Yoga-Meditations

As must of us know, many animals must pant in order to keep cool. This works because the act of panting dramatically ups the amount of saliva in the mouth as the tongue is being stretched. The air doubly collects moisture from the surrounding area and ends up being ‘swamp cooled’ when it passes through your mouth’s ‘wetland’. This means that your blood is cooled before it even reaches your brain! It’s not surprising that this technique is named as such. “Sitali” means “cool”. The Sitali Pranayama is a yogic breathing technique that greatly reduces the principle we refer to as “pitta”. (Which is simply the body’s catabolic process).

There are basically two ways to perform this nifty trick; the easy way, and the ‘traditional’ way. I’ll start with the easy way, which is, of course, my favorite. But do not fret – I will include the traditional way, also. I know that some very dedicated people prefer to practice the older, more traditional methods.

To begin the easy way, simply blow a kiss, holding your lips in an “o” shape. Make sure that your tongue is not touching your gums or teeth. Let your tongue simply “float”. Next, you simply breathe in through your mouth. You should immediately notice how cool the air is.

Be aware that if your mouth starts drying out, that you need to slow down the pace that you’re breathing at. When you are ready to breathe out, put the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth softly. For this to work, you must breathe out even more gradually than you inhaled. Your breath should exit through you nose. It’s so neat because you can feel the heat leaving your body!

Now for the traditional method! This one’s a little trickier, because you must curl your tongue so that its sides touch. Make sure that the tip of your now-curled tongue is sticking outside of your pursed lips. Gently keep your tongue in place with your teeth. Just like with the easy method, you will need to inhale quite slowly before exhaling even more slowly through your nose.

If you’d like to take it even further, you can employee the jalandhara bandha position when retaining your breath. Please look up instructions for more advanced methods, as I have not listed them here!
Remember, these should be peaceful exercises. Never, ever strain or struggle! If need be, rest after a few minutes and enjoy life.