38. Nadi shodhana: The what, why and how

Feeling frazzled, foggy, or overstimulated? This episode is your invitation to slow down, balance your nervous system, and discover one of yoga’s breath practices: Nadi Shodhana - also known as Alternate Nostril Breathing.

This simple yet powerful pranayama practice is a game-changer for creating balance, clarity, and calm in your life. 🙌

We cover:

🫁The Sanskrit meaning of Nadi Shodhana and its traditional purpose.

🫁 What it is: The meaning behind Nadi Shodhana and how it works to balance your body and mind.

🫁 Why it’s used: The science-backed benefits, including lowering heart rate and oxygen consumption, increasing heart rate variability (HRV) and vagal tone, improving attention and reducing rumination and anxiety, and more!

Whether you’re new to pranayama or looking to deepen your practice, this episode will leave you feeling inspired to incorporate Nadi Shodhana into your routine.

Resources + links mentioned:

👀 See the shownotes here 

💻 Free Guided Nadi Shodhana Practice, join us here

🙏 Learn more about the fullness of yoga here 

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🌍 Practice yoga online, anytime, anywhere with Yoga Hero, just £9.99 per month here

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Transcript

Hi, hero. Welcome back to all of Yoga. If you have ever felt like scattered, stressed, or just in need of a reset, the practice that [00:01:00] we are exploring today, nadi shodhana, often known as alternate nostril breathing might just be your new go-to practice. We'll explore what it is. Why it works and how you can practice it. Plus, I'll tell you about our free upcoming guided session that you can join to practice Nadi Shodhana. Okay, let's get cracking the what. In Sanskrit, the nadis are subtle energy channels that prana yoga's mythical, vital energy travels through, and shodhana means cleaning.

So Nadi Shodhana is cleaning your energy pathways. Isn't that cool? Nadi Shodhana alternates the breath through the left and the right nostrils with the intention of balancing the entire body mind [00:02:00] system.

 The why. There's quite a lot of research into Nadi Shodhana, which suggests that this prar technique increases nervous system resilience. alternating nostril sides is thought to balance sympathetic activity known as the fight or flight response and parasympathetic activity Known as the rest and digest response. In fact, several studies actually find that Nadi lowers oxygen consumption, And increases heart rate variability, a marker of vagal tone, or in other words, a marker of your ability to return to balance after a stressful period. some research shows that just breathing through the left nostril creates a more calming effect, and just breathing through the right nostril is more activating and therefore alternating [00:03:00] nostrils tends to stabilise these two effects, helping you feel alert, yet relaxed.

Nadi Shodhana also increases attention and decreases rumination and anxiety. In general, people report a clearer steadier mind And EEG findings indicate reduced like busy beta brainwaves and increased alpha brainwaves, which are linked to that relaxed but alert state.

And finally, well, at least for now, the research has shown that nadi can improve carbon dioxide tolerance. So because the airflow is reduced during the practice, the body's carbon dioxide level rises a little. Over time, this can improve carbon dioxide tolerance, Which often correlates with fewer stress flares and [00:04:00] more efficient oxygen delivery. All in all, just feeling great

the how. As always, please find an experienced teacher who you trust to guide you through it. Please consult your doctor and all the other things that you need to do to ensure that you will be totally, totally safe. And once you've done all of that, In general, you'll want to sit comfortably with a nice long toll spine. Bring one of your hands in front of your face and you're gonna use your thumb to close up one of your nostrils and your ring finger to close up the other. Your index finger, middle finger can either rest lightly between your eyebrows or you can just tuck them into your palm, whichever feels best for you. Now remembering that one of the benefits of this pranayama is that it's calming for the nervous system. Well, [00:05:00] there are some instances where pushing through challenging breathing techniques might be encouraged, but it's really important to note that these rare cases are under the guidance of a teacher who's extremely experienced, they know what they're looking for, and they deeply know the people that they're teaching. So for now, as you practice Nadi Shodhana, assume that any discomfort is an indication to pause the practice, and maybe to just come back to it a little later if you'd like. Okay. So the breath pattern is to start by closing your right nostril, inhaling through the left, then closing the left nostril to exhale through the right. Then keep the hand as it is, you'll inhale through your right nostril, then close that right nostril and exhale through the left. That is one full round. [00:06:00] So if you've done all your safety checks and you would like to practice Nadi showed, but you'd like to be guided, We have a free session coming up. Simply DM us left right, and we'll send the information straight over to you. It's completely free or there's a link to sign up in our show notes. So hero, that's it. That's Nadi Shodhana. A simple, beautiful pranayama practice that you can weave into your life without any equipment.

Try it daily if you can. Expect steady focus, fewer stress spikes, and a reliable way back to nervous system equilibrium. Don't forget to DM as left right on Instagram for your free practice. And if you found this episode useful, please do rate and review it and why not send it on to a friend And as always, happy practicing. [00:07:00]