Breath Tool: Open Ocean Breath

If you are looking for a cleansing and clearing breathing practice, try the open ocean breath tool to help you let go what no longer serves you.

Open Ocean Breath

This breath tool is also known as Ujjayi Pranayama, which uses a constriction at the back of your throat to control, slow, and extend inhales and exhales through the nose. In this variation, instead of exhaling through your nose, send the extended exhalation through an open mouth.

How to practice it:

• Lie down on the floor or on your bed

• Take a few conscious breaths to connect

• Begin to breathe slowly in and out of your mouth while constricting your throat slightly; the breath in should resemble a gasp in slow motion and the breath out like a slow steady sigh

• Now close your lips and maintain the audible breath as you inhale through your nose

• Open your moth wide to exhale fully, maintaining the constriction of your throat and making an audible ‘haaa’ sounds

• Imagine yourself floating in the open ocean, feeling the breath stroke the back of your throat as you inhale and sending the breath up into the sky as you exhale

• Repeat 6 - 8 rounds before returning to your natural flow of nasal breathing

• Remain for a few minutes to observe how you feel

Benefits:

• Relieves stress and tension

• Releases stuck emotions

• Strengthens the lungs

• Calms the body and mind

This is a great tool to use when you have something that you want to let go of and you can imagine it leaving you with every cleansing exhalation.