The Nasal Cycle and Nadi Shodhana Breathing

Right this very moment you’re breathing through more than one nostril and you don’t even know it.

Check. Press one nostril closed with a finger, and breathe. Now the other one.

Air flows freely on one side, and a little less freely on the other.

It’s not a cold. Science calls this the nasal cycle.

Every few hours, your body changes it on its own.

But yogis saw something more in it. The moon flows through the left nostril, the Ida nadi, cool and calm like the night air.

The sun is in the right nostril, the Pingala nadi, warm and intense like the midday sun.

When the sun dominates, your mind grows restless and angry.

When the moon dominates, you feel sluggish and sad.

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika says, until these two currents are purified, the mind cannot become still.

For this, the yogis created a practice, Nadi Shodhana.

Let’s do it together now. Sit up straight and close your eyes.

Close your right nostril with your right thumb and slowly breathe in through the left.

As if cool air like moonlight were flowing in.

Now close the left nostril with your ring finger and exhale through the right.

Now inhale through the right, like the warm morning sun.

Close the right nostril and exhale through the left.

Moon in, sun out, sun in, moon out. Repeat five times without rushing.

Now lower your hand and check again. The airflow on both sides will feel more balanced than before and there'll be a slight stillness within.

Yogis say, when the sun and moon flow equally, the central channel, Sushumna, opens and meditation comes naturally.

So next time your mind feels restless, just five breaths, the moon and sun and you between them.