Sitali – This is like your ‘finishing lotus flowers’ of asana practice, wherever you stop your pranayama always end with sitali, the cooling breath. Pranayama builds heat in our body due to breath holding (we exhale heat from our body, when we hold our breath, this heat stays in us), we want to release the heat after a pranayama session.
Benefits:
- Cools the body and mind
- Improves temperature regulation through the brain centers
- cools and reduces mental and emotional excitation
- Induces relaxation
Do not worry if you cannot curl your tongue — you can just suck air through
your teeth and across your tongue. However, like myself you may discover that after some time your body figures out how to do it. I was told it’s genetic, but obviously my lifestyle overrode that gene 🙂
How to perform Sitali:
- Deep Inhale through curled tongue – Hold 10 counts – Slow exhale through your nose
- Deep Inhale through curled tongue – Hold 10 counts – Slow exhale through your nose
- Deep Inhale through curled tongue – Hold 10 counts – Slow exhale through your nose
5 deep yogic breath