CLEANSING THE ETHERIC CHANNELS
Yoga techniques can regulate your breath-flow, keeping you charged-up and free from ailments. Yogi Ashwini explains how.
Sanatan Kriya is one simple way of controlling the flow of your breath. Here’s how you do the Nadi Shodhanam pranayama.
What does it means?
Nadi, refers to the etheric channels in our body where the prana flows, Shodhan means purifying. Any congestion in the nadis, hinders the movement of prana. The stagnation of prana leads to a plethora of diseases.
In Nadi Shodhanam, the Eda (cold nadi, on the left side of Sushumna, which runs along the spinal chord) and Pingla (hot nadi, on the right side of Sushumna) work as churning rods, creating heat through friction at the base of the spine, this heat then rises through the Sushumna and from there is spread across the body to cleanse various channels, remove heaviness, congestion, and also avidya – making the body far more receptive to subtler energies and prana.
Steps:
- Sit straight, preferably in Vajrasana. If not, keep your back absolutely straight and don’t take any artificial support.
- Put your middle finger of the right hand between your eyebrows. Your ring finger presses your left nostril and your thumb is on your right nostril.
- Inhale from your left nostril and exhale through your right. And then inhale through your right nostril and exhale through the left. This is one cycle.
- As you inhale fill your stomach with air and push it out. There should be a hissing sound coming from your throat. On exhalation your stomach is pulled in.
You inhale for the count of four and exhale to the count of twelve. It should be a rhythmic movement without any breath retention. Start with fourteen cycles and gradually increase.
There are many people at Dhyan Ashram who have treated their chronic respiratory ailments with the practice of Sanatan Kriya.
Points to ponder:
– While practicing any pranayama, sit in a well-ventilated room.
– Pranayama must not be practiced in a breezy or dusty environment.
– One should not sit directly under the air-conditioner or fan while doing pranayamas.
– It is essential that pranayamas are done under the supervision of a Guru. Doing pranayama in an unsupervised manner can cause long term irreparable damages in the body.
Yogi Ashwini is a yoga guru. Follow him: www.dhyanfoundation.com
