Unequal Ratio

Hi we're here with Betsy and Ilana and we're working in this episode on what's called Vishama Vritti Pranayama. That means the unequal ratio Pranayama. We did Samavritti or equal ratio in an earlier episode. Now the classic ratio, the one that's most commonly mentioned in the old text, is one to two. In other words for every single count of, for every one count of inhalation you do two counts of exhalation. So for example if you're breathing in for five counts you would then breathe out for ten counts. And as you can see we have Betsy sitting in Ardha Padmasana and we have Ilana sitting in a chair this time and this time we have her sitting through the chair. This is a specially prepared chair for yoga practice. You can see that the back of the chair has been removed which makes it much easier for people to sit through the chair in this way. Although if the if the back were still in place it would she would still be able to sit this way. But some people who are much taller, larger people would have the trouble sitting through the chair in this way. So it's alright to sit in the other other other other direction too sitting on the front edge of the seat. So let's start. I have a particular way of doing it. It's a rather slowish way to get into the into the ratio but I think it's probably the best way to do it because it allows you an opportunity to go to take the the ratio as far along as you need to or can but without having to push it beyond any particular limits of your own. So we're going to start with equal ratio pranayama. In other words we're going to do the same count for the inhale and for the exhale and I think I'll start them both with an inhale four exhale four. So if you both would please exhale always beginning the pranayama practice on an inhalation and then start the inhalation to the count of four. Om one, om two, om three, om four and then the the same count for the exhalation om one, two, three, four. And we'll let them do that for a couple of cycles to give them an opportunity to get the rhythm going properly. Now you can it as we did an earlier episode breathe up and down figuratively speaking up on the inhalation from the low point to the high point in the torso and down on the exhalation from the high point back to the low or you can just just breathe in and out without any particular direction to the breath. Now once you've established the samavritti the equal ratio pranayama then you want to start with the with the unequal ratio but again I want to remind you that we're working this very slowly and carefully. So I'm going to ask the helpers to breathe in for four as they've been doing and breathe out for five and that's of course going to require them to extend the exhalation just a little bit more and we'll watch them do that for a few cycles. Now of course every every step you take you have to see if that's if the next step will be appropriate to take or whether you need to stop at that particular level before you reach that one to two ratio. So there's no need to push yourself beyond a certain limit. This is why we have this the breathing set up in the way it is. So if you're ready inhale for four exhale for six. Again you have to coordinate the movement of the breath with the count and again you have to ask yourself if you're ready to go a little bit farther. If the answer is no then you stop and continue on with with whatever count you've established four and five four and six etc. However if you want to continue on take an exhalation inhale for four and then exhale for seven and again you have to work to coordinate the movement of the breath with the count. Now you can now be complete the ratio if you like by inhaling for four and exhaling for eight. Again I want to warn you one more time that it's not absolutely necessary to get to eight right away that you can stop at a lower number and just be happy at that point. Now we've been extending the exhalation and now we're going to try something a little more challenging and that is we're going to start to extend the inhalation as well. So they're both inhaling for four exhaling for eight. What I want them to do now is to inhale for five and exhale for eight. So each inhalation is now a little bit longer than the previous and then you take two or three cycles of that and then you're going to move a little bit farther with the exhalation you inhale for five and exhale for nine. You're exhaling for eight and now it's nine. When you look always making sure with each increase in the breath that everything feels happy. And then finally you're ready to complete that next stage of the unequal ratio. Inhale for five, exhale for ten. Now this goes on and on and on and on until you find a ratio that suits you.

We're not doing any retentions right now. Don't worry about that. If you're ready to go on to six, inhale, exhale and inhale for six. Get that established. Now it gets much more difficult to increase the the count at this point but when you're when you've established six inhale can you now exhale for 11. You want to be sure that you go slowly so that you're continuously monitoring your state of mind as you continue. Make sure that you don't get frustrated, irritable, angry, any kind of negative emotion you want to stop pretty pretty much quit and just end the day for pranayama. Now we're at six and eleven. Let's have them add one more count to the exhale and make it six to twelve. The ratio still holds. Now you have a little bit of an idea of how to how to go about doing unequal ratio breathing. You do a basic samavritti practice. Four and four, five and five, six and six, whatever you feel comfortable doing. Then you begin to work on the unequal ratio of the vishamavritti and that starts as if you remember with adding a single count to the exhalation. First one and then another and then you find that you've doubled the exhalation count and you're back to square one with the ratio and then you continue on in that way until you find a pair of numbers that suit you well and they do not again necessarily have to be one to two ratio. They can be slightly less than that for the second number. They can be six to ten or six to eleven. The ideal usually is said to be a count of eight on the inhalation which would make a sixteen count on the exhalation but that may take a while to get to that high to that level. Alright, please helpers if you would take one more inhale one more exhale and then go back to everyday breathing. Very good. This is against the hair or against the grain. It is a it is a it is a breath that actually strengthens the lungs but it also helps you prepare for for retention and so it's a very useful breath to work with early on in your practice. Thank you very much.