In Uncertain Times, This is Where You Start — Part 6
Ujjayi breath: the most powerful calming breathing technique you’ve never heard of.
What we’ll cover here:
Briefly, the science
The practice
Dear friends,
This is the sixth instalment in my seven-part series with tools and techniques to help you stay calm, clear, and steady — no matter what comes next. It’s also the final breathing exercise I’ll be sharing. Everything you’ve learned about breathing so far has been leading here.
Ujjayi breath is an ancient yogic practice. It’s simple to learn, easy to do, quietly powerful (and surprisingly, not widely known).
Ujjayi — pronounced oo-jah-yee — means victorious or conquering in Sanskrit. And for me, that’s not just poetic language, but something that speaks directly to what this technique helps me reclaim.
Whenever my nervous system has been locked into high alert — my chest is tight, my thoughts are racing, and every part of me is on edge — this is the only thing that cuts through. It doesn’t just ease the tension, it interrupts the cycle. It brings me back from that wired, reactive state into something steadier. Something I can meet the world from.
That’s what I mean by victorious. Not in a grand or triumphant sense, but in the quiet way it lets me take back the reins from a system that’s been stuck on overdrive for far too long.
Let me show you what I mean.
I occasionally work with a Chinese Medicine practitioner who’s not just highly qualified, but deeply trained in the roots of her field. She’s studied in the UK and in China, where Chinese Medicine is part of everyday healthcare, and practices like breathwork and qigong are commonly used for healing and regulation. She’s worked with people in all kinds of emotional and physical states, and she knows what it looks like when someone finds their way back to balance.
I’m usually there for a physical complaint, but we talk first, she listens, and we explore whatever emotions, thoughts, or memories are surfacing. Then she treats whatever's showing up in my body with acupuncture. On my last visit, the session stirred up a lot, and by the end I was completely overwrought. I asked if she could give me a moment to compose myself before I left. A swift, deep inhalation and a steady exhalation was all I needed to calm and ground myself, to become 'present' again.
She looked at me and said, “I’ve never known anyone to do that so fast”.
That kind of shift won’t happen on your first attempt. But if you’ve been working with the earlier practices I've shared with you — diaphragmatic breathing and three-part breath — then you’ve already laid the foundational levels. Once this final step is learned and practised, it doesn’t just build on those foundations — it takes you all the way to the top.
These days, two minutes and three breaths is all it takes to drop me straight into stillness — calm, clear, and completely focused. This is the way I get there.
Let's start learning it so you can get you there too.
Briefly, The Science
Let’s try something. Imagine you are standing in front of a mirror. Now, breathe through your mouth as though you want to steam-up the mirror to write on it. Pay attention to the sound you make: that breathy sound is not produced by your voice box.
You create this sound with the glottis — the opening between the vocal folds. In breathing this way, the glottis spreads the vocal folds, resulting in turbulent air flow, and slowing the flow of the breath.
Ujjayi breath uses this same technique while you exhale to slow the flow of air and extend the length of your exhalation. This process applies very light pressure to the carotid sinus, which is located on the main artery that supplies blood-flow to the brain. It causes the carotid sinus to react as though it has detected high blood pressure, with the result that it lowers heartbeat and blood pressure. The result is swift and deep mental and physical rest.
The Practice
You can practice this exercise sitting in a comfortable, upright position. Your spine should be straight, shoulders squared, but relaxed, and chest slightly open. Be mindful not to lean forward or slump at your waist. Or you can prcatice it in Constructive Rest, whichever is most comfortable for you.
Place your hands, palm down, on your thighs. Tuck your chin in slightly, and relax your jaw. Your tongue should be placed against the roof of your mouth and just behind your front teeth throughout this process. Rest your eyes, by either closing them completely, or softening your gaze.
While maintaining your position, imagine you are holding a small mirror in front of your mouth. Inhale, deep into your belly, and then exhale, through your mouth, breathing as though you are using your breath to steam up a mirror.
Continue the process of breathing in and out, with your attention at your throat, and exhaling as though you are steaming up a mirror, each time.
Afrer a few breaths, inhale gently and deeply, and as you exhale, close your mouth, while making the same sound. Continue to inhale slowly and deeply, either using diaphrammatic breathing or, if you are comfortable, three-part breath, to fill your lungs. Then exhale, making the sound of ocean waves.
Make sure your face and body stay relaxed, and you don't contract your throat too strongly. The sound that you make should scarcely be audible to anyone but you. If you sound like you're snoring, it's because your throat is too strongly contracted. If this is the case, just relax and lift your chin slightly.
If you struggle with this practice, it may help you to forget about the mirror, and imagine you are breathing through a small hole in your throat. Don't force the breath, just imagine yourself slowly and smoothly breathing in, and out, through this little hole in your throat.
As you continue to breathe like this, both your inhalation and exhalation will become much slower, deeper and more controlled. When you feel that you have comfortably grasped the process, start counting as you inhale, and exhale. Count to four as you inhale, and then try to extend your exhalation, to a count of six, then more.
Continue breathing in this way for a few minutes more, as you focus your attention on the sound produced by the breath in your throat.
Now relax, and begin breathing normally. You may now open your eyes.
I cannot recommend Ujjayi breath highly enough. The more familiar and instinctive it becomes, the more powerful it gets.
Once it starts to feel like second nature, you can begin to combine it with the three-part breath you’ve already learned. Inhale slowly, letting the breath fill your belly, your ribs, and your chest. That gives your lungs the capacity for a smooth, steady exhale with Ujjayi, like a wave rolling out. And without forcing anything, your exhalation naturally begins to lengthen — to 20 seconds, then 30, and beyond.
And as you’ve seen throughout this series, that extended exhale is the gateway to calm, to clarity, to the grounded steadiness that lets you meet the world without being knocked off course. When it’s paired with a deep inhale into the lower lobes of your lungs, it fully activates the parasympathetic nervous system, guiding your body back into rest and repair.
When you regularly layer Ujjayi with Constructive Rest and aromatherapy, that’s when things start to shift in a bigger way. You’ll really feel your system quietening. You’ll start to sense a deeper kind of steadiness underneath it all.
And in the final part of this series, I’ll take you one step further, into a practice that draws everything we’ve covered together and takes the reset even deeper. It’s what I use to start my day calm, steady, and focused — and to carry that steadiness with me as the day unfolds. It’s also a practice the Dalai Lama has spoken about; he’s said that just 30 minutes of it can be as restorative as two hours of deep sleep.
So, keep going with your practice. Let it settle in, let it become yours. I’ll see you back here soon, for the seventh and final piece in this series.
Until then, take care.
— Lori
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I was taught Ujjayi breath in a workshop a few years ago but nothing about the biological why of it. I’ve since learned more about activating the parasympathetic nervous system, and this last bit about the carotid sinus makes everything click into place. I love finding out the biology behind why many of these ancient practices work. When folks describe something as “an old wives’ tale,” my response is always, “yeah, they were OLD wives in an age when people didn’t get old, so clearly they knew something.” If you dig deep enough you frequently find that the old wives’ tale makes total physiological sense. There are many different kinds of knowing, and we discount them at our peril.