Bhastrika pranayama - bellows breathing

“Bhastrika. Place the soles of your feet on opposite thighs. This is called padmasana, the destroyer of all ailments.

After doing padmasana, close your mouth and breathe through your nose until you feel pressure on your heart, throat, and brain.

Then inhale with a hissing sound until the air hits the heart, making a noise, and penetrates the body and head.

Breathe in and out again, like a blacksmith working quickly with his bellows.

Keep the air in your body constantly moving (between inhalation and exhalation). When you feel tired, exhale through your right nostril.

When the abdomen is full of inhaled air, close your nostrils with your thumb, middle and small fingers.

After holding your breath according to the rules, exhale through the left nostril. It destroys the ailments caused by gas, bile and phlegm and enhances digestion.

It easily and quickly raises the Kundalini, purifies the nadis, removes impurities at the entrance to the brahma nadi and gives pleasure.

Bhastrika must be practiced without fail. It allows the breath (prana) to untie the three knots (granthi). "

Hatha Yoga Pradipika (2.59 - 67)

Bhastrika. Preparatory exercise
1. Sit in lotus position, siddhasana or sukhasana with your hands on your knees and eyes closed. Take a slow deep breath.

  1. Breathe out and inhale quickly and forcefully through the nose. As you exhale, the abdomen pulls in and the diaphragm contracts. As you inhale, the diaphragm relaxes and the abdomen moves forward. Focus on these movements.

  2. Continue breathing this way ten times.

  3. Then relax and, without opening your eyes, concentrate on your normal breathing.

This is one cycle. Perform three to five of these cycles.

As you master this type of breathing, gradually increase the speed while maintaining a constant breathing rhythm. The inhalation and exhalation times should be the same.

Bhastrika. Option 1
1. Sit in Padmasana, Siddhasana or Sukhasana with your back straight and your hands on your knees.

  1. Perform nasikagra mudra with your right hand and close the right nostril.

  2. Closing the right nostril with your thumb, inhale slowly and deeply through the left nostril, and then exhale and inhale twenty times as described in the preparatory exercise.

  3. After finishing the last exhalation, inhale slowly and deeply, close both nostrils and tilt your head forward, doing jalandhara bandha, moola bandha and uddiyana bandha, making sure that the shoulders are lowered.

  4. Hold your breath as much as you can. During kumbhaka visualize the mooladhara chakra in the form of an inverted crimson triangle engulfed in flames, which rises along the spine through the sushumna channel and enters the ajna chakra. Continue to concentrate on the ajna chakra.

  5. When the breath-hold comes to an end, raise your head, release jalandhara bandha and slowly exhale through the right nostril.

  6. Take a deep breath through the right nostril and then repeat those steps from item 3 to item 6, only for the right nostril.

  7. After holding the breath, release the bandhas in reverse order, exhale slowly and deeply through the left nostril.

Practice on both sides is one cycle. Perform three rounds.

Bhastrika. Option 2
Proceed in the same way as in the first option, but now after completing a full cycle of pranayama through the left and right nostrils, a series of forty breaths is added and the breath is held through both nostrils.

Do three of these cycles.

Over time, gradually increase the number of breaths, adding 10 breaths every week, until the ratio of breaths through the right, left nostrils and together reaches 50: 50: 100.

Note: Bhastrika Pranayama is one of the most difficult techniques of Kundalini Yoga. Bhastrika puts a lot of stress on the heart and chest. Therefore, those with heart disease are not advised to do this technique. If you feel any changes in your well-being, stop doing this pranayama.

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