Ujjayi

Ujjayi

"victorious" (from Sanskrit root  जि (ji) "to win") 

Ujjayi is a pranayama performed with a characteristic soft hissing on inhalation and exhalation.

Performance technique

Take a comfortable sitting position with a straight back (any meditative asana). Do several cycles of full breathing. Then, while continuing to breathe fully, squeeze the glottis slightly so that inhalation and exhalation occur with a hissing sound. The hissing should not be loud, rather even quiet, barely audible. Find your volume level at which ujjayi is performed comfortably and without strain.

Start concentrating on the sound, let it fill your entire attention field and displace all extraneous sounds and sensations. When you feel it's time to stop, perform several cycles of full breathing and sit for a while, listening to the sensations in your mind and body. If the performance of pranayama is prolonged, it is recommended to perform shavasana for several minutes to evenly distribute the acquired energy throughout the body.

The duration of the execution can vary from several minutes to several hours with proper preparation.

Variants

Ujjayi can be performed not only sitting, but also lying down (in shavasana, it has a beneficial effect on sleep), as well as while walking. It is quite common to use ujjayi while performing asanas.

Sometimes the mantra So-Ham is added to the ujjayi, which is mentally pronounced along with a hiss: "so" on the inhale and "ham" on the exhale. This practice shifts the effect from the therapeutic to the field of more subtle experience, when various aspects of human psychophysics come together and the central channel (sushumna) awakens.

There is a variant of performing this pranayama and holding the breath. In this case, inhale, then moderate delay and exhale through the left nostril. "Hatha Yoga Pradipika" says:

atha ujjāyī
mukhaṃ saṃyamya nāḍībhyāmākṛṣya pavanaṃ śanaiḥ ।
yathā lagati kaṇṭhāttu hṛdayāvadhi sa-svanam ॥51॥

2.51. Ujjayi.
Closing your mouth, slowly inhale through both nadis (ida and pingala) so that [the air] goes from the throat to the heart and [produces] a loud sound.

pūrvavatkumbhayetprāṇaṃ recayediḍayā tathā ।
śleṣma-doṣa-haraṃ kaṇṭhe dehānala-vivardhanam ॥52॥

2.52. Hold your breath as described above and exhale through the ida. This [pranayama] removes mucus (phlegm) from the throat and ignites the digestive fire.

Effect

Ujjayi helps to normalize the cardiovascular system, lowers blood pressure and relieves muscle tension, lowers kapha-dosha, calms the mind and nervous system, switches attention from the outside to the inside. 

With prolonged concentration on the hissing sound and dissolution in it, this pranayama can lead to a state of dharana and dhyana, as well as awaken Kundalini-shakti.

According to "Gheranda Samhita", ujjayi eliminates all ailments, gives liberation from mucus and nervous diseases. Dysentery, digestive weakness, tuberculosis, and dilation of the spleen are also treated with it.

Contraindications

It is not recommended to perform ujjayi in acute inflammatory processes of the throat and lungs, with an inflamed thyroid gland and with malignant tumors, regardless of the location.