Nadi Exploration

Let's explore these three major nadis using breath, visualization, and a very special technique called padadirsasana. But first, my very favorite fun anatomical trivia, you have erectile tissue in your nose. And just like any other erectile tissue that you might be thinking of right now, when it gets engorged with blood, it swells. And this is controlled via your autonomic nervous system. And it's quite special up here in the nose that one side will dilate for about somewhere between 88 minutes and four hours, and then it'll switch.

And then it'll switch and switch throughout the day in a healthy, balanced form. And we relate that in yoga philosophy to the switching back and forth between left nostril dominance, right nostril dominance, or ida dominance, and pingala dominance. So every 88 or so minutes, your left nostril will be predominant, ida will be predominant, and there'll be in a more kind of parasympathetic, restorative, meditative, daydreamy kind of state. And then it'll switch, pingala activated, perhaps sympathetic activation, a little bit more heated, a little bit more focused, a little bit more solar activation. Both are lovely, but for a practice of meditation, the dualities just make it a little bit harder to quiet the mind or to move into a state where that union becomes possible.

So we'll do a technique called padadirsasana. It starts a little funny, so you'll just have to trust me. You're going to take your hands and place your hands underneath your armpits. It's very Mary Catherine, I know. But as you place your hands underneath your armpits, you can just let your elbows relax down, your shoulders just at ease.

And there's a little cluster of nerves where your hands are pressed that because of your autonomic nervous system, it'll dilate the opposite nostril. So by bringing both hands under both armpits, we begin to balance the flow of breath in the nostrils and perhaps in those nadis. So rest your forearms here, rest your elbows, and begin to take a tall seat, closing your eyes. And there's not much external work to be done here. So just take a few moments to soften what you can, perhaps relaxing through the brow, softening through the jaw, letting the tongue unroll in the floor of the mouth behind the lower teeth.

You might even feel a sense of the upper palate lifting and sliding slightly back in space. Keeping the breath relaxed, just start to notice the very subtle movement of the breath at the tip of the nose. You might even sense that one nostril is dominant. Keep relaxing your effort, no need to control the breath. Just by bringing the awareness to the movement of the breath and the positioning of the hands, you might start to recognize the breath beginning to balance.

As the breath begins to balance on its own, there's a deeper layer of softening. Keep your eyes closed and just lower your hands back down onto the knees or thighs. Again, there's a magnetizing in towards this very center line of your body. Might help to visualize a long silvery strand that runs from the pelvic floor all the way up through the torso in front of the curvy spine, up through the throat and soft palate, midbrain, between the hemispheres of the brain all the way to the top peak of your skull. Feel as if you could be held on that cord as the outer body softens more.

Visualize now at the base of that cord, right in front of the tip of your tailbone, a glow and a ball of light, almost like the head of a comet resting there. As you happen to inhale, you can watch the light begin to rise up towards the crown, almost like mercury in a thermometer. As you happen to exhale, you can see the light begin to radiate out from the crown in all directions. Inhale the light rises from base to crown. Exhale the light begins to radiate out from the crown.

As you happen to inhale, you might hear the mantra, hum, as the light radiates out with the exhale, the mantra, sa, hum, sa, hum, sa. At first, you might feel like you're trying to make that happen, conjuring it up. Keep relaxing your effort, noticing it happening. The breath even might grow so quiet that you can no longer follow it, the mind quiet. You can let go of the techniques and the mantra.

Just allow yourself to sit in that place of no thing, in that place of union or yoga. The mind gets distracted or the body gets fidgety, just move it back to the technique as many times as you need. That's it for this video, I hope you enjoyed this video, and if you did, please like, comment, and subscribe. Thank you for watching. Thank you so much for joining us today, and we'll see you next time.

Well, when we get started, maybe please hold your back and move the energy back into the system. Just bring the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Bring the palms together in front of the heart and just gently rub the palms together creating a bit of heat in between the hands. your palms just an inch or so apart and just feel be between the palms. There's a heat, electricity, a sense of your prana. Move your hands a little further apart and feel beyond that heat. There's a radiance, magnetism that you could even shape or stretch between the palms. Take the palms over your closed eyes and feel a sense of the heat wash back through the brain, down through the face, down through the system, inside the hands down the sides of the face, sides of your jaw, to the back of your neck. Bring me one hand lightly over the other hand, lightly over the throat, sensing the heat wash back into the throat, down through the spine, sliding the hands down over the center of your chest, like bathing the heart.

Hands down over the navel, the heat washing back over the belly, abdominal organs, spine. Then take the fingertips and press them lightly on the pubic bone, thumbs tipping at the top making a downward pointing triangle. Just re-routing your attention energy down into your base. Slide the hands back down over the legs to the knees, about your chin to your chest. As you feel ready you can allow the eyes to open, just come back into the room gently. Namaste.