritti Pranayama is safe, there are a few precautions to know. Pregnant women and people with high blood pressure, lung, heart, eye or ear problems should not hold the retention of breath. Instead, simply work on equalizing the length of the inhalation and exhalation. If you feel dizzy, lightheaded or discomfort, stop and return to a normal relaxed breathing pattern.

When to Use Sama Vritti Pranayama

Sama Vritti Pranayama can be practiced at any point during the day, but the best time to practice is when you are needing to cultivate inner peace, balance and groundedness. Ideally find a quiet spot away from distractions so you can fully focus and tune into your breath. It is recommended to be practiced before other practices, as it will help to prepare the body and mind for yoga asana practice, meditation, and other types of pranayama. You can also use this technique while holding yoga poses to deepen your concentration.

How to practice: step-by-step instructions

1. Find your seat — Find a comfortable cross-legged seated position on the floor, with the back of the body straight. Rest the back of your hands on your legs, palms up with the tips of the index finger and thumb touching (Jnana Mudra). Make sure you are not holding tension in your body and take special care to have the shoulders relaxed. If you are not comfortable on the floor, a chair can be used but make sure the feet can rest flat on the floor and the back is straight. You can also practice this lying down on your back, perhaps with the knees slightly raised by placing your legs on a bolster.
2. Find your breath — With the mouth closed, inhale and exhale through the nose in a slow, even and continuous flow. Use a diaphragmatic breath so that the belly rises and falls with little or no movement in the chest.
3. Set your pace — Slow and deepen your breath as much as comfortable. Most importantly, breathe in and out of the body at your own pace. If you begin to struggle, then shorten the length and number of counts.
4. Start your breath cycle
   • Inhale for a count of 4.
   • Hold the breath in for a count of 4.
   • Exhale for a count of 4.
   • Hold the breath out for a count of 4.
5. Find your flow — Repeat the four-part cycle for another 2-6 rounds of breath. When you are comfortable with the practice, you can increase the duration to 10-30 breaths or a maximum of 10 minutes. Only continue as long as you can stay present and focused with the breathing practice.

Practice tips

• For a more advanced version, add ujjayi breathing to your technique. This will add a warming effect and help block out external noise.
• To make this breathing exercise more intense and challenging, you can increase the length of the count up to 6.
• If you find you are struggling with the breath, simply shorten and lower the count to 2 or 3 until it feels easier. You can also remove the holding of breath and simply the breathing cycle with only inhalations and exhalations.
• A daily pranayama practice is recommended to quickly learn this technique and to receive its many benefits.
• Most importantly, do not shift into unequal ratio breathing, as this will affect the quality and benefits of the practice of pranayama. If you cannot maintain an equal ration, it is best to stop, rest for a few breaths, and then try again.

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Pranayama is one of the foundational practices of hatha yoga. It’s the cultivation and absorption of prana, or life force energy, into the body and mind. And just like asana (physical poses), there are many different forms of pranayama one can practice. One of the most common is the mysterious Ujjayi or “ocean sounding breath.” Incorporating the ujjayi breath in your asana practice can be difficult and feel odd. Still, there are many powerful benefits for using this breathing technique including the linking of breath to movement, increasing internal heat, boosting mental stillness, improving health, and deepening of meditation and mindfulness.

What Does Ujjayi Mean?

For most of us, our first introduction to pranayama after simple breath awareness is Ujjayi pranayama. Ujjayi is an audible breath where the inhalation and exhalation are long, deep, and complete, and move through the nose. Ujjayi is often translated from Sanskrit to mean “victorious breath,” while others describe it as an “ocean breath,” named from the “haaaa” or wave-like sound created by the air moving through a constricted glottis, or vocal cords.

Benefits of ujjayi breathing

Most beginner students wonder what is the reason for sounding like Darth Vader during yoga class. The ocean sounding breath has many powerful benefits to the body, brain, and heart. The bottom line though is that it’s a huge help during a challening yoga pose or fast paced flow. Which of the following 11 benefits have you noticed after using this traditional pranayama?

