Zen Yoga Breathing: Nasal Exhalation

Video Transcript

"Other than the cleansing breath, it's very important that we breathe out through our nose. There's a number reasons number of reasons for this. And the most important,I think is that breathing out through the nose allows us to regulate the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in our body. If we open our mouth and breathe out, we have a tendency to exhale excess carbon dioxide. And what happens is we unbalance the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body, and it's very easy to become lightheaded, or dizzy. And, so breathing out through the nose protects ourselves from that unbalance. In addition, ancient Chinese medicine believes that with the tongue connected to the roof of the mouth, it's like connecting a circuit, which allows the energy that we're generating through the breathing exercises to circulate more effectively through the body. So keeping the tongue connected to the roof of the mouth, with the mouth closed; breathing out through the nose, is the way we're going to practice this."