Hi its Elissa Weinzimmer, founder of Voice
Body Connection, and it is time for
another how to warm up video how to warm
up today's how to warm up exercise is a
breathing exercise and it actually comes
from yoga it's a pranayama that I like
to refer to in English as alternate
nostril breathing or it's actually
called nadi shodhana so it is a practice
pranayama basically means that you're
balancing your intake and outtake of
breath you're controlling the breath in
some way or maybe un-controlling the breath is another way of saying it in order to bring more awareness into
your system so the alternate nostril
breathing as we'll call it goes in one
nostril out the other and then in that
nostril and out the other so you switch
back and forth and when you do this it
actually balances the two hemispheres of
your brain and it brings you into a
state where you can be more calm even if
there is anxiety mounting so even though
this isn't necessarily a voice exercise
and we're actually gonna be breathing in
and out through the nose instead of the
mouth which you probably know from my
video about breathing in and out through
your mouth
I recommend that mostly for speaking but
I want to offer you this one because I
think it's really helpful for when we're
about to give a presentation when we're
about to film something when we're
nervous basically when we want to calm
down so what you do is you take your
right hand and you want to leave your
thumb and your fourth finger and and
fifth finger up you're gonna tuck your
second and third finger
you're gonna bring this configuration of
your hand to in front of your face and
then plug your right nostril with your
thumb now you always want to start by
breathing out the left nostril and feel
free to close your eyes while you do
this you're gonna breathe out the left
nostril all the way down to the bottom
of your breath then you're gonna breathe
in through the left nostril
all the way to the top of your breath
and then switch and plug the left
nostril with your ring finger breathe
out through the right switch and breathe
in through the right and switch and that
is one round of alternate nostril
breathing so now that you know that the
structure is breathe out through the
left in through the left and then you
switch before the breathe out you
breathe out through the right in through
the right that's one whole cycle then
you go again out through the left and
now that you know that that's the
sequence and that's one cycle what you
want to do is at least five cycles and I
would say even seven to twelve the
longer you spend doing this the more
your nervous system is going to calm
down settle and you'll feel like you can
come to your center is often how I feel
when I do it so let's do five rounds
together we'll see how long it takes us
and then you'll have a sense of how to
continue it on your own so bring up your
hand configuration again cover your
right nostril breathe out through the
left and through the left
switch and out through the right in
through the right switch out through the
left in through the left
switch out through the right in through
the right switch out through the left
and through the left
out through the right
in through the right out through the
left and through the left
out through the right in through the
right last cycle out through the left
and through the left
out through the right
in through the right and just finish up
by going out through the left so it
brings you back around to the beginning
and then you can let your hand come down
and when you're ready gently open your
eyes so a couple things to say about
alternate nostril breathing hopefully
you now have a sense of how this works
and how it can indeed calm your nervous
system but if your nostrils are at all
clogged this is one thing to acknowledge
then it's okay to just do it on one side
or just do it on the other or even if
it's semi clogged but you can kind of do
it just do your best that's actually a
really good way to navigate this
exercise also if you are feeling a
little bit like out of breath trust the
process of it and trust that things will
settle and you will be able to get
enough air I know it can feel strange at
first but it's actually really really
helpful once your body gets a handle on
it it is traditional to do this exercise
with your eyes closed but it's totally
fine to do with your eyes open if that
is more comfortable to you and I have to
be totally honest even when I'm in
public and people might notice that I'm
doing something like this sometimes I'll
do a really small version of it if I
really need to calm down like just
having an anxious day so it's a tool
that you can take into your lives not
even just your warmup so put this right
in the breathing part of your warmup or
if you want to you can do it before or
after you can really do it wherever you
are ready to go into a more calm state I
hope it's helpful to you and I will see
you in a future how to warm up video how
to warm up