1. Builds inner heat
   This slow, constrained breathing builds internal body heat which makes stretching safer and prepares the body for deeper expressions of yoga poses.
2. Encourages cleansing
   This controlled diaphragmatic breath massages the internal organs and stimulates the digestive systems to encourage detoxification and decrease phlegm.
3. Increases focus and concentration
   The ujjayi breath links the mind, body, and spirit to the present moment and improves concentration. This cultivates richness and depth to your practice and boosts your presence and awareness.
4. Boosts vitality
   This pranayama is used in many styles of yoga classes, like ashtanga, Jivamukti, and power yoga, as it builds endurance, energy and stamina.
5. Links breath with movement
   The ocean breath connects the breath with movement which helps keep a steady rhythm in a flow or vinyasa style of yoga.
6. Reduces stress and tension
   Making this calming sound encourages the release of muscular tension and activates the vagus nerve. This, in turn, switches on the “rest and renew” or parasympathetic activity of the nervous system.
7. Strengthens the lungs
   The partial constriction of the throat lets less air through and lengthens respiration, and improves oxygen saturation. These deep breaths increase air volume, strengthens the diaphragm, and improve respiratory efficiency.
8. Calms the body and mind
   ujjayi pranayama lowers blood pressure and slows the heart rate helping to calm the mind and reduce anxiety.
9. Balances the energy channels
   Ujjayi pranayama cleanses and stimulates the nadis (subtle channels of the body) and encourages the activation of the Sushumna nadi to balance out the flow of prana and balance the chakra energy centers. This balancing effect helps to reduce pain, promote healing and to harmonize the endocrine system.
10. Lifts and stabilizes mood
    The warming, focusing, and energizing effects of this pranayam increases one’s sense of aliveness and can help alleviate mild depression.
11. Opens the sinuses
    The cranial vibration of the ujjayi breath helps open up the sinuses to relieve sinus pressure and pain from headaches.

Tips for practicing Ujjayi

Yogis all have a slightly different view of how this ancient pranayama should be practiced. Many instructors recommend a slight constricting of the throat which works for some, but the idea of that makes me uneasy. I prefer to think of it as “narrowing” the glottis or vocal cords. Better yet, I like to visualize the breath moving through the vocal cords with each round of inhalations and exhalations. I still get a sound, but it’s not especially loud, and it has the same effect: anchoring my attention to my breath. The idea is to stay connected with ujjayi for the duration of your yoga practice.

No matter what, learning ujjayi breathing takes lots of practice, on and off the mat. And depending on the teacher or class, different yoga practices dictate how loud the breath sounds and how it’s used.

How loud should Ujjayi sound?

In flow or power yoga classes, you may have heard your instructor say something along the lines of “If your neighbor on the mat can’t hear you breathing, you’re not doing ujjayi!” Or “Use your ujjayi breath to build heat and stamina.” I had one teacher proclaim, “Ancient yogis were said to be able to melt snow with their ujjayi breathing!” It’s almost as if ujjayi’s “victorious breath” has become synonymous with being victorious on the mat with the decibels of your breathing. In fact, I used to think those yogis with the loudest breath must be the most advanced practitioners. I have to admit I was a little envious. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make the “ha” sound above a whisper without feeling like I was straining or forcing something to happen.

While making the ocean sound loud enough for others to hear can be helpful to learn and refine your technique, it is more important to find an engagement that is comfortable and sustainable over time. More importantly, if you are not experiencing the previously mentioned benefits, it may be a sign to adjust your technique.

Conclusion

I’ve come to learn that no matter how loud or soft, ujjayi is a means to an end: a helpful way to keep the mind and body focused. My “haaaa” sound may be only audible to me, but I feel an energy and calmness when utilizing this technique that is specific to my ujjayi breath. The rewards for using this challenging pranayama are many and great but these cannot be realized without discipline, patience and commitment.

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