Ujjayi: the ocean breath, explained

Ujjayi means victorious, from ud, upward or expanding, and jaya, victory. The name is grander than the practice deserves, which is often true of the useful ones.

What ujjayi is

At the back of your throat sits the glottis, the same narrow gate you close when you hold your breath and open when you speak. In ujjayi it is neither closed nor fully open but drawn slightly together, so that air passing over it makes a soft, continuous sound.

That is the whole mechanism. Everything else — the warmth, the lengthened breath, the steadiness — follows from making the airway a little narrower and therefore the breath a little slower.

Finding the sound

Open your mouth and breathe out as though fogging a window or a pair of glasses. That soft haaah at the back of the throat is the sound you want. Do it two or three times until it is familiar.

Now do the same thing with the mouth closed, breathing out through the nose. The throat makes the same shape; the air simply leaves by a different door. When you can do it on the exhale, add the inhale.

Most people find the exhale easily and the inhale takes a week or two. That is the normal order and there is no reason to rush it.

How to practise it

• Sit upright, or lie down if sitting is uncomfortable. Sitting comfortably matters more than sitting impressively.
• Breathe through the nose, mouth closed, jaw loose.
• Let the inhale and exhale become roughly equal in length. Counting is useful at first and unnecessary later.
• Ten breaths is a real practice. Five minutes is plenty.

In a class you may be asked to keep ujjayi running through the standing postures. That is a legitimate use of it, though not the only one — in our teaching it appears as often in stillness as in movement.

What it is for

Three things, in order of how reliably they happen.

It slows the breath. A narrower airway means less air per second, which means a longer cycle without any effort to force one. Most people move from around fifteen breaths a minute to six or eight without trying.

It gives attention a home. A silent breath is difficult to follow; an audible one is not. This is why ujjayi is so often taught alongside meditation — the sound does the work that a mantra does elsewhere.

It builds a little heat. Less than the claims suggest, but the body does warm, and on a cool morning that is welcome.

Where it goes wrong

Almost always in the same place: people make the sound with force instead of shape. The throat grips, the jaw sets, the shoulders lift towards the ears, and after twenty breaths the throat is dry and sore.

The test is simple. If your throat is tired afterwards, you were pushing. If your jaw aches, you were clenching. A well-made ujjayi can be held for twenty minutes and leaves nothing behind.

The second error is volume. Somewhere along the way ujjayi acquired a reputation as something to perform. It is not. In a room of thirty students practising properly, you should hear a low collective hush and no individual.

When we teach it

Early — usually in a student’s first week, because it is gentle and because it makes every other breathing practice easier to learn. It carries none of the cautions that come with kapalabhati or breath retention.

That said, it is not nothing. If ujjayi leaves you lightheaded or short of air, you are working too hard at it, and the answer is always less rather than more. Anyone with a throat condition, uncontrolled blood pressure or a heart condition should learn it with a teacher watching.

If you are starting from the beginning, pranayama for beginners sets out the order these practices are usually learned in, and on the 200-hour training ujjayi arrives in the first days rather than the last.

Common questions

What is ujjayi breathing?

A breath in which the glottis at the back of the throat is narrowed slightly, so that air moving in and out makes a soft, continuous sound. It is used to lengthen and steady the breath, and to give attention something to rest on.

Should ujjayi be loud?

No. If someone across the room can hear you clearly, it is too much. The sound is for you. A loud ujjayi usually means the throat is gripping rather than narrowing, and that tension travels to the jaw and shoulders.

Can you do ujjayi through the mouth?

The sound is found with the mouth open, as a way of learning it, but the practice itself is done with the mouth closed and the breath through the nose. Open-mouth ujjayi is a teaching step, not the finished practice.

Is ujjayi safe for everyone?

It is gentle compared with most pranayama, but anyone with a throat condition, uncontrolled high blood pressure or a heart condition should learn it in person and stop if it creates strain. It should never make you breathless.