Sheetali Pranayama Breathing Exercise for Stress & Anger Management
Breathing Exercise for Reducing Stress
Sheetali Pranayama: Hatha Yoga Breathing Exercise #6
Free Online Video of Sheetali Yoga Pranayama
(Video #5 of the Online Yoga Breathing Exercises Video Series)
What is Sheetali Pranayama:
Sheetali Pranayama is Yoga’s answer to heat, stress, anger and irritation. Sheetal means calmness and peacefulness and those are the results of practicing this cooling breath. I recently undertook the practice of Sheetali Pranayama when an internal heat imbalance took place within my body and I am happy to report that the energies within have been cooled and equilibrium has been restored.
Sheetali Pranayama comes directly from the traditional schools of Hatha Yoga, but, it was also taught to me in my Kundalini Yoga training and is a widely used breathing technique to combat Ayurveda’s Pitta (Heat: see Introducing Ayurveda - Alternative Medicine for Self Healing) related issues. Sheetali is another pranayama worth having in your repertoire and its simplicity makes it possible to do anywhere and an anytime.
Below are the details of Sheetali Pranayama.
Benefits of Sheetali Pranayama:
Primary benefits of Sheetali Pranayama:
- Cools the mental, physical and emotional systems and reduces internal heat.
- Reduces stress and creates a sense of tranquility and peace.
- Reduces anger and irritation promoting calm.
- Reduces fever.
- Combats other Pitta related disturbances such as acidity, burning eyes, heat rash etc.
Secondary benefits of Sheetali Pranayama:
- Stimulates and assists in digestion.
- Helps combat restlessness and helps induce sleep.
Cautions for Sheetali Pranayama:
There are not many cautions for practicing Sheetali Pranayama. Since it’s a cooling breath it will increase Kapha (mucus) so don’t practice it if you have cold and respiratory related issues. Also, in winter don’t overdo it to avoid exacerbating Kapha and excessively cooling the system.
Instructions for Beginner’s Sheetali Pranayama:
To practice Sheetali pranayama sit up in a comfortable position, you are also practice this breathing exercise standing up or lying down. The instructions below are for if you are sitting, but, for other positions only slight modifications should be needed.
- Elongate your spine upwards, lengthen your neck and subtly bring your chin back and in like a soldier at attention. This will align the spine with the back of your head.
- Close your eyes and place your hands on your knees.
- Now curl the sides of your tongue up to create a tunnel and slowly breathe in through your mouth allowing the air to pass over your tongue thus creating a cooling sensation.
- After you inhale, bring the tongue back in and exhale through the nose. Then again stick the curled tongue out and repeat.
- Do 10 repetitions. One breath cycle of inhalation and exhalation makes 1 repetition.
Instructions for Intermediate Sheetali Pranayama:
The only change for intermediate Sheetali Pranayama is to increase the number of repetitions from 10 up to 50.
Modification for Sheetali Pranayama:
The key to Sheetali Pranayama is the cooling of the air as it passes through the curled tongue, unfortunately, not everyone can curl their tongue in this manner. If you fall into this category just curl the sides of you tongue up as far as possible and breathe in allowing the air to flow over the tongue to create the coolness as best as possible.
Secret of Sheetali Pranayama:
According to Yoga lore, The Fonz (Fonzie from the TV show Happy Days) practiced Sheetali Pranayama in secret and it was the reason why he was so cool :-).
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on October 11th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
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on October 11th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
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on October 11th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
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on October 11th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
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on October 11th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
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on October 12th, 2007 at 8:18 am
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on October 12th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
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on October 22nd, 2007 at 7:28 pm
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on December 9th, 2007 at 12:45 am
Hi Anmol, it’s me, Ricardo again! Thanks for your help. I guess this pranayama will be really useful.
By the way, thanks for your comments on the pronunciation issue (of “pranayam” or “pranayama”), so now I know another way to pronounce these words.
Also, words with “s” are pronounced like “sh”, for example Sushumna or Shushumna, am I right?
Oh and yeah! Of course the practice itself is what really matters :)
on January 3rd, 2008 at 9:40 am
“s” and “sh” are different in the Sanskrit alphabet, and in the English spellings they should be used accordingly. So it would actually have made more sense to spell sushumna as shushumna, but alas such was not the case, thus causing this confusion :-).
But in general words with “s” should not be pronounced as “sh”.
Hope this helps.
Best,
Anmol
on September 5th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Question?
I never found anything about “breath of fire” in any of the yoga books by Iyengar and Shivananda.I was wandering why is it so?Thank you for sharing btw.
on September 8th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Those schools are following the more traditional Hatha Yoga style, while Breath of Fire is from the Sikh Kundalini Yoga style, thus your question.
There are other types of pranayama as well, not in either of the styles above either :-D…. best policy is use whatever you find to be helpful in your spiritual growth.
Happy to share.
Cheers,
Anmol
on November 23rd, 2008 at 2:28 am
Wonderful. Now, if only I could enlarge this screen and wrap it around me real time. Thank you again Anmol. Everything I have read or participated in here is . . . uh . . . perfect?
;˚)
on June 1st, 2009 at 4:07 pm
[…] Sheetali Breathing Exercise for Stress Management […]
on July 29th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Dear Anmol Ji
The heat we are cooling is caused by the activity of Kundalini….If we do cool it, does it reverse the progress of our practice (movement of the energy) or just allow us to use the energy without creating the heat imbalance?
All the bet to you
Ra-Gini ( :^)
on August 2nd, 2009 at 11:45 am
Dear Anmolji,
A secondary question about heat:
I have noticed that in some instances, stimulation of heat is encouraged, as in Bhastrika Pranayam. At a lesser level of practice, i have less heat (when now doing Wealth Kriya and SCK)…..More intense practice, more heat. At this point it lingers in my neck and head mostly, which is why i began Sheetali Pranayam. So i guess i don’t know the difference between desirable heat and a heat imbalance, which you have stated you have experienced. Can you explain? I LOVE the heat, since i am always cold, but don’t want to hurt myself.
Much Peace
Ra
on August 13th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Balance is the key here. Kundalini can create heat, but in some practices of Kundalini Yoga the goal is to create a cooling air to rise. I would suggest not going to either extreme, and with the active form of KY which you love, be watchful of the heat.
Heat during intense practice is purifying, but if it lingers in the system, it can cause imbalances, as the body is already optimized for it’s current base temperature. Straying too far from this blueprint, is not advised for long periods of time.
So I would suggest to re-balance excessive heat and this way be able to practice without worry of long term internal derangments.
Also, being able to cool your body on demand is a mastery as well. Being able to do which, will give you greater confidence when facing heat related challenges.
Best,
Anmol