While leading my yoga therapy for mental health class last week, one of my students posed an intriguing question: “why does ujjayi breath actually mean victorious breath?” As I teacher, I am accustomed to rattling off this common phrase Sanskrit translation and never stopped to contemplate the incongruency.  Why would a type of yogic breath synonymous with peace and tranquility, be associated with victory?    As I teach this breath as a cornerstone of relaxation based practice it is counter-intuitive to imagine ujjayi breath intertwined with the notion of embattlement.  After reflection, it occurred to me that victory is not always about defeat of some adversary.  Why should victory need to be victory over, why cannot it not just be a personal achievement or an accomplishment?  For example it’s a personal victory for me that I managed to clean my whole flat today.  It’s not that I am tormented by the monster of messiness and that I slain him with a bottle of glass cleaner, it’s just that I rarely can find the time to really scrub my flat and having accomplished this goal I feel self satisfied and…well…rather victorious. 

I think each ujjayi breath is a little victory; each one is a tangible movement towards self-awareness and improved mental and physical well-being.  Most of us spend the majority of our days lost in our minds and rarely mindful of our bodies.  We aren’t even aware that we are breathing, much less how we breathe. However, when we start to cultivate breath and the awareness of it we move from being unconscious to conscious.  This is a victory in of itself.        

Of course, it is vital that breath is an automatic process that happens with or without our awareness, If, we had to remember to breathe, forgetfulness would be a death sentence. The average person can only survive a few minutes without a constant flow of oxygen and expulsion of carbon dioxide.  Normally, breathing is modulated by two major brain structures the medulla oblongata and pons.  These two structures are located in the brain stem and are responsible for homeostasis regulating breathing through a series of feedback loops based on ph levels, O2 and CO2 levels, temperature, mood, and sensory data from the body in relationship to the environment.  Thankfully, the medulla and pons do their job without any reflection from us. 

If, however, we breathe mindfully another brain structure gets involved, the cortex, specifically the prefrontal cortex.  This area of the brain is responsible for allowing us to modify behavior and induce rational control over emotional impulses.  In theory, the more powerful the prefrontal cortex the less we are prone to habit and the more we are able to choose how we relate to ourselves and our world.  Recently, the prefrontal cortex gained acclaim as research suggests its thickness and corresponding effectiveness increases when we engage in regular mindfulness based practices. So if mindfulness practice activates and galvanizes this region, mindful ujjayi enhances our personal freedom breath by breath.

Obviously, mindful breathing need not be ujjayi.  Noticing any type of breathing employs awareness, but because the creation of an ujjayi breath insists on our distinct attention it thoroughly supports our quest towards mindfulness.  Further, each ujjayi breath requires conscious motor control of the diaphragm, intercostals muscles, and the throat.  Here, automatic motor cortical control meets that meets brain structures responsible for premeditated physical action forging deep neurological loops between instinctual and mindful practice.

Again this could be said of all structured breathing practices not just ujjayi.  What really makes ujjayi breath a unique achievement is its remarkable ability to keep the flow of breath even.  Ujjayi breath is victorious as a bastion of physical and mental equanimity.  Since we gently constrict part of the throat during ujjayi breath we are able to titrate how much air we inhale and exhale.  Consequently, we can alter the duration, volume, speed, and energy of the breath.  According to the Yoga Sutras when we can control the above aforementioned aspects of breath the mind becomes still. Recent research at the University of Prague supports the yogic premise finding that steady and smooth breathing lead to improved functioning of the autonomic parasympathetic nervous system, the part of our system responsible for relaxation response.  By contrast, erratic breathing weakened the relaxation response and left a person feeling hyper.  

Various pulmonary studies reveal that breathing in an even fashion with a ratio that entails inhaling for four, holding the breath for four, exhaling for six, and holding the breath out for two is optimal for respiratory functioning.  Although we could master these ratios without ujjayi breathing, the process is more expedient when it is used.  Additionally, the soft audible oceanic lull produced by ujjayi breathing captures our attention while inducing relaxation.