Breath is Life. Are You Breathing Correctly?

Pranayama and connecting breath to movement in yoga

When I started practicing yoga, I started with Iyengar yoga. This is a wonderful yoga practice that is incredibly specific when it comes to alignment and understanding how to practice the poses in the body that you have. The physical practice (asana) is done separately from the breathing practice (pranayama).

Years later when I stumbled upon Vinyasa yoga, the experience was different. Vinyasa yoga combines breath with movement, doing both simultaneously. In Iyengar yoga, your breath is whatever comes naturally to you, as the main focus is the position of your body. With Vinyasa yoga, the breath is intentional, specific, and an integral part of the practice. You move your body in time with your breath, while breathing in time with your movement.

I love the combination of breath with movement, which is one of the reasons I still practice and teach Vinyasa yoga all these decades later. There is a certain euphoria you create with this type of breathing, called Ujjayi breath. You breathe by creating a gentle restriction in your throat so that your breath sounds like an ocean wave. It becomes an audible focus for your practice, while generating heat to fuel your movements.

Ujjayi pranayama (Victorious or Ocean sounding breath)

There are many styles of pranayama that serve different purposes that I’ve written about here and here. There are a few reasons to practice Ujjayi breath as you practice asana:

generate internal heat to warm the body from the inside
create an audible focus for your practice to keep you present
find a flow as you move from one pose to the next

Just as the inhale becomes the exhale, Upward Dog flows to Downward Dog. Combining your breath with movement creates a fluidity that helps you find the balance between strength and ease. The goal of every pose is to find your “steady, comfortable seat.”1 You want to cultivate stability with ease, so that you avoid rigidity.

Ujjayi breath allows you to feel more ease as you cultivate physical strength. Whether you hold a pose for an inhale or for 5-10 full breaths, you use the breath to stay connected to your body.

Breath with movement

Your breath guides your movement in both Vinyasa yoga and Ashtanga yoga. It’s what fuels the movements in Sun Salutations. At first, combining breath with movement can be a challenge. It took me six months of practicing yoga 6-8 times a week until I could keep breathing for my entire yoga class. It requires incredible focus, intention, and attention, which is why you do it (or at least attempt).

The only other time I connect breath with movement is when I swim. The “high” I feel after swimming is the same feeling I get after yoga. I feel energized yet calm. Strong, and at ease. Awake and alert, but relaxed. It’s the combination of breath with movement that gives me that feeling. I haven’t found it with any other activity in the same way. I feel great after hiking in the woods, but not that same euphoria that I get after swimming or yoga.

Make sure to follow your own breathing timing. I’ve been in classes with teachers where they either cue the breaths way too fast, or way too slow. Too slow is easy to manage as you simply take a few breaths rather than just one. Too fast can be frustrating, as you’ll always be behind. It’s better to follow your breath and be in control over your movements than it is to rush to keep up. That’s often when injuries happen.

How to breathe

While you’ve been breathing since the moment you were born, most likely you haven’t paid much attention to it, unless you’re asthmatic or have severe allergies and have struggled to breathe. Your breath happens all day long, whether you pay attention to it or not. Your breath keeps you alive.

Pranayama practices are ways to control the breath in different ways for different purposes. There are practices to warm or cool the body, energize or calm, center the mind or expel tension, and more. Ujjayi breath warms, calms, and energizes.

When connecting your breath to your movement, you want to time your breath to your movement. The amount of time it takes you to inhale is the amount of time it takes you to move into Cow pose/Bitilasana. Move one vertebra at a time from the tailbone to the head. The amount of time it takes you to exhale is the amount of time it takes you to move into Cat pose/Marjaryasana, again, from tailbone to head. Moving back and forth between Cat and Cow is a simple way to practice connecting breath with movement.

See if you can apply this to your yoga practice generally. Even if you hold your poses, be aware of your breath. I tend to count breaths to make sure I practice the pose for the same amount of time on each side. When I do Sun Salutations, or flow in general, timing my breath with my movements keeps my mind engaged and stops me from rushing my poses. Some poses are challenging. Remembering to breathe calmly and intentionally keeps me from stressing out about the challenge.

Join me in June!

Sun Salutations for the Summer Solstice is a short program that I am running online in June! Build strength, improve mobility, and learn to connect your breath to your movement. Twice a week I will teach 15 minute classes, breaking down 2-3 poses at a time. Learn correct alignment and practice in the body that you have.

On Sunday June 21 we’ll put all the pieces together into a 30 minute flow class to celebrate the longest day of the year. I will guide you one pose at a time, connecting breath with movement, to leave you feeling strong, energized, loosened up, and calm. Click the button below for more information or to sign up!

Sun Salutations for the Summer Solstice!

Online Yoga Classes