Sama vritti (Sanskrit:समावृत्ति,romanized: samavritti) is apranayama technique.[1] It involves equating the durations ofinhalation (puraka), retention (antarakumbhaka),exhalation (rechaka) and second retention (bahya kumbhaka) before inhaling again.[2][3][4]
Visama vritti involves breathing with different duration in each step.[3]
Sama vritti involves controlling the natural breathing process (sahaja vritti). It is often considered a basic technique, but its usage can be deceptively challenging due to the relative difficulty to retain breath as opposed to inhaling.[4] Its quality depends on every person's fitness and lung capacity, although the required ability to optimize breath and tolerate retention improves with practice.[3] It is recommendable to start by unequal breath orvisama vritti, with reduced retention times, and progressively adapting intosama over time.[3][4]
To executesama vritti, the user must be comfortably seated or prone, with the spine straight and the eyes closed. Focusing mentally on the breath, the user then inhales counting up to a chosen number (for instance, up to three), retains breath counting up to the same number, exhales the same time and retains again before continuing.[5]