With the end of year holidays creeping closer, you might find it hard to concentrate at work. Or worse, you might be overwhelmed and stressed out with so much work that has to be completed before the holiday that your body starts to take a beating.
It is a common phenomenon for people to find themselves sick on their first day of vacation as their body crashes from the over-exertion in the days leading up to the holiday.
This is when yoga can help. As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, yoga helps us to center ourselves, achieve a physical and mental balance through practice that involves deep breathing.
Comfortable: Find a comfortable seated position that is easy to maintain, and make sure you straighten your back.
One of the practices is a breathing technique through alternate nostrils or nadi shodana (also called anuloma viloma by some schools of yoga).
The words literally means channel cleaning, and according to the ancient yogic texts Hatha Yoga Pradipika and Shiva Samhita, regular practice of it purifies the energy channel or nadi.
In ancient Indian beliefs, the right nostril represents surya or the sun, the more dynamic and heating part of our system, while the left nostril represents chandra or the moon, which has a cooling effect.
In this practice, we’ll use our finger to close one nostril and breathe through the other one at a time, alternately.
Modern commentators, even mainstream non-yogis, have sung the praises of this type of pranayama (breathing control).
Their studies show that the right nostril is cross-wired with the brain’s left hemisphere, which is characterized as analytical and logical, while the left nostril connects with the right hemisphere, characterized as creative and emotional.
By regularly alternating breathing between the two nostrils, we can stimulate and synchronize the activity of the two hemispheres and the two branches of the autonomic nervous system (the sympathetic and parasympathetic). In turn, this lowers the heart rate and helps reduce stress and anxiety.
Indeed, a scientific study published in the Indian Journal of Physiological Pharmacology in 1988 found that the consistent practice of nadi shodana over about a month tends to lower both the baseline heart rate and blood pressure. Another one published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology in 1994 showed that this breathing technique had a balancing effect on the functional activity of the brain’s hemisphere.
Nadi shodana has also been recommended as a remedy for headaches and insomnia, and said to improve memory and concentration, making it a good prelude for meditation.
Hand action: Bend your index and middle finger, keeping the thumb, the ring finger and pinky extended naturally.
Where you place the tip of the finger is very important. Before you begin the practice, familiarize yourself with the position. Gently snug your fingertip into a small indentation on the side of your septum (which divides the two nostrils), or the nose hollows.
Press gently, and make sure that while you’re doing this, your not pushing your nose too much to the other side, and that your head won’t turn towards your hand. Keep the chin aligned over your throat.
Nadi Shodana
1. Start by sitting in a position that gives you a straight back and is easy to maintain, either on a cushion on your mat or on a chair.
Right brain: Breath from your left nostril, to stimulate and synchronize the activity of the right hemisphere of the brain.
2. Rest your left arm without straining on your left knee and prepare the right hand for the breathing technique. Bend at the right elbow and bend your index and middle finger, keeping the thumb, and the ring finger and pinky extended naturally. Close your eyes.
3. Start by inhaling using both nostrils and exhaling completely. Now block your right nostril gently with the tip of the right thumb and take a deep breath through your left nostril.
4. Then block your left nostril and open and exhale through the right nostril. Continue to block the left and inhale right.
5. Finally open and exhale through your left. This concludes one round of channel cleaning.
Left brain: Breath from right nostril. Regularly alternating breathing between the two nostrils lowers the heart rate and helps reduce stress and anxiety.
6. In the beginning try to keep the ratio of in and out breath at even counts (for example five counts of inhale and five counts of exhale or more), but as you progress, you could make your exhale double the inhale (5:10). Try to do this breath daily in three sets, each set being three to five rounds, and gradually increase the practice to 10 to 12 rounds.
Yoga guru Kausthub Desikhacar, son of the leading yoga thinker and researcher TKV Desikachar and grandson of twentieth century modern day Hatha yoga pioneer T. Krishnamacharya, calls nadi shodana the “King of Pranayama”.
If there is one pranayama that you should do everyday, it is the nadi shodana. So get your cushion and start breathing your way to health and happiness.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and Happy New Year to all. May the coming year bring us more joyful and enlightening moments. Namaste.
