Nasal blockage during Pranayama
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While reading Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda I have been practicing the Pranayama techniques therein. The alternate nostril exercise to bring prana through and out the Ilda and Pingala has proven to be very difficult for me. Between my deviated septum, and sinus issues (probably due to the deviated septum) I seem to be working with a bit of a disadvantage. Breathing through one nostril at a time has a tendency to feel a little like drowning on shallow breath.
Somewhere in the early chapters Vivekananda writes that these practices will feel foreign to the westerner because we have not been training our lungs like in India. It makes me think that this is exactly what he is talking about.
I have been avoiding dairy to limit the congestion as well as attempting the exercise at times when breathing through my nose is easy. However, I still run into these same issues. Out of those of you who have had similar setbacks; what have your solutions been?
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I do not have any actual medical issues such as you have, so I cannot be sure things will work the same for you - but I spend a lot of time in a relatively dusty climate (with the drought of the plains growing, dustier every year). My nasal passages used to get clogged often with dust (okay, I'll say bugers) until I started a morning routine using a neti pot. It has made my breathing much easier. Have you tried that?
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@Takamba said
" My nasal passages used to get clogged often with dust (okay, I'll say bugers) until I started a morning routine using a neti pot. It has made my breathing much easier. Have you tried that?"
I have yet to try a neti pot, but it looks like I might have to give it a shot. Especially if it worked for you with all that dust. I find the idea of a neti pot a little strange. This is not the first time I ran into someone who advocates the benefits of one.
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@MCMLXXXIII said
"The alternate nostril exercise to bring prana through and out the Ilda and Pingala has proven to be very difficult for me. Between my deviated septum, and sinus issues (probably due to the deviated septum) I seem to be working with a bit of a disadvantage. Breathing through one nostril at a time has a tendency to feel a little like drowning on shallow breath."
If the physical passage is actually narrowed by (one or another kind of) body tissue, there may be no solution but corrective surgery, though the work-around is simply to use less taxing rhythms and slower paces.
I wonder, though, if you don't need something simpler. If it is swollen nasal tissues, try a decongestant. Or, for even simpler things (including some psychosomatic ones), just get a cheap menthol nasal inhaler to use before practice. This both relaxes the tissues allowing more air through, and sensitizes sensation so you are aware or more air passage (which calms the psychosomatic issues of thinking you surely aren't getting enough air, which often is a mind trick). The menthol inhaler should be standard equipment for anyone trying pranayama with even minor nasal congestion issues.
But if it's not congestion - if it's excessive physical narrowing - there probably is no correction other than a minor surgical fix or simply not trying to force as much air through the channels.
"Somewhere in the early chapters Vivekananda writes that these practices will feel foreign to the westerner because we have not been training our lungs like in India. It makes me think that this is exactly what he is talking about."
You're talking about a nasal issue, physically blocking air from going through. Viv is talking about a matter of how Westerner's use the lungs and breathe shallowly, which is an entirely different matter and is corrected by learning to fill the lungs from the bottom slowly to the top rather than only breathe in the top bits of the lungs. Totally different.
"I have been avoiding dairy to limit the congestion as well as attempting the exercise at times when breathing through my nose is easy."
Avoiding dairy will only work if the issue is nasal congestion, and the inhaler should certainly relax that (or, if you need more, a medicinal inhaler).
PS - A simpler alternative to a neti pot is just a saline rinse. This both physically rinses and reduces actual swelling. From the drug store, get a nasal saline rinse, spray it up each nostril (or the affected nostril) and press the nostril closed for (say) 5 seconds, then blow your nose. The saline has the value of shrinking mildly swollen nasal tissue.
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@Jim Eshelman said
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I wonder, though, if you don't need something simpler. If it is swollen nasal tissues, try a decongestant. Or, for even simpler things (including some psychosomatic ones), just get a cheap menthol nasal inhaler to use before practice. This both relaxes the tissues allowing more air through, and sensitizes sensation so you are aware or more air passage (which calms the psychosomatic issues of thinking you surely aren't getting enough air, which often is a mind trick). The menthol inhaler should be standard equipment for anyone trying pranayama with even minor nasal congestion issues.......PS - A simpler alternative to a neti pot is just a saline rinse. This both physically rinses and reduces actual swelling. From the drug store, get a nasal saline rinse, spray it up each nostril (or the affected nostril) and press the nostril closed for (say) 5 seconds, then blow your nose. The saline has the value of shrinking mildly swollen nasal tissue."
Thanks for the suggestions, I am pretty sure I have both saline and a menthol inhaler laying around from when my wife had a cold a couple months back.