Alternate Nostril Breathing

Alternate Nostril Breathing -- it helps us to improve our focus, concentration, or attention span. This meditation is suitable for beginners and also very good at helping bring it back to basics for the experienced meditator.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Meditation Rocks!

I'm Lucy.

Now today's meditation is a little bit different.

You do actually use a bit of movement with the meditation.

It's called Nadi Shodhana,

Which basically means alternate nostril breathing.

And it's really good for bringing us into the moment if we're having trouble with a busy mind,

Or we're having trouble with concentration or focus,

Because believe you me,

If you try and think of anything else whilst you're doing this,

You'll lose your train of thought and get all lost.

And that's fine,

That's why I'm here.

So for this meditation,

Alternate nostril breathing,

You might want to give your nose a bit of a blow first.

So if you want to quickly pause the video here,

Run off and get a tissue and blow your nose,

Then you can do that.

Okay,

All noses blown,

Everyone's comfortable,

Let's get started.

So I'm going to show you how to do this first before we properly get started.

Now also what's important to remember is that you are going to be taking really deep breaths and focusing quite intensely for these eight minutes.

So if you begin to feel a little bit dizzy or just a bit strange,

Then you can just remove your hands and just use your normal breath-led meditation,

Listening to my voice.

You can still breathe in the same way,

But not use the hand movements.

All right,

So this is how we do it.

I use my right hand and you do the victory sign or the swearing sign if you're being naughty,

And you put those two fingers on your central forehead point between your eyebrows like this,

Okay?

And then you get your thumb and you press on your right nostril,

And you get your other finger,

Your ring finger in my case,

And press that onto your left nostril.

So I'm not going to press them entirely at this moment,

Just because I'm talking to you.

So we basically seal both nostrils like this,

And then we remove the thumb,

And you breathe in through the right nostril like this.

Then you seal the nostril with the thumb and you hold the breath for a few moments,

And then you let the breath out of the ring finger,

The left nostril.

And you go back in through that left nostril,

You seal,

You hold,

And you exhale out through the thumb.

So that's one round,

So going in,

Holding,

Exhaling,

Inhaling through that same side,

Holding,

Exhaling is one complete circuit.

Now I go to IKEA,

I don't know about you,

And there's these little coffee tables that are the same height as they are flat,

And we've all had them at some point in our life.

If it helps,

I sometimes visualise the IKEA coffee table.

So if that helps you to visualise it having the same height as a width on a table,

Going up and down the legs,

Then that's just something to think about.

Okay,

So shall we give it a start?

And what we're trying to do is to have equal length of breath in,

Equal length hold,

Equal length exhale,

Inhale,

Hold,

Exhale.

Okay,

But as I said,

Don't worry if you begin to feel strange or dizzy,

You can just stop,

Or if you get lost,

Just open your eyes,

I'll be doing it and you can get yourself back on track.

Okay,

So let's get started.

Same as normal,

We're going to try and sit in a comfortable position.

I've got my feet flat on the floor today,

And we have a nice active posture,

So a nice active spine.

Give that nose one more blow if you want to do that.

And then bring your peace fingers on to your forehead.

And what's quite nice is whilst we're here just to give the forehead a little bit of a massage,

You can begin to feel tension points built up here.

Okay.

And then bring your thumb and your ring finger next to your nostrils.

And then when you're ready,

Just seal both nostrils.

And we'll immediately open the thumb,

So breathing in through the right nostril when you're ready.

Sealing the right nostril,

Holding the breath,

And then exhaling through the left nostril.

Inhale through the left.

We seal,

We hold,

We exhale through the thumb.

This time as you inhale,

Count the number that you reach for the breath.

Inhale.

Seal and then match the length of the hold with the length of your breath.

And then as you open the finger,

Exhale for that same amount of time.

Inhale for that same length of inhale breath.

We seal,

We hold for the same length.

Exhale through that right nostril and the thumb.

Here we go again.

So inhale through the thumb,

Counting.

Seal and hold for the same length of time.

Open the finger,

Exhale through the left nostril.

Inhale through the left nostril.

Seal and hold across the top for that same length of time.

Open the thumb,

Exhale through the right nostril.

And again,

Inhale through the right nostril.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the left nostril.

Inhale through the left nostril.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the right nostril.

See if you can make the inhale longer this time and still count.

Inhale through the right.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the left.

Inhale through the left.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the right,

Releasing the thumb.

Again,

Inhale through the right.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the left.

Inhale through the left.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the right.

Inhale through the right.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the left.

Inhale through the left.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the right.

Inhale through the right.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the left.

Inhale through the left.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the right.

Inhale through the right.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the left.

Inhale through the left.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the right.

I'm going to leave you just for a couple of moments to practice.

Inhale through the right.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the left.

Inhale through the left.

Seal and hold.

Exhale through the right.

Just try on your own just for a couple of moments.

Just finishing the cycle that you're on and just bringing your hands down onto your lap and bring your attention to that central point on your forehead where you were gently pressing.

Just be with your breath for a few moments,

Just breathing normally.

Just notice how you feel in this moment.

Slowly allow the breath to return to a comfortable rhythm and flow for you.

Maybe just making a little movement with the fingers or stretching the neck,

Rolling the shoulders.

Eventually,

If you want to,

Bring your hands together and give them a little rub and taking the hands over the eyes so that you can blink your eyes open into darkness and walk before moving the hands.

And I'm here.

And Nadi Shodhana is a really valuable exercise that we can use even just for a few moments during the day.

It can also help,

It helps me certainly if you get headaches,

It can kind of release a little bit of tension that you might be feeling there.

It apparently wakes up the left and right hand side of the brain.

You could read more about that if you choose.

And there's very,

Very many benefits.

Certainly for me,

Focus and concentration and grounding,

Being truly in that moment.

And notice if you try to think about anything else,

Your mind begins to wander and you get lost in the track of where you are.

And the talking of the inhale,

Hold,

Exhale almost becomes like a mantra,

Like you're using that to help focus your attention.

So whether it's my voice or your own voice inside your head saying it to yourself,

Then it can be a really useful meditative technique to centre and to ground and to be.

Well I hope it was useful for you.

You can revisit it at any point in time.

But I hope it was a useful addition to your day today.

I hope to see you again very soon.

Take care.