Energizing Breath - Kapalabhati Pranayama (6min)

A guided Kapalabhati practice, a traditional yogic breathing technique used to cleanse the respiratory system and energize the body. In Sanskrit, "kapala" means skull and "bhati" means shining, referring to the clarifying effect of this practice. I'll guide you through the technique step by step. Practice at your own pace and avoid straining. Suitable for those with prior pranayama experience.

Transcript

Welcome to this pranayama practice. We're going to be working with kapalabhati or skull shining breath and it's a really powerful breath for moving through inertia, Stagnation, And congestion in the in the body and also in the mind. Before we begin, Important that you've had some experience working with the breath so that you've already you've learned about yogic breathing and you've established a nice smooth and even diaphragmatic breath. So allow that to be your foundation before moving into this pranayama. So sit up nice and tall. Find any comfortable position. You can be seated in a chair. Gradually allow your eyes to close. Relax your shoulders and settle into your seat and begin to connect to your breath. Just a natural smooth and even breath in and out through your nose. Relaxing your body. Settling into your seat. So kapalabhati is a breath that happens at the space of the abdomen. Come with the eyes open. So the exhalation, There's an engagement. The navel draws in back toward the spine and at the same time the breath forcefully leaves out through the nose. So it's a forceful exhalation with an engagement and then on the inhale you simply relax the abdomen and it's more of a passive inhalation. So we'll go through that a couple times. You can start by placing one hand on the abdomen and we're just sort of feeling things out here. So as you exhale, Engage at the navel and draw the breath out through the nose and then inhale. Just release the abdomen and allow the inhale to flow and do that a few times. So engage on the exhale. Breathe out through the nose. Release on the inhale. Good. Relax that effort. And so now you have a feel for it. There's an engagement with that forceful or just more of a sharp exhale out through the nose. On the inhale you just release the abdomen and naturally the inhale follows. So we'll start with 11 rounds. Just starting nice and slow. So in your comfortable seat, Allow your eyes to close. Relax your body. Bring awareness to the navel and take about a half of an inhalation and then begin with 11 rounds. Relax that effort. Make a nice full inhalation and a full exhalation. Again, Full inhalation and a full exhalation. Good. You can allow that to be the end of your practice or you can do a few more rounds. So we'll do two more rounds together and this can be a good starting practice. So once you've found that nice rhythm, You start with three rounds of 11 breaths. So just nice and slow. You do that for a few days, Maybe a week and then you just keep building, Adding more repetitions to each round. Stay with that for a few days and just little by little you're building up your capacity. But no need to rush the process at all. So we'll do two more rounds together. Awareness is inward. Soften the body. Take about a half inhalation and begin when you're ready. 11 rounds. Kapalabhati. Release. Breathe normally. A few nice full rounds of inhalation and exhalation. And as you're ready, You begin your third round. Release and breathe normally. Allow that energy to settle and notice your experience. When you're ready, You can open your eyes and close out your practice. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti. Namaste.