A Pranayama Practice

Here is the audio to follow for the pranayama practice.

Hello and welcome to Cultivating Chill.

My name is Vikki Velasquez and thank you for joining me as we explore samavritti (sama-vritti) pranayama.

This pranayama style is when the inhale and exhale are of equal length, in a 1:1 ratio.

Breathing in a 1:1 ratio promotes a calming effect while also lowering the heart rate and reducing blood pressure.

Before we begin – Please note - If you have a heart condition or experience chronic breathing disorders, please do not participate in the practice but feel free to observe. Also, if at any time you feel overwhelmed or short of breath, let go of pranayama and let your breath breathe itself.

In his book, Breathe: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor discovered the perfect breathing rate is 5.5 breaths per minute. This is much slower than the regular breath rate of 12 to 20 breaths per minute for a healthy adult at rest.

To practice samavritti pranayama style, we will use a resonant breathing technique and try to breathe at a rate of 5.5 breaths per minute.

We will breathe deeply and slowly for a count of five, equal inhales and exhales.

Our focus will be on making each breath even and smooth in a steady, gentle rhythm.

There will be no active retention of breath, just a simple inhale and exhale with the natural pause that occurs while breathing.

I will cue the inhale and exhales.

Practice will be for about five minutes.

If it’s helpful, think about your lungs as you breathe and imagine you are filling them up from the bottom of the lung up through the chest, into the throat, and the nasal cavity. When we exhale, it will be a slow, controlled release of breath, from the nasal cavity, the throat, and from the top of the chest to the bottom.

I invite you to find a comfortable seat, either sitting comfortably in a chair or on the floor in Easy Pose.

If sitting on the floor, using a cushion or yoga block or folded blanket will elevate the hips over the thighs and create more space for the air to flow through the body.

You can rest your hands on your thighs or knees, palms up or down.

Palms up means you are inviting energy to flow in and out and through you.

Palms down means you are trying to conserve energy.

I invite you to gently close your eyes.

For the moment, just let your breath breathe itself.

As you breathe, use your inhale to lengthen the spine so the head, neck, and back become aligned and chest and belly have plenty of space to move with the breath.

Use your exhale to relax the shoulders away from the ears, releasing any tension from the jaw, the space around the eyes, the center of the forehead.

Inhale to stretch and find space.

Exhale to relax and take up space.

Inhale the spine straightens.

Exhale the back widens.

Take a few more natural, full breaths through the nose, feeling your breath as it flows in and out.

(about three to five natural breaths)

Let’s begin practice by taking a breath to align with one another. Inhale–exhale.

First Round/Minute -

Inhale–1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale–5, 4, 3, 2, 1.