Alternate Nostril Breathing

Hatha Yoga comprises of 2 elements – Asana , the pose or posture and Pranayama, the breath. In our class, we never ever skip practicing at least one pranayama at the beginning or at the end of the session.

My personal fav is Alternate nostril breathing, just because it is so simple, easy and effective. It can be practiced anywhere and at pretty much any time.

Alternate nostril breathing or Nadi Shodhana or Anulom Vilom trannslates toΒ nadi= subtle energy channel; shodhan = cleaning, purification; pranayama = breathing technique

The benefits are so precious and all it takes is 5-7 mins out of your day. If you feel stressed from a meeting or an examination or a family concern, this offers as quick fix remedy. So let’s get straight to it. Follow the video tutorial below to learn and practice the technique properly.

METHOD

  • Sit comfortably with your spine erect and shoulders relaxed.
  • Place your left hand on the left knee, palms open to the sky or in Chin Mudra (thumb and index finger gently touching at the tips).
  • Place the tip of the index finger and middle finger of the right hand in the center of the palm or in between the eyebrows, the ring finger and little finger on the left nostril, and the thumb on the right nostril. We will use the ring finger and little finger to open or close the left nostril and thumb for the right nostril.
  • Gently press the right nostril with the thumb and breathe in from the left nostril. Close the left nostril with ring finger and little finger, remove the right thumb from the right nostril, breathe out from the right.
  • Breathe in from the right nostril and exhale from the left. You have now completed one round.
  • Complete 9-10 such rounds by alternately breathing through both the nostrils. Keep your eyes closed throughout and continue taking long, deep, smooth breaths without any force or effort.
  • To progress, we start to add a retention or a hold in between the inhale and exhale. The ratio is 1:4:2 which means we exhale double the inhale and hold for 4 times the inhale. [For sake of simplicity, in the video we inhale for 4, hold for 4 and exhale for 4 counts.]

CAUTION

  • Practice fewer rounds if you experience discomfort.

BENEFITS

  • Excellent breathing technique to calm and center the mind.
  • Releases accumulated stress in the mind and body effectively and helps relax.
  • Helps alleviate anger, anxiety & depression.

There are 2 comments

  1. Dragana Rancic

    How I missssss your classes…take care, all best, hope to see you some time…still planning that trip to NZ? Dragana πŸ™πŸ»

    1. Radiance of Yoga

      Hey hun, I misssss you too. My hope to visit NZ is still alive, just dont know when πŸ˜‰ Hope you are keeping up your practice. Miss you heaps. xx

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