A Winter Breath Guide: Creating Space, Calm, and Steadiness in the Season of Vata

🎙️Show Notes

Keywords
winter breathing, Vata, nervous system, three-part breath, Ujjayi breath, Brahmari, diaphragmatic breathing, Ayurveda, yoga breathing, seasonal living, relaxation

Summary

In this episode, Katja Patel explores how breathing changes in winter and why this season asks for a different approach. Drawing on Ayurveda and yoga, she explains how Vata influences the nervous system, digestion, and the breath, and why creating space in the body is essential before working with breathing techniques.

Katja introduces the three-part breath as a foundational practice and reflects on seasonal breathing choices such as gentle Ujjayi and Brahmari (Humming Bee breath). Rather than focusing on mastery, this episode invites a more attentive, responsive relationship with the breath — one that supports steadiness, warmth, and calm through the winter months.

Key Takeaways

• Winter breathing is about steadiness, not effort
• High Vata can affect the nervous system, breath, and digestion
• Diaphragmatic breathing supports relaxation and gut health
• Creating space in the body helps the breath deepen naturally
• The three-part breath is a reliable foundation in winter
• Gentle Ujjayi can build warmth and inner support
• Brahmari (Humming Bee breath) soothes and reassures the mind
• Seasonal breathing works best when guided by awareness, not force

Sound Bites

•  "Creating space for the breath is essential."
•  "The three-part breath is your home base." 
• "Humming bee breath settles the mind." 
• “In winter, the breath doesn’t need to be mastered — it needs to be met.”

Chapters

• 00:00 — Winter Breathing and the Season of Vata
• 00:34 — How Vata Affects the Nervous System
• 03:49 — Creating Space for the Breath
• 07:53 — The Three-Part Breath as a Foundation
• 08:45 — Choosing the Right Breath in Winter
• 11:09 — Gentle Ujjayi and Brahmari Practices
• 13:40 — Supporting the Nervous System Through the Season

Further Breathing Resources

If you’d like to explore some of these practices in more depth, you may find these helpful:

• Three-Part Yogic Breathing — foundational breath practice
• Three-Part Breath Video — guided practice on YouTube
• Nadi Shodhana (Alternate Nostril Breathing) — calming and balancing breath

 If this is touching something you recognise and you’d like structured support to work with it over time, this is exactly what I teach inside my Stress Less, Live More course. 

🎁 Get my free guide: 5 Daily Ayurvedic Shifts to Feel Like Yourself Again
 

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🎙️ Rooted in the Seasons is created by Katja Patel at Zest for Yoga & Ayurveda.
 Explore more episodes at zestforyoga.com/podcast

Transcript

Katja Patel (00:00)
Hello and welcome back to Rooted in the Seasons where ancient wisdom meets modern life with a strong cup of tea and practical tools for real busy women. I'm Katja Patel, Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle educator, yoga teacher and teacher mentor.

I help women find more calm and clarity through small daily rituals, seasonal rhythm and timeless wisdom that actually fits into your life.

In today's episode I want to talk about breathing in the winter,

not as a technique to get right but as a way of meeting yourself a little more in this season. And before we go anywhere let me ask you something. Have you noticed how your breathing changes in the winter or if it changes at all?

Does it feel a little higher in the chest maybe? A bit more shallow.

bit tighter If so, it's not something you're imagining. From an ayurvedic perspective, winter carries strong Vata qualities. Cold, dry and mobile. And those qualities don't just show up in the weather. They show up

in us as well.

in the nervous system, in the mind and very clearly in the breath. When Vata is high the nervous system often sits closer to alert mode. Thoughts can feel busy or your sleep may be lighter and the breath tends to move little bit more upwards into the chest rather than

down into the body.

You probably know that the breath is one of the fastest ways to communicate safety to the nervous system.

but only if the body feels ready to receive it. That's why I don't love the idea of jumping straight into breathing techniques, especially in the winter. There's another piece here that doesn't get talked about enough. That's the digestion. Winter Vata often shows up as irregular digestion.

fluctuating appetite, bloating, dryness which then leads to constipation and the breath plays a much bigger role in this than we often realise.

Let me ask you this, where do you feel your breath most clearly right now? Chest or belly? Shallow breathing, chest-based breathing, limits the movement of the diaphragm.

and when the diaphragm doesn't move fully the digestive organs don't get their natural massage.

the nervous system stays guarded and digestion struggles. Deep diaphragmatic breathing does the opposite. It supports the parasympathetic nervous system, means your rest and digest mode.

it encourages natural gut movement and it brings warmth and softness back into the belly. Just restoring the breath to the abdomen is already enough to shift how we feel.

So before we even talk about Pranayama specific breathing techniques, I want to talk about

space because in the winter breathing often feels restricted as we mentioned above and maybe you have noticed yourself

not because we're doing it wrong but because the body is holding tension.

So rather than forcing the breath.

we create room for it and we do that from the bottom up using simple movements that support the three-part breath

So let's start with the lower breathing space, the belly and diaphragm.

A gentle supported bridge pose can be really helpful here.

not to stretch deeply but to open the front of the body just enough for the breath to soften downwards.

You might place your hands on the belly and simply notice does your body

receive and welcome the breath here.

Or does it feel guarded, not quite ready yet to open the space?

In the winter the belly often needs reassurance before it will let go.

