PRANAYAMA TO BALANCE THE METABOLISM

Have you ever considered why our noses have two nostrils? Not many people have, however as a student of yoga I learned that every part of our body is perfectly made and has a reason for being exactly the way it is.  We inhabit bodies that are finely tuned mechanisms operating on positive and negative electrical currents.  Yogi Bhajan the master of Kundalini Yoga taught that there are two energies within our bodies called Ida and Pingala that intertwine up the sides of the spine and that unite to form the Sushmana, the central channel.

The Ida energy, on the left, the moon energy:  receptive, calming, cooling, our feminine energy.  The Pingala, the right channel has the energy of the sun:  bright, fiery, projective and masculine.

These two systems of energy correspond to what western medicine understands as sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.   The sympathetic system, Pingala, is the energetic side associated with our fight or flight mechanism, it is activated in times of danger.  The parasympathetic system, or the Ida is the rest and repair side of the nervous system and it helps your body do the everyday household chores such as chasing down free radicals, digestion, elimination, sleep cycles and more.

The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system is known as the autonomic nervous system because the shift between the left and right is automatic when our bodies are running perfectly in balance.  Throughout the day we breathe more actively through either the right or the left nostril depending on which side of the nervous system is active within your body.  However when we deal with chronic stress over a long period of time adrenal glands can become overstimulated, sending out hormone that put the body into the stress based sympathetic side of the nervous system and keeping it there. 

When this happens our metabolism and immune system get out of whack – because our body does not spend enough in the parasympathetic side where energy is given to digesting food and ridding our body of toxins.

Yogi Bhajan taught that by taking control of which nostril is active is as simple as blocking off the other.  When you need to calm down, when your mind is racing faster than a hurricane, or when you can’t go to sleep, try left nostril (Ida) breathing.  Simply take your right hand and, with your fingers outstretched, block off your right nostril by putting gentle pressure on it with your right thumb.  Be sure to keep the rest of your fingers straight and pointing up towards the sky; the fingers act like antennas for the “cosmic” energy that surrounds us all. 

With a long, slow, deep breath, gently inhale through your left nostril.  Then, just as gently, exhale long, slowly and completely, again through the left nostril.  Relax your body as you feel the relaxing, cooling breath bringing new life into your body.  Relax even deeper with each exhale as you breathe out all tension, all stress and all disease.

This pranayama can be practiced as a meditation, sitting cross legged with the left hand in gyan mudra (thumb and index finger touching), while you block off your right nostril with your right thumb, with your other fingers pointing to the ceiling. Or it can be done while you are watching television.  To completely balance your metabolism practice left nostril breating for 62 minutes, every day for 90 days.

Enza DeLuca

www.blissfulmind.com.au

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