Use Your Breath to Keep Your Your Nerves Calm!
Nadi Shodhana Practice
Have you noticed that you experience more pain in the winter?
Joints and muscles might be achy.
You might get earaches, slight tinnitus, or ringing in your ears.
Your lower back might feel more sensitive.
Your skin might ache or be sensitive to touch.
You might experience all or one of those without doing anything different than usual.
Why is are We Pain-Sensitive in the Winter?
As so often, Ayurveda answers your questions.
It is the time of the year when Vata dosha, one of the three fundamental energies in the body according to Ayurveda, is dominant. The cold months are Vata’s domain with its cold, dry, and light qualities, which can lead to increased sensitivity and discomfort.
In our body, Vata governs anything that moves, from your heartbeat to your breathing, from circulation to your nervous system.
And that’s where the answer lies. Your nerves are more sensitive during those winter months, even more so if Vata is dominant in your constitution or there is an imbalance of Vata dosha.
That’s why particularly your joints are achier, and you feel stiffer when it’s cold.
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How can Ayurveda Help managing the Cold Months
Apart from taking only warm food and drinks, keeping your body, especially your feet, warm, putting a hat on when you go outside, using your breath is very beneficial.
Your breath, a natural stress reliever, can bring a sense of calm to your body and mind.
The 3-part breath, or Full Yogic Breath, is an excellent starting point to go a little further. It helps you to learn how to direct the breath and use your lung volume, promoting a sense of calm and relaxation. Similarly, alternate nostril breathing balances both hemispheres of your brain, which naturally calms your nervous system and enhances mental clarity.
The alternate nostril breathing balances both hemispheres of your brain, which naturally calms your nervous system.
The Yogis of old considered the breath, practised as pranayama, more effective than practising asanas (Yoga postures). To practise pranayama, we should have mastered the asanas first because sitting and breathing require a strong and still body.
The yogi, having become competent in the practice of the asanas, with his senses under control and following an appropriate and moderate diet, should practise pranayama according to the instructions of his guru.
When the breath is disturbed, the mind is unsteady. When the breath becomes focused, the mind becomes focused, and the Yoga attains steadiness…
Hatha Yoga Pradipika (HYP), II.1+2
Did you notice that the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, which is a medieval Hatha Yoga manual, also refers to the food and the sense organ?
The sense organs are also under the control of the nervous system. All Yoga scriptures, particularly the Bhagavad Gita, hail control of the senses as crucial for achieving balance, inner peace or deep happiness, which we all crave.
But there is more. According to HYP II.65, different pranayama practices … remove disorders arising from the imbalance of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha and stimulate the metabolism (agni – our digestive fire).
All these practices demonstrate that Yoga knew about the power of the breath long before it became evident in our longitudes. We needed to wait until the 1950s when Dr Hans Selye explored the relationship between our experience of stress and our health. In the 1970s, Dr Herbert Benson discovered the Relaxation Response, which is when our nervous system switches from stress mode into rest and digest mode through deep breathing (in very simple words), further validating the ancient wisdom of breath control.
How can We use our Breath to stay Calm?
Funnily enough, our breath is our #1 tool that we can deploy against stress, which we, however, either forget to use or don’t know how to.
Have you worked with the breath and found it everything else but relaxing?
Me too. Breathing keeps us alive. There are only minutes between life and death when the breathing is concerned. So, manipulating the breath in any way makes our nervous system nervous😊Instead of the promised calm and peace, we experience resistance.
The Yogis of old have experienced the same.
In HYP II.15 Swatmarama stated
Just as a lion, elephant, or tiger is tamed gradually, the breath too should be brought under control slowly. Else it will kill the practitioner.
Please don’t feel frightened here. This is more about starting to hold the breath for too long too soon, creates issues and reminds us that, although we breathe all the time, learning to breathe consciously or directing or holding the breath takes time, just as it takes time to learn and master Yoga postures. We should respect the breath and its power.
The 3-Part Breath or Full Yogic Breathing
If you ask Katja, what breathing technique should I learn? This would be the One.
Finally, mastering the Full Yogic Breathing was an absolute revelation. It gave me a tremendous sense of freedom. Freedom to relax any time I need to, freedom to focus any time I need to; the freedom to control at least one little area of my life.
What is the 3-part breath?
We divide the torso into three breathing spaces:
The abdomen, around the navel and beyond, is the lower breathing space called the abdominal space. Breathing into the abdomen helps to reach the lower lungs. Naturally, when we breathe in, the tummy moves out as the organs get pushed down by the diaphragm and relaxes back when we breathe out.
The mid-rib area is the thoracic space. When breathing into this space, the ribs expand outwards to the side and away from the centre.
