Alternate Nostril Breath-Work

This is the first in a series of Breathwork practices so make sure to check in next week for a new one. Our breath is so essential to our life, it has a bi-direcrtional relationship with our mood states and yet we often pay no attention to it. In this practice, we go through alternative nostril breathing also known as Nadi Shodhana. This is designed to balance out of masculine and feminie energies, but can also be done simply to even out breathing habits.

Transcript

Hey,

Welcome back,

This is Doug.

This is the first part in a series of breathing practices.

It's something that I have noticed has been highly beneficial to myself and more and more of the men and women that I speak to.

It's going to be a combination of pranayama practices that have a yogic background as well as some scientifically backed breathing practices by the work of people such as Andrew Huberman.

So,

If you enjoy this one,

Make sure you check out all the others.

Now today's session is going to be Nadi Sharana.

This is a breathing practice designed to balance out our energies.

In the yogic tradition,

We have two sides of the brain and they each connect it to a different and opposing nostril.

As such,

When we breathe through alternating nostrils,

We can balance out those energies known as the Ida and Pingali.

Now,

If you find this practice valuable in any way,

Please consider helping me out by either reviewing this,

Sharing it with friends or even donating to my platform.

If you can do all three,

Amazing.

If you can do none of those things,

Also no problem.

Enjoy the practice and I'll see you on the other side and hopefully in the rest of the series.

So we begin our breathing practices much like we do with all others.

So find yourself in a comfortable seat with a nice straight spine,

With a diaphragm,

Uninhibited by slouching over or being in a crooked position.

In this sense,

It may be useful to lie down too if that's easier for you.

Start by closing the eyes and just breathing in and out through the nose.

Just taking a bit of time to become acquainted with the breath,

Getting used to that expansion on the inhale and that contraction on the exhale.

As you do so,

Think about extending the belly up,

The sides out and the back backwards.

Really imagine expanding the entire midriff.

Excellent work.

Next,

Take your right hand and bend the index finger while extending all other fingers.

Your thumb is going to be responsible for closing your right nostril as you breathe in through your left.

Your middle and two other fingers are going to be responsible for closing the left nostril as you breathe in and out of your right nostril.

You can take some getting used to,

So don't worry,

Let's do a practice together.

Let's start by placing the thumb onto the right nostril and making sure it's getting closed so you can only breathe through the left nostril.

Always get used to breathing in and out through the left nostril.

Keep that expansion in mind as you did at the beginning of this practice.

That's going to remain to be important.

Great work.

Now let's switch over.

Release your thumb off the right nostril,

But press down with the middle finger on the left nostril backed up by the ring and the pinky.

At this point,

The right nostril should be free to breathe in and out of,

While the left nostril is blocked.

Notice if this feels different at all.

As it happens,

When we breathe we have a dominant nostril.

Every now and then that changes,

But it can become a habit that we breathe through one nostril more than the other.

So in a physiological sense,

This is a good way to bring back balance.

Alright great stuff.

So you've had a practice on breathing in and out through each nostril.

The last step we want to practice is pinching the nose closed using the thumb and the middle finger at the same time.

As you do this,

I want you to hold your breath.

So take a practice of that now,

Just for a few seconds.

Alright nice.

So those are all three elements of this breathing practice covered.

Now there's a few more details I'll add in a bit,

But you're just going to cycle through these three elements for a few rounds now.

So let's start with that right thumb on the right nostril.

Take a deep breath in through the left nostril.

Pinch the nose closed by adding in the middle finger.

Hold your breath.

Now release the thumb,

Breathe out through the right nostril.

Breathe in through the right nostril,

Keeping the hand the same as it was.

Pinch the nose closed by replacing the thumb back on the nose.

And then release the middle finger and breathe out through the left nostril.

Breathe in through the left nostril.

Pinch the nose closed.

Now release the thumb and breathe out through the right nostril.

Breathe in through the right nostril.

