Ujjayi Pranayama

Ujjayi Pranayama

Yoga’s Victory Breath

Many faiths’ creation stories involve a deity breathing into a human form in order to fill the being with life. When I am aware of my breath, I am also aware of that life-giving force that created me.

Often the past few days, I have often had to consciously seek out that breath. I was suffocating myself by unconsciously holding my breath. Audrey was suffering almost 4000 miles away in Madrid and all I chose to do was worry. When I was worrying, my chest would tighten, my neck and shoulders would squeeze into a hunched shape, and my belly became rigid. Then I remembered to breathe, slowly, intentionally. I listened to the sound of the air traveling through my air passages and a sense of calm entered my mind and body. By slowing down my breath, I gave my body time to take in the oxygen that I had been strangling out of it with my tightness. And I cleared out the stale air that had been lingering in my lungs when I was tense.

This morning, with my Qi Gong group, I breathed in the nectar of life that surrounded us in the gardens where we maintain our practice. God was fully with me. And I remembered that God is always with me. I am the one that squeezes out God’s love. Whenever I want to connect with it, I need only slow down and b…r…e…a…t…h…e…

Ujjayi Pranayama – The breath of victory

Namaste