Alternate Nostril Breathing and its Benefits
Alternate Nostril Breathing is a type of breathing exercise where one nostril is used to breathe at any one time before changing to the other nostril in a cycle, and this cycle is to be repeated for a few minutes or longer.
Originally, alternate nostril breathing is a yogic breath control or pranayama practice and can be practised as part of a yoga or meditation session.
Key benefits include:
• relax your body and mind
• reduce anxiety
• promote overall well-being
Typical Steps of Practice
Typical steps of practice may look like follows:
• use right thumb to close right nostril.
• Inhale through left nostril and then close left nostril with your ring finger.
• Open right nostril and exhale through it.
• Inhale through right nostril and then close it.
• Open left nostril and exhale through it.
• This is one cycle.
• Repeat the cycle to the duration of your choice, typically a few minutes.
AYO BT Alternative
There are a number of variations for alternate nostril breathing, most require using fingers to pinch the nostrils alternately.
In a nutshell, alternate nostril breathing is a type of reduced breathing exercise where instead of using two nostrils to breathe, it uses one nostril only at any one time.
From an engineering point of view, there are easier and better ways to achieve the effect of reduced breathing from alternate nostril breathing.
AYO BT is essentially a reduced breathing training tool and thus lends itself perfectly to provide a much better solution than nose pinching.
The adjustment module BTi of AYO BT has 11 adjustable settings, and the following table shows each setting’s opening in relation to the size of a typical nostril:
| Setting | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Equivalent Nostrils | 1/6 | 1/3 | 1/2 | 2/3 | 1 | 1+1/3 | 1+1/2 | 2 | 2+1/2 | 3 | 3+1/2 | 4 |
Furthermore, it can achieve even less reduced breathing down to 1/6 of a nostril consistently and effortlessly!
The benefits of practicing reduced breathing with AYO BT include:
• Free up your hand, just breathe effortlessly.
• Achieve even less reduced breathing than alternate nostril breathing.
• Improve CO2 tolerance, reduce breathlessness and enhance calmness.
