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robfrommi
USA
34 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 27 2013 : 5:30:38 PM
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I had a question about spinal breathing pranayama and nadi shodana. I have been doing deep meditation for almost 5 months and in this time I have tried SBP several times and after a few days to a week my energy gets out of control and I crash and burn. I have tried different amount of time 10 min, 5 mins ,2 min and 1 min with the same result.
I have concluded that this time in my life I am not suppose to be doing SBP and been thinking of waiting a year before attempting again. I was wondering if I could do some light nadi shodana for a while to kinda prep my system for SBP or should i give up on this dream to do some form of pranayama for a while. (I actually did have a dream about it last night!)
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Christi
United Kingdom
4519 Posts |
Posted - Jan 27 2013 : 6:45:42 PM
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Hi Robfrommi,
Yes, Alternate nostril breathing can be used as an alternative to SBP if you are getting too strong a reaction to SBP. Just be aware that it is a much less powerful practice than SBP, so once enough purification has occured to allow you to practice SBP again, be ready to switch back. It might not take as long as you think.
Christi |
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robfrommi
USA
34 Posts |
Posted - Jan 28 2013 : 09:25:25 AM
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| Thanks for the reply, I tried Yesterday and this morning with no side effects. |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4519 Posts |
Posted - Jan 28 2013 : 09:51:45 AM
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Hi Robfrommi,
That's great.
There are different ways of practicing nadi shodhana, so the practice itself can be vamped up slowly over time to turn it into a more powerful practice. At the moment it sounds like you would do well to be doing the most basic form which is called sukkha pranayama, where you simply inhale to a count of 4 through one nostril, exhale to the same count through the other and then inhale again through the same nostril that you breathed out through, and so on.
If that proves to be stable for quite a while you can increase the effectiveness of the practice by making slight changes to it over time. Slowing the breath down a little by adding 1 or 2 to the count (inhale 6, exhale 6) would be one slight addition to make. Another would be to add a slight breath retention after inhale and exhale (inhale 6 retain 4, exhale 6 retain 4) and so on.
Other additions that can be added to the practice over time would be the mudras and bandhas and siddhasana. If you want to go down this route I would allow about a month between making one addition and the next, or even longer. If negative symptoms of over-purification re-emerge then you can scale back again very easily.
But the practice itself is a very gentle one, so even with all these additions in place, it still would not be as powerful as SBP in it's basic mode.
Christi |
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Holy
796 Posts |
Posted - Jan 28 2013 : 9:55:32 PM
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Hi Robfrommi,
this body mind here had even better results from nadi sodhana than from SBP in the beginning. Only after some years SBP started to show its potential and could replace nadi sodhana.
Even the most simple intuitive breathing with nadi sodhana did it here, means just breathing slowly and easily for some time. The advanced ones with kumbhak started to create breathing imbalances over the rest of the day after some time. With all additions including mudras and bandhas, the practice was way too extreme for this body with some hefty kundalini activity. But those additions make SBP hefty aswell =P
Over the mid and long run, SBP is the king :) |
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Will Power
Spain
415 Posts |
Posted - Jan 29 2013 : 3:34:07 PM
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and what about doing simultaneously sbp and nadi sodhana? for further purification I mean, when the time is right. I got the idea from the lesson of kechari,stage 4.
all the best |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4519 Posts |
Posted - Jan 29 2013 : 3:54:15 PM
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Hi Willpower,
quote:
and what about doing simultaneously sbp and nadi sodhana? for further purification I mean, when the time is right. I got the idea from the lesson of kechari,stage 4.
Personally, I don't see what the point would be. Nadi shodhana works by activating and balancing the ida and pingala nadis- the two side channels, and thus bringing the prana into the central channel. Spinal Breathing Pranayama works directly within the central channel and so activates the prana there automatically. So adding nadi shodhana to SBP would just make the practice more complex, without any real gain in terms of purification.
Once you are doing SBP it is questionable whether it is worth doing Nadi Shodhana at all. But if you enjoy the practice you could add 5 minutes of nadi shodhana onto the front of SBP. Your practice sessions would be longer, but there could be some gain in terms of relaxing the body and balancing the side channels before SBP. Yogani does not recommend this though as he thinks the net gain is not worth the extra effort.
Christi |
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Will Power
Spain
415 Posts |
Posted - Jan 30 2013 : 4:50:51 PM
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thanks for the reply christi.
you said that sbp works directly in the central channel (do you mean sushumna,or the one of the internal alchemy?). but this is always the case, or the energy moves near (may be unwillingly in ida and pingala) clearing the way until one finally enters in sushumna?
all the best
quote:
Originally posted by Christi
Hi Willpower,
quote:
and what about doing simultaneously sbp and nadi sodhana? for further purification I mean, when the time is right. I got the idea from the lesson of kechari,stage 4.
Personally, I don't see what the point would be. Nadi shodhana works by activating and balancing the ida and pingala nadis- the two side channels, and thus bringing the prana into the central channel. Spinal Breathing Pranayama works directly within the central channel and so activates the prana there automatically. So adding nadi shodhana to SBP would just make the practice more complex, without any real gain in terms of purification.
