Physical Education · Ch 3 — Yoga as Preventive Measure for Lifestyle Disease
Sheetali Pranayama
Sheetali Pranayama
Sheetali Pranayama (Cooling Breath)
As the name indicates, this pranayama cools the system. It helps to keep the body's temperature down, and is taught in the CBSE Class 12 Physical Education course as a cooling breath that helps lower blood pressure in hypertension.
Drawn by us to help you understand the concept clearly, and verified to make sure it's accurate. For exams, practice from your NCERT textbook's own diagram.
Sheetali Pranayama (the Cooling Breath): the figure shows a person seated in a comfortable meditation posture with the hands resting on the knees in jnana mudra, alongside a close-up detail of the tongue rolled lengthwise into a narrow cylindrical shape and extended slightly past the lips, the exact tongue shape the air must pass ov …
Technique
- Sit in Padmasana or in any comfortable position. Place your hands on the knees in jnana mudra and close your eyes gently.
- Open your mouth, bring the tongue outside the mouth and form a cylindrical shape by bending the sides of the tongue longitudinally, and inhale.
- While inhaling, the air should pass through the tongue. Then close your mouth.
- Retain the breath for as long as you can while pressing the chin against the chest (chin lock), simultaneously pulling in your rectum muscles (anal lock).
- Then release the chin lock and anal lock and exhale slowly through the nostrils.
Benefits
- Beneficial in diseases pertaining to the throat and spleen.
- Cures indigestion.
- Helps in controlling thirst and hunger, and lowers blood pressure.
- Beneficial for diseases caused by an imbalance of pitta dosha (heat).
- Purifies the blood.
Contraindications
- Should be avoided by anyone with low blood pressure, since it has a cooling, lowering effect.
- Not suitable during a cold, cough, tonsillitis, or any throat or respiratory infection, since it involves breathing through an exposed tongue and mouth.
- Avoid practising in a cold environment or season; it suits warm conditions best.
Why Sheetali Pranayama helps manage hypertension
Drawing breath in through the rolled tongue cools the incoming air and, with it, is believed to have a calming, cooling effect on the whole nervous system, directly opposing the heating, agitated state that chronic stress and high blood pressure produce. The chin lock and anal lock held during the retention also turn attention inward and slow the overall pace of breathing, both of which support the gradual lowering of blood pressure that calming pranayama practices are valued for.