“Yogi tradition tells us that when we control the breath then we can one day control the mind.”

FITFORLIFE started this month and — wow–  have we covered a lot of ground!  Not only have we worked several muscle groups -but we started our dive into the mind and body connection.

Week One’s theme was:  “notice”.  We took the time to notice — how we feel, what we are thinking, and what emotions come up as well as how we are breathing.  The best part is there’s no judgement or trying to “fix” or change anything — we get to just be.

We also talked about the breath — specifically practicing  the yoga “ujjayi” breath — breath of victory.  This is such an important component to our work on AND off the mat.

It takes time to master — and lots of patience with ourselves while we practice the ujjayi breath.  In Sanskrit — (the language of yoga) — ujjayi means “breath of victory”.  The uj means to “expand” and the word jayi means “success”  or “victory”.

We create ujjayi breath by putting our tongue behind our front teeth or on the roof our mouth and inhale and exhale with our mouth closed. By doing this, we control the flow of our breath — thus slowing it down as we inhale.  Think of when you are in traffic and 3 lanes merge to 1 lane — thus slowing down the flow of traffic.  When we narrow the the passageway of the throat through our ujjyai breath we are able to draw out/slow down and control our breath (and we need to use this breath while in traffic!).

By doing the ujjyai breath we create an ocean-like sound that we use to guide and calm our movement.    This narrowing of the breath and calming sound helps us expand our mind and body — and takes us to our victory!

“Yogi tradition tells us that when we control the breath then we can one day control the mind.” (Source:  “Power Yoga”).

I can personally say that the ujjayi breath and just being aware of the breath — is a big add and game changer to our health and wellness — both physically and mentally.
Try it!  For more information on FITFORLIFE contact me