Yoga Practice Name
Bhastrika
Yoga Practice Branch
Ashtang Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Hatha Yoga
Yoga Practice Type
Ashtang Yoga Category
Pranayama
Hatha Yoga Category
Pranayama
Steps and Description
- Sit in vajrasana or sukhasana(any comfortable pose), adopt jnana mudra.
- Keep your spine straight and take a few deep breathes to make your mind focused and relaxed, bring focus inwards on your breathing.
- Take a deep breath in and breath out forcefully through the nose without any strain
- Then inhale with the same force; during inhalation, the diaphragm descends, and the abdomen moves inward.
- During exhalation, the diaphragm moves upward, and the abdomen moves outward.
- While doing this practice, focus on your breathing and feel positive energy inwards.
- Continue the same process for few more times or as much as you can according to your capacity and preferences.
- Maintain silence for few minutes, focus on your breathing and observe the benefits of bhastrika.
Practice Keynotes
- Both nostrils must be clear and flowing freely.
- Beginners should be familiar with abdominal breathing before taking up bhastrika.
Cautions and Limitations
- A feeling of faintness, excessive perspiration, or a vomiting sensation indicates that the practice is being performed incorrectly.
- Avoid forceful respiration, facial contortions, and excessive shaking of the body.
- Proceed carefully and only under expert guidance. At the slightest.
- Sign of discomfort, reduce the duration of inhalation/exhalation/retention and, if necessary, discontinue the practice for the day.
- Pranayama should never be rushed.
- A person with breathing ailments must consult the suitability of pranayama with their doctor.
Contraindications
- Bhastrika should not be practised by people who suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, hernia, gastric ulcer, stroke, epilepsy or vertigo.
- Those suffering from lung diseases such as asthma and chronic bronchitis, or who are recovering from tuberculosis, are recommended to practise only under expert guidance.
General Benefits
- The practice burns up the toxins and removes diseases of the doshas or humours: kapha, phlegm: pitta, bile; and vata, wind.
- There is an increase in exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in and out of the bloodstream.
- Burn downs the calories, that eventually reduces the body fat.
- Beneficial for obesity.
- Warm ups the body, which makes it more active.
Benefits for Disease
Depression