Once you are doing SBP it is questionable whether it is worth doing Nadi Shodhana at all. But if you enjoy the practice you could add 5 minutes of nadi shodhana onto the front of SBP. Your practice sessions would be longer, but there could be some gain in terms of relaxing the body and balancing the side channels before SBP. Yogani does not recommend this though as he thinks the net gain is not worth the extra effort.
Christi
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Victor
USA
910 Posts |
Posted - Jan 30 2013 : 9:52:18 PM
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| SPB is a process to open up the Shushumna. You can use Nadi Shodhana if the SBP is too intense for you ( particularly breath retentions). I wouldn't worry too much about nadis in the beginning stages |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4519 Posts |
Posted - Jan 31 2013 : 02:35:27 AM
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Hi Will Power,
quote:
you said that sbp works directly in the central channel (do you mean sushumna,or the one of the internal alchemy?).
Spinal Breathing Pranayama works directly in the sushumna nadi. Over time it will also have an effect on the internal alchemy of the body, but that is a secondary process.
Christi |
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Holy
796 Posts |
Posted - Feb 02 2013 : 9:08:29 PM
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Hi Will Power,
this body here had different tests with all kind of combinations of ANB and SBP. Naturally the life-energy in your body flows in ida and pingala and all the sub nadis. When it starts entering the sushumna nadi, you know it by the nostrils opening up both at the same time + the "joy/ecstacy/nondual"-reaction of the entering. To the observation of this body, 99% of the SBP-breaths do not really flow within the sushumna nadi and those few who really enter it are the godly blinks for you ;)
With continuous practice more and more breaths flow within the sushumna nadi without a break while going up and down and the character of the practice totally changes from being a practice to (using yoganis words) a journey to inner space. Welcome to godly paradise =P
Still it is the practice of SBP which leads to the more and more "correct SBP". If you add ANB before it and purify the entry points to shushumna in that way, the life-energies will enter sushumna much more easily. Still over the long term, as said by Christi and Yogani aswell, this combination will not make a true difference and SBP alone does it all ;)
But to increase bhakti and for early inspiration the combination was good here for some time (some years ago). But below 10 min ANB will not do much =P
Happy practicing :) |
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apatride
New Caledonia
94 Posts |
Posted - Feb 02 2013 : 11:44:32 PM
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| Thanks for that useful post, Holy. |
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Will Power
Spain
415 Posts |
Posted - Feb 03 2013 : 06:18:12 AM
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Thanks Holy!   |
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robfrommi
USA
34 Posts |
Posted - Mar 12 2013 : 09:55:50 AM
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Just a little update on my progress. I switched to Alternate nasal breathing and it is agreeing with me more. I have slowly been working on adding more time and length to my practice. I think I figured out the reasons why Spinal breathing pranayama was making me crash and burn. I went to an Aryuvedic doctor and she told me I have out of balance pitta (high) and vatta too, not helping are a lot of toxins in my system and also digestion problems. I am not 100 % sure(because I haven't been able to do SBP for more then a few days) but I suspect SBP being a heating pranayama as other pranayamas are that utilize "ujjayi" are. So adding some fire to fire was causing this burn out so to speak.
I was thinking of waiting till my Pitta dosha levels off a bit with diet and exercise and trying again or maybe adding a cooling pranayama before SBP to see if that agrees with me more. Thanks everyone for all your wisdom that you share, I know I would not be doing this if I didn't have a place to go to connect with others.
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Edited by - robfrommi on Mar 12 2013 10:47:06 AM |
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Victor
USA
910 Posts |
Posted - Mar 12 2013 : 11:32:42 PM
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| You can do a cooling pranayama by inhaling through the left nostril and exhaling through the right. This is called Chandra Bheda. Alternate nostril should be neither heating nor cooling though, but balancing.Long breath retentions would be heating however. |
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OneLeaf
USA
23 Posts |
Posted - May 24 2013 : 12:53:07 PM
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Hi everyone, just caught on to this post, because I too have been having issues with Spinal Breathing but still want some of the benefits of pranayama and was looking into nadi shodana.
Does anyone know of any good books or references that go into how NS works in the body? This and other pranaymas are becoming quite interesting to me but having been burnt before, am quite eager to educate myself before I dive in to anything anymore....
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Holy
796 Posts |
Posted - Jun 18 2013 : 8:29:12 PM
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Hi OneLeaf,
here http://www.dlshq.org/download/pranayama.pdf you can find a lot of info on ida/pingala and about pranayma techniques to purify them (including nadi sodhana).
The best way is to try it out yourself and see what happens in your channels and the body-mind. |
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OneLeaf
USA
23 Posts |
Posted - Jul 06 2013 : 03:30:24 AM
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Oooh, thanks Holy! I found Prana and Pranayama by Swami N. Saraswati and that was pretty illuminating but the link you provided looks fantastic. Thanks so much!
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nookslist
USA
6 Posts |
Posted - Aug 02 2013 : 2:27:53 PM
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Hello Robfrommi,
Yes, Alternate anterior naris respiration are often used as an alternate to SBP if you're obtaining too sturdy a reaction to SBP. simply remember that it's a far less powerful observe than SBP, thus once enough purification has occured to permit you to observe SBP once more, be able to switch back. it would not take as long as you're thinking that. |
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Can nadi shodana be an alternitive to SBP?