So you can stay there for a few breaths, especially if you do the supported bridge pose and wait till your body is ready. From there, we move into the middle breathing space, the ribs. You can do that also seated or lying down on your back with side bends because they help to open the side body where the breath

is often restricted when we are tired or overstimulated.

and as the muscles between the ribs soften the breath naturally expands sideways. So you don't need to stretch far just take your arm overhead with an in-breath and bend over to the other side with the out-breath. With the in-breath you come back to the middle with the out-breath you lower your arm and then you repeat that.

on both sides a few times. That's often enough to open the thoracic breathing space. That's what the middle breathing space is called. Notice, does your breath start to reach places it's been avoiding?

And finally, the upper breathing space, the chest and the collarbones, the smallest for most people, the most challenging to access.

you can do a seated backbend with your hands behind you and lengthen and lift through the front body that is excellent to help you. The intention isn't the posture it's the openness

this is especially helpful if you're breathing feels

shallow or if there's more emotional tightness in the upper chest and around the heart. Let the breath arrive here slowly. No active lifting of the collarbones and the chest. just creating and allowing this space to develop.

Once these breathing spaces are open, the three-part breath becomes much more accessible. You breathe into the belly, then into the ribs, then into the upper chest. And with the out-breath, you reverse from the top down. In winter, this breath

isn't about technique it's about continuity wholeness

feeling gathered rather than scattered.

In another blog post I have written about the three-part breath and about Nadi Shodhan in more detail. So I won't repeat it here. I add the links to the show notes and then you can look at those in your own time. But think of the three-part breath as the home base.

place you return to before going into any other breathing techniques. So once the breath feels supported how do you choose what comes next? Instead of asking what should I practice try asking yourself

What does my body need today? Ujjayi breath can be very helpful in the winter but only when it's used gently.

Ujjayi translated as the victorious breath.

It's characterised by a soft steady sound created by gentle narrowing of the back of the throat. A bit like you're fogging up a mirror.

but with the mouth closed. The sound is subtle and often described as ocean-like. It's present on both the in and the exhale. In the winter, this quiet quality can help create warmth and containment without pushing the nervous system into effort.

practise softly, builds warmth and steadiness. can support confidence and inner strength, especially when winter feels depleting.

This isn't about intensity. A few slow rounds are often enough. If you noticed agitation rising, that's a sign to ease off.

Let's do a short practice together now.

The best way to practise or to start practising ujjayi is actually with the mouth open before you close it. And you can either think of the mirror that you're fogging.

Or you can also think of a wording a ha without the a at the end.

and you produce that sound by the in and the out breath. And although it narrows at the back of the throat, the glottis, but it should feel expansive still in the throat. So let's try either hand visualise it as a mirror or a ha, think of the ocean waves coming and going. So keep your mouth open to start off with.

needs to feel really soft for that.

it comes natural then you close your mouth and keep everything the same the same feeling in your throat.

So these three rounds of each, maybe half, made you feel already a little different.

The other practice I would like to introduce is Brahmari

Brahmari is deeply soothing. The gentle humming vibration settles the mental agitation and brings a sense of reassurance. For many people it feels less like a technique and more like being held.

It's especially supportive in the evening before sleep or when the mind feels busy and unsettled.

Maybe you have noticed how sound can calm you when silence feels just a little bit too sharp.

That's Brahmari the humming bee breath at work.

And also here I would like to stop and...

practise a few breaths together with you. So humming bee breath Brahmari is, that's just what it says, humming on the out breath, breathing in through the nose and breathing out through the nose as well. So you take a deeper breath in.

You close your eyes.

keep your teeth a little bit apart, the top and the bottom.

what can be what can feel really nice if especially if you feel quite restless is to circle the body if you close your ears or without closing them

I'm very sure that you feel a difference after the Brahmari breathing. It's very accessible for everyone and

like mentioned earlier it's excellent to let the the mind settle and the vibrations settle the body

If both techniques are not familiar to you, practice the technique first the Ujjayi siljai breath until it feels it comes with ease and the Brahmari and then you can apply the three-part breath to those breathing techniques and that makes it even more intense but do one after the other.

and this brings me to something I think is really important rather than asking which technique should I do

winter invites a different question, how can I support my nervous system today? And with a little practice that we just did, maybe this answer comes very spontaneously to you, what resonated more? By preparing the body, restoring the three-part breath and then choosing techniques that offer

warmth, calm or reassurance breathing becomes less about the control of the breath and much more about the relationship with the breath and with that with your body and your mind. In winter that shift makes all the difference.

You don't need to master any technique. You just need to meet it with patience, warmth and attention.

Pause here for a moment and notice your breath now.

And when you're ready, carry that softness with you into the rest of the day.

Thank you so much for listening to Rooted in the Seasons. If you enjoyed this episode you can subscribe or follow Rooted in the Seasons on Spotify or Apple Podcast. That way new episodes land automatically for you.

and please share the episodes if you know someone who can benefit from it. you like support between the episodes you can download my free guide my 5 quick Ayurvedic fixes to move from scattered to steady and join my Sunday read newsletter.

You'll find the link in the show notes. If something in today's episode resonated, I'd genuinely love to hear from you. You can connect with me on Substack or even better drop me an email. I do read all of them and I also answer all of them. Until next time.

stay rooted in the seasons. Thank you.