Pinch the nose closed.

Release the middle finger.

Breathe out through the left nostril.

Breathe in through the left nostril.

Pinch the nose closed.

And release the thumb,

Breathe out through the right nostril.

Breathe in through the right nostril.

Pinch the nose closed.

Release the middle finger.

Breathe out through the left nostril.

Breathe in through the left nostril.

Pinch the nose closed.

Hold the breath.

And breathe out through the right nostril.

You get the idea now?

So start to cycle between these two.

As you cycle between these two ways of breathing,

Through the left and through the right,

As well as holding your breath,

I'm going to give you some pointers to deepen your practice.

To start with,

I want you to try to get a four count on the way in,

Holding the breath,

And on the way out.

This is going to help you just prolong the breath a little bit more.

Now four is a fairly standard number.

This is going to even out the breath as well as the breath hold.

You're welcome to add a number to that and go a little bit higher.

If you're struggling with that,

Go a little bit lower.

Remember,

We're trying to stay as calm and cool as possible.

Now as you're inhaling,

Once again think back to that expansion.

And as you exhale,

Think about the navel coming all the way back to the spine,

Emptying out all the air you have.

Focus on these two things now along with the count.

The last thing we're going to talk about is the holding of the breath.

As you hold the breath,

I want you to think of connecting with your Mula Banda.

If you're not sure what this is,

It's going to be the area,

The muscle between the anus and the genitals.

For women,

It's going to feel like you're holding in a pee.

And for a guy,

Imagine you just stepped into some really,

Really cold water.

So each time you hold your breath,

Engage this Mula Banda.

The idea is that you're holding the energy between your Mula Banda and your throat chakra.

We'll use this technique of holding the breath in a lot of our other breathing practices,

So it's good to get used to it now.

Okay,

Great.

So to finish,

Let's do a few rounds combining all of those elements.

So wherever you are on your breath cycle,

Just revert back to the thumb on your right nostril holding it closed.

Let's breathe in through the left nostril together in three,

Two,

One.

Let's start.

Inhale through the left nostril for one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Pinch closed,

Hold,

Engage Mula Banda.

Three,

Four,

Release the right thumb.

Breathing out for one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Breathe in for one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Pinch closed,

Engage Mula Banda.

Release middle finger,

Breathe out through left nostril for one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale for one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Pinch closed,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Breathe out right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Breathe in right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Pinch closed,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Breathe out through left nostril,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Breathe in,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Pinch closed,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Open up right,

Two,

Three,

Four and relax.

You can remove your hand and go back to normal breathing now.

Notice any differences in the body,

Notice any differences in the mind.

The definition of prana is life force.

So as we practice pranayama,

We're getting used to working with our life force.

In this life force lies a lot of energy.

Getting used to being able to control it can help us control our emotions as well as our life and our physiology.

So join me for some more sessions as we expand on this teaching even further.

Namaste.

Reviews

Nice! 🙏🏻

Nadi Schodana ať it’s best!

Well done! I’ve done this kind of breathing before and it is indeed very helpful. However, my issue is I meditate in the morning and one of nostrils (usually right) is often blocked :( are there are any remedies for this?

Very powerful the breath holding was a change from what I was used to for this practice thanks

One of the greatest led practices I have taken here on Insight Timer. Highly recommend!

Thank you Dough, amazing what you can achieve with breath work, I felt relax at the end, yet full of energy. Definitely will keep on practicing. Have a wonderful day. Namaste 🙏🏻🩵✨

Precise and easy to follow instructions. Ft peaceful in the mind a d easful in the body after... Relaxed and ready for bed. Thank you 🙏💙

As always, the perfect tone and clearness of instruction as well as a great understanding of balancing the metaphysical aspects of yoga with the scientific aspects of life. You are one of my most favorite teachers here, keep it up 🙏🏽

This was amazing thank you so much I will be continuing to follow this teacher End of the breath of work meditation he has.