Nadi Shuddhi or alternate breathing is a yoga breathing practice. Nadi Shuddhi means cleansing the nadis; the nadis are energy channels in our body, on either side of our spine, they represent the basic duality of existence.
There’s 2 basic nadis the Ida and Pingala
The Ida is the left or feminine channel
The pingala the right or masculine channel
When we do this practice we are cleansing these channels so that your energy system will work in balance, there is a connection between your breath and your mental structure, to bring balance to your thought is very important for all aspects of our lives.
It’s very simple, here a brief explanation (also explained in the illustration above):
- Try not to eat a few hours before (that goes for all meditations)
- Sit comfortably (if you can the spine should be comfortably erect)
- Place your left hand in your lap, palm facing up
- Use your right hand thumb and ring (3rd) finger (fold your middle and index finger)
- Now block your right nostril with your thumb and inhale through your left nostril and then exhale through the same
- Then using your ring (3rd) finger block your left nostril and inhale through your right nostril and also exhale through the same
- Now again, block the right nostril with your thumb repeating the process it’s very simple
- Take full deep slow breaths continue like this for at least 4 minutes
Relax and enjoy!
