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Expand your enjoyment of yoga practice with Ujjayi (Victorious) Breath and other games. Ujjayi is often referred to and incorporated, but is rarely taught beyond “make your breath sound like Darth Vader.” This is a basic technique many practitioners use without ever learning it in any detail. Besides Ujjayi, we will explore other ways to … Read more

Join us this Saturday at Sky House Yoga in Silver Spring, Md., for the second in our 6-part series on Breath. Details and registration here.

Ujjayi Breath There is a specific mental quality or heart quality or attitude that is engendered by Ujjayi. Sometimes when I am teaching I notice anxiousness in my body. I have the urge to escape, to disengage. I find myself separating myself from the students, averting my eyes, not looking directly into their eyes. This … Read more

This is not my creation; I simply found it on YouTube and placed it here. Some of the details may be questionable, but it is helpful to see the breathing process visualized as a whole instead of looking at the various parts one at a time.

We breathe because each and every cell in the body requires oxygen to create energy so it can accomplish its work. We breathe to move outside air into the lungs, and into the lungs’ tiny sacs called alveoli, where oxygen is transferred into the bloodstream and where carbon dioxide is transferred from the bloodstream into … Read more

Breath is always truthful and at certain times this honesty shows us our fears. I do agree with your premise that breath is undervalued in many of our contemporary yoga asana styles. Perhaps this is because loving and embracing our fullness, including our darkness is anathema to the dualistic and often candy coated notions of … Read more

In traditional yoga, breath work (pranayama) is as important as, if not more important than, the practice of physical postures (asana). Breath has often been called the bridge, as in the bridge between: the ‘outer’ practices of physical asana and the ‘inner’ practices of meditation (between body and mind); the conscious and unconscious; thought and … Read more

In traditional yoga, breath and pranayama are considered central practices, more important than physical asana. This has not translated well into our contemporary value system: breath is undervalued in most yoga styles here. Why? Maybe it has to do with our emphasis on voluntary action, on our ability to consciously control the voluntary muscles of … Read more