The upper space is called the clavicular space and is found in the upper chest, just below the collarbone (clavicle in Latin). Here, the space lifts out, just like the abdomen, but away from the shoulder blades, with the inbreath and back with the outbreath.
During yoga postures, full yogic breathing helps you use individual breathing spaces when it gets tight. Deep twists, for example, close the abdominal space; using the thoracic and clavicular space makes it much more comfortable and prevents feeling claustrophobic.
How to use the Full Yogic Breathing?
Remember, learning to breathe consciously takes time and patience, but the rewards are worth it.
I like teaching the full Yogic breath first when lying on the floor with knees bent, the constructive rest position. This pose relaxes the entire body, making accessing the different breathing spaces easy. And yes, at the beginning, you might nod off if you practise it in the evening, but it’s just a sign that you are already tired, don’t worry about it.
Use your hands to feel the different breathing spaces.
Put your hands on your tummy and feel the movement of this space when you breathe, without influencing it, observing only.
Bring your hands on the sides of your mid-ribs and feel the expansion of the rib cage. This is the area that we can feel and access the easiest.
Stick your thumbs into your armpits and fan the fingers out across your upper chest to feel the upper clavicular breathing space. This space is relatively small, so expect little movements only at the beginning.
Then, start directing the breath, focusing on one space at a time. When you feel comfortable with this, combine the breathing spaces, first the lower two and, eventually, all three. Breathe in from the bottom up and breathe out from the top down.
Once you can easily combine all three spaces lying down, practise sitting upright. This feels different now because the abdominal muscles engage to keep your body in this position, and the expansion might be less at the beginning. If sitting cross-legged is not comfortable, sit on a chair. Sit away from the backrest with your feet on a low stool or a firm blanket.
When the 3-part breath sitting feels comfortable, start breathing in and out slower. You can count the length of in and out breaths and slowly lengthen them.
Always remember the HYP tip and tame this tiger slowly. There is no rush.
How about giving it a try; click below
Alternate Nostril Breathing – Nadi Shodhana
This is now a proper pranayama technique. The 3-part breath lays the ground for all pranayama techniques.
With alternate nostril breathing, we need to sit; here, too, a chair is entirely ok.
Nadi Shodhana is said to remove impurities that accumulate in the subtle channels called nadis. Shodhana means cleansing.
How is Nadi Shodhana done?
When sitting tall, the right thumb is placed on the outside of the right nostril, the ring and little finger rest on the outside of the left nostril, while the index and middle fingers are curled towards the palm. The shoulder and right arm should be relaxed.
This can be challenging initially, so the left hand can support the right arm.
Close your right nostril, inhale through the left, close both nostrils, open the right nostril, and exhale.
Reverse the process, inhale right, close both nostrils, open left and exhale.
This is one round.
First, finding a rhythm and getting used to this unusual arm and hand position is essential. The touch while closing the nostrils is light.
Once this is achieved, then you can focus on the actual breathing technique. This is a very subtle breath and requires concentration.
Once the rhythm of nadi shodhana comes naturally, you can apply the 3-part breath and fill the different breathing spaces.
The progression into nadi shodhana is endless, with venturing into retention of the breath and different ratios. But this has time. The technique itself, without retention and ratios, is highly beneficial itself.
What are the Benefits of Nadi Shodhana?
My teacher used to say that nadi shodhana balances both brain hemispheres. The endpoint of two major nadis, energy channels, where the fingers are placed, is outside the nostrils. Their names are Ida, on the left nostril, and Pingala, on the right side.
These fine channels start at the base of the spine, at the Muladhara chakra, and at the root chakra or energy centre. Travelling up through all the chakras up to the ajna chakra, the eyebrow centre, before descending down to the base of each nostril. The rhythmic pressing and releasing balances their energies, which are calming on the left nostril, and activating on the right side, so no energy dominates the other, and both are balanced.
My teacher also recommended this breathing technique for everyone working on the screen for a more extended period to relax the brain and nervous system, which helps reduce stress and anxiety.
Final Thoughts
Although, I went a little deeper into these breathing techniques than planned. They are excellently suited to keep Vata in check during the autumn and winter. But, of course, you can practise them all year round, but their affinity with the nervous system and brain works for Vata dosha like a charm.
Remember to take your time and never force the breath.
Now I’d love to hear from you: Have you ever noticed that you might be more sensitive in the autumn and winter? Are you using your breath purposefully. Feel free to share your thoughts below!
Let’s start a conversation. Leave a message on Instagram, Facebook, or even an old email OR comment below :)
I love hearing from you!
Katja x
P.S. Of course, establishing healthy eating habits is essential throughout all your life :)
