Hi!
Welcome!
I'm Laia and today's breathwork break is designed to help you find a sense of balance.
Sometimes you might find yourself really energized or really low on energy and just want to bring yourself somewhere in the middle.
This breathwork technique is called alternate nostril breathing.
You can practice it in your mind's eye without using the hand gesture that I will show you in a moment or you can choose to take a few moments with me to set up how we'll do the practice and then we can practice together.
So alternate nostril breathing is great to help you balance the energies in the body.
In yoga it is said that the right side of the body is your solar energy,
Your more up energy right,
The fire,
And your left side is the lunar energy which is softer,
Calmer,
Cooler.
So when we utilize alternate nostril breathing we can regulate these energies within us and sometimes it even feels like it regulates the energy around us.
So the hand gesture that you will need is simply bringing your peace fingers which are your index finger and your middle finger right between your eyebrows and you just place them there.
Make sure that your elbow is relaxed right so you're not doing a lot of strength with your arm and then go ahead and with your thumb you will gently close your right nostril and I say gently because you don't want to fully restrict the flow of breath but you want to restrict it a little right so your peace fingers are between your eyebrows you gently close your right nostril and then you'll simply breathe in through the left.
Now with your ring finger you'll close your left,
Open the right,
Exhale through the right.
Inhale through the right again,
Close the right nostril with the thumb,
Exhale through the left.
And that is one cycle.
So one cycle is in through the left,
Out through the right,
In through the right,
Out through the left.
Yes?
So let's go ahead and do a few rounds together.
Find a comfortable seat,
Let your shoulders relax,
Lengthen your spine and as always soften your gaze or if you rather close your eyes.
And let's just take a regular breath together first,
Inhale,
Exhale.
And you choose to use the mudra today,
The hand gesture,
Bring your fingers between your eyebrows,
Close your right nostril,
Inhale through the left.
Exhale right.
Inhale right.
Close right,
Exhale left.
In left.
Close left,
Out right.
In right.
Close right,
Out left.
In through the left,
Out through the right,
In through the right,
Out through the left.
One more cycle on your own.
Once you exhale through your left,
Release your hand down,
Breathe in through both nostrils.
Breathe out through both nostrils.
If you close your eyes,
You can open them again.
Take a moment to notice how you feel before you get back into your day.
Thank you so much for practicing with me,
Be well.
