Clay & Air

Pillar one ยท Relaxing

Nadi Shodhana

3-10 minutes · Sitting upright · Nose only

Evens out both sides. Use it when you're wired and can't focus, scattered and can't settle, or winding down for the night.

WiredScatteredCan't sleep

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The pattern

  1. 01Sit upright, spine long. Rest the index and middle fingers of your dominant hand on your forehead, between the eyebrows.
  2. 02Close your right nostril with your thumb.
  3. 03Inhale 7 seconds through the left: belly, chest, head.
  4. 04Hold 5 seconds.
  5. 05Exhale 7 seconds through the left.
  6. 06Switch. Your middle finger comes down onto the left nostril and your thumb lifts off the right.
  7. 07Inhale 7, hold 5, exhale 7 through the right. That is one round.
  8. 08Keep switching for three to ten minutes.

Keep the breath plain. No Ujjayi here. A simpler way in is to breathe in and out through one nostril for several minutes before you start switching at all.

If your nose is blocked, from allergies or a cold, pull the outside of the opposite nostril sideways with your free hand to open it up, or use a nasal strip. Swapping to your other hand can help as well.

If 7 seconds is a strain, run 4 · 4. The evenness matters more than the number.

When that is easy

Once the same-nostril round is easy, move to the alternating form: inhale left, exhale right, inhale right, exhale left, always inhaling through the nostril you just exhaled through. Nine rounds, finishing on a left-side exhale.

How it lands

It settles without sedating. The static clears, and where that leaves you depends on when you run it. Clear enough to work in the afternoon, quiet enough for bed at night.

What it does

  • Evens out both sides
  • Settles the fight-or-flight response
  • Slows the heart rate
  • Works before sleep, or before anything that needs focus
  • Lowers blood pressure and brings inflammation down

If you want a hand with it

This one works on your own. Some of it lands harder with someone in the room, and that is what the workshops are for.

Workshops

The rest of this pillar