Sitkari (Hissing Cooling Breath)

Yoga can help cool down the body through various practices like cooling breathing techniques, calming poses, and relaxation asanas.

Sitkari, that which cools. A wonderful cooling pranayama, very good for people who have high BP and who are prone to ulcers, also good for digestion because it helps the production of saliva and also very, very good for stress management. If you tend to get constipated or you have asthma, cold, cough, these avoid practicing Sitkari.

This is a very simple, comfortable technique to practice. So for Sitkari you are going to start by keeping your teeth together. I am not clenching the teeth, just placing the teeth in line with each other. My tongue is going to be touching the back of the teeth where the upper and lower teeth meet.

Now, if you notice, there is naturally a slight gap between the teeth through which the inhalation will smoothly flow over the tongue. Now as you exhale, you are going to roll the tongue up to touch your upper palate so that you retain the moisture in the tongue while you are exhaling. On your inhale, you are going to slightly lift the chin up.

So let's practice: teeth together, place the tongue behind the teeth. You can start with Chin Mudra on your knees. Drop the chin down slightly, keep the eyes closed, face relaxed.

Inhale through the mouth here. Close your mouth, take the tongue to the back of the palate. Drop your chin down completely, exhale through the nose. Let's try that again, a few more rounds. And the exhalation can be in ujjayi or normal nostril breath.

Close the mouth, tongue to the palate. Drop the chin down and then exhale. Now exhale through the mouth. One more. Slowly come back to your natural breath, observe the coolness in your mouth, the cheeks, the tongue, very gently open your eyes.

So that was your Sitkari Pranayama, where you are inhaling through the mouth, the gaps of the teeth, and exhaling through the nose, retaining that coolness and moisture in the mouth.

Right foot goes over the left leg, cross it like this, listen carefully because you might get confused, right hand goes behind you, left arm goes up to the ceiling, bend at your left elbow, hook and twist. Look to the back of the room in your Ardha Matsyendrasana.

This pose is great for your digestive system because it's quite literally twisting out all of the inner organs, allowing any toxins to be released. Look even further, try to look to the back of the room for another two, and for one slowly coming back to center, unravel, and we are doing the same thing on the opposite side.

The left foot goes over the right leg, left hand goes back, right hand goes over the left knee, hook and twist. You will feel this beautiful stretch in on your back, try to look to the back of the room, spine is straight for another three, four, two, without realizing we saw so much tension and tightness in our backs, release it all out, and for one, slowly unravel, coming back.

We are going to bend the left knee so that your heel comes outside of the hip. Now we have to make sure that your ankle is not left loose this way. This position puts a lot of pressure on the inside of your knee. So you want to keep the toe pointed, heel outside of the hip, your hip in line with your knee. This is your starting position, this is also starting position for Trianga Mukhaikapada Paschimottanasana.

Now for Parighasana, you want to move your right leg completely 90 degrees to the right side and you are going to open your left knee as well as much as you can. So you see this beautiful hip opening here, your heel stays close to the groin.

Now we are going to go into a lateral bend. You have two options, one you place your right palm on the right leg, inhale and lift your left thumb up and as you exhale start sliding your hand down slowly bit by bit by bit till you can reach your toes and we can stop right here and breathe. Make sure the toes are lifted up, looking up at the ceiling and we can stay here for a few breaths, you feel a nice beautiful stretch inside of the hips and once you are done you are going to inhale and slowly come back to center, exhale bring your hands down, once you start getting very comfortable we are going to try and do a full bend.

So for this you are going to first flip your right palm up, take an inhale and as you exhale slide the right hand down and I am going to hold on to the inner edge of my foot. Now keep the chest open, inhale and lift the left thumb up and as you exhale take your arm all the way across and see if you can grab the outer edge of the right foot with your left hand.

Now once you have that bend, your intention or your direction of movement is to open the chest as much as possible, stay there breathe, one, two keep the lower belly drawn in, pelvic floor engaged so that there is no strain in the groin or hip flexors, two, three inhale, lift your left thumb up, take an exhale there, slowly release inhale and come back to center as you exhale release your hands, bring in your legs back together.

Now we have done Parighasana in the kneeling position and seated position on the right side. You have to repeat all of the drills towards the left, pause and then practice it on the left side as well.

Let's start on all fours, you are going to stack your shoulders over your wrists, knees over the hips. Your palms are shoulder-width apart, knees hip-width apart, as you inhale, lift the chest up, arch the back, distribute the back bend equally so from your lower back, mid back, upper back and draw your shoulders back, you don't have to lift your chin all the way up, relax your neck, exhale, draw the belly in round your back, inhale, lift the chest up, arch the back, exhale, draw the belly in round your back, inhale, lift the chest up, arch the back, exhale and round your back, inhale, lift the chest up, arch, exhale and round your back, one more, inhale, lift the chest up, arch the back, exhale, draw the belly in round your back.

Now from here you are going to come to a neutral position.

So now we take the mat against the wall and the rest of the class is going to be against the wall. So you are going to sit with your face facing the wall, scooch your hips as close to the wall as you can.

Now for this practice it's great for you to have a blanket which you can fold up and use as a cushion under your shoulders. So you can use it in many different ways which we will come to, but for now fold it up and use it such that when you lie down this will be under your shoulders. So scooch your hips as close to the wall as possible, lie down and bring your feet up on to the wall, okay.

Now we are going to come into a supported shoulder stand so you are going to press into the wall and lift the hips up. Shoulder stand is a great way to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, really helps in inducing sleep and since we are not doing the full pose this is a nice supported way to get into a shoulder stand and still reap the benefits. So we will stay here and you can breathe for another 4, 3, 2 and 1.