| Once you are comfortable with Samavrtti, you may wish to try Nadi Sodhana, another pranayama technique that is grounding and balancing. In this practice, you will use your right hand to manipulate the nostrils as you inhale and exhale.
1. Seat yourself as for samavrtti.
2. Turn the right hand palm up and bend the index and middle fingers at both knuckles so that the tips of these two fingers rest on the pads of the fingers.
3. Lift the right hand up to the nose without raising the shoulders and place the right thumb on the right side of the nose and the right ring finger (with the pinky finger placed against it) on the left side of the nose.
4. Before beginning the pranayama practice, slide both the thumb and index finger down the nose to the indentation between the cartilage and the fleshy edges of the nostrils. Place a slight pressure on this portion of the nose and notice that you can impede the flow of air in and out of the nostrils.
5. Use the ring finger (with the pinky finger placed against it) to close the left nostril. Inhale through the right nostril.
6. Close the right nostril with the right thumb while simultaneously opening the left nostril by releasing the pressure with the right ring finger. Exhale through the left nostril.
7. Inhale through the left nostril. Close the left nostril with the right ring finger while simultaneously opening the right nostril by releasing the pressure in the right thumb. Exhale through the right nostril. At this point, you’ve completed one cycle (inhale right, exhale left, inhale left, exhale right).
8. Repeat this cycle 6–9 times without straining, raising the shoulders, or tilting the head to one side. Then, release the right hand and breathe normally for several cycles.
At its most fundamental, yoga is about union; it seeks to restore our connection with our bodies, our minds, our breath, and our world. Asana and pranayama are practices with the potential to ground and reconnect us as the world around us comes alive again after winter and invites us to do the same. Much of what we like do in the spring, however, can rightly be called yoga. Planting our spring garden may be our yoga practice for the day. So may taking a walk in the early morning or a run at dusk. When we enjoy these activities, we are outside, breathing fresh air, feeling the pulse of the earth beneath our feet and hands, able to see and participate with the rebirth that is all around us. Whatever your yoga practices are, may they serve to connect you to the transformational potential of spring.
Ashley Cleveland, MA, DC, is Provost and Associate Professor at Cleveland Chiropractic College–Kansas City and teaches yoga in Kansas City.
REFERENCES
Norris K. Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life. New York: Penguin, 2008.
Feuerstein G. The Deeper Dimension of Yoga: Theory and Practice. Boston: Shambhala, 2003.
|
