Chakra Balancing Yoga Breathing Exercise

Balancing your chakras improves your health and wellbeing, physically, mentally and emotionally. Yoga and meditation teacher Anmol Mehta describes how to perform the chakra balancing breathing exercise Anuloma Viloma.

Background of Chakra Balancing Breathing Exercise (Anuloma Viloma Pranayama):

This is a wonderful and essential breathing exercise to practice before moving on to the practice of other more advanced pranayamas. This breath control technique comes from Patnajali’s Yoga Sutras and actually goes by several different names. It is called Nadi Shodhana Pranayama, Nadi Shuddhi Pranayama, Anuloma Viloma Pranyanama, Alternate Nostril Breathing Technique, but I think the name that will describe it best is Chakra Balancing Breathing Exercise. The version given here is the basic technique which must be mastered first, later in this book I will give the more advanced versions of this pranayama.

Chakra Balancing Breathing Exercise is designed to purify the psychic channels (nadis) through which Kundalini Energy and Prana (Life-Force) flow. There are 3 primary channels for the flow of this energy: Ida, Pingala and Shusumna. It is essential to balance the flow of energy between the Ida and Pingala channels which run alongside and intertwine the spine. Through the spinal column runs the Shushumna Nadi, the central master channel. The Ida and Pingala can be considered the lunar and solar channels respectively. With the Ida Nadi responsible for cooling, feminine, passive, mental energy and the Pingala Nadi responsible for hot, male, active, physical energy. As the flow through these 2 channels is harmonized, prana and Kundalini start to flow through Shushumna. This flow through the Shushumna Nadi activates and balances all the seven chakras. Read more