Nadi Shodhna/Nadi Shuddhi (Preliminary exercise for Pranayama)

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Nadi Shodhna/Nadi Shuddhi (Preliminary exercise for Pranayama)

Nadi Shodhna is one of the most misunderstood breathing exercises. In different yoga texts, the explanation for this varies be It Gheranda Samhita, The Lights on Yoga, and many more.

Generally, it is considered as a pranayama but in fact, it’s a preliminary exercise that you are supposed to do every time before you practice Pranayama.

When we talk about yogic exercises it’s not about following the text blindly but practice and find what works for you and makes sense to you.

After reading several yogic texts, I found Nadi Shodhna is best described in DKY's (Datta Kriya Yoga, Mysore) book.

According to them, Nadi Shodhna is a process of examining the flow of nostrils. Nadi Shuddhi is the process of cleansing the nostrils.

After doing Nadi Shodhna, if you find your nostrils aren’t flowing equally then whichever nostrils flow less, is required to clean.

So that, whatever Pranayama you practice after that, you get the maximum benefits of it.

How to do

Nadi Shodhna

1. Sit in a comfortable posture, spine erect, eyes closed. Relax your breath and settle into it.
2. Use your fingers to firmly press and close your right nostril. Turn your palm down and keep your hand just under your nose.
3. Exhale a few times with your left nostril alone and feel the intensity of your breath.
4. Repeat the same with the right nostril.
5. If the intensity of your breath with both the nostrils is the same, you don’t need to do Nadi Shuddhi, straight away start Pranayama. If the left or right nostril flows less then you need to clean that nostril by doing Nadi Shuddhi.

Nadi Shuddhi

1. Maintain the comfortable posture you were sitting in.
2. Either relax your left hand on the knee or adopt Gyan Mudra, with the right-hand fingers you need to control your nostrils. Whichever nostril flows less, inhale and exhale from another one. For ex- If you’re left nostril flows less, inhale from the left every time and exhale from the right nostril. Remember at a time one nostril will be closed in Nadi Shuddhi.
3. Take a long deep breath every single time.
4. From inhale to exhale completes one cycle, repeat it for 12-15 cycles.