How to Clear Your Lungs of Fluid Using Pranayama

A couple weeks ago, we talked about the self-proning technique and how it can help improve lung function in patients battling or recovering from a pulmonary condition such as COVID-19. Today, we’re exploring another technique with roots in pranayama, or yogic breath work: expectorating breath.

In short, “expectorating” is the act of coughing up or otherwise clearing mucus, phlegm or other fluid from the lungs and/or sinuses. COVID-19 patients – as well as anyone battling a chest cold, flu, bronchitis or pneumonia – typically suffer from a filling of the lungs with fluid. Of course, if the airways become too obstructed and filled with fluid, it can become impossible to get enough oxygen and the situation can quickly become life threatening. For that reason, working to efficiently and fully clear the lungs of fluid – expectorating – is key. 

Your doctor may have set this as a goal for your treatment, or even prescribed medication (commonly known as expectorants). But as anyone who’s suffered through a chest cold that lingers for weeks knows all too well, fluid can linger in the lungs for weeks. This is where it’s important to learn techniques for effectively clearing your lungs.

While most of us are used to coughing up mucus after recovering from a cold, the breathing technique described below can offer a more targeted, gentle, and complete expectoration. It can be so difficult to draw in a full breath when suffering from COVID-19 that simply trying to cough alone won’t do the trick, and we need to employ more advanced breathing tactics.

This technique, which has been introduced and endorsed by Dr. Sarfaraz Munshi of Queen's Hospital in London, not only serves to induce the clearing of the lungs of fluid, but it can also help to open up alveoli that may not be being used correctly or fully due to infection, and therefore more fully oxygenating the blood. In addition, it can help downregulate the nervous system and enable an individual breathe more fully, which is important when in any form of respiratory distress.

If you find yourself struggling to clear your lungs, consider this practice of breathing for expectoration and see if it helps you eliminate built-up fluid and breathe more fully. You will need a comfortable space to position yourself, and a tissue or handkerchief.

1.  Set up in a comfortable posture – either at the edge of a bed or couch, or on a yoga mat with blankets and bolsters nearby.

2.  Inhale deeply through the nose (unless it is too clogged, in which case the mouth is alright). Let the belly expand fully, breathing into the diaphragm.

3.  Hold the breath at the top for a count of five. Note: holding the breath is contraindicated for glaucoma and pregnancy, so if either of these conditions apply to you, skip this step. It also may exacerbate high or low blood pressure. If you experience any dizziness when holding the breath, try holding the breath for a count of only two or three.

4.  Exhale fully through the mouth, as if you’re fogging up a mirror in front of you. Really work to empty all the air out of the belly.

5.  Repeat this for a total of five times. Then inhale and hold the breath again for a sixth time.

6.  On the sixth exhale, cough deeply into a handkerchief or tissue. If coughing does not feel appropriate, make a “HA” sound on the exhale.

7.   Come to rest on your belly on the yoga mat, bed or couch, with one pillow underneath the abdomen and one underneath the head, if it feels comfortable. Reference the blog on self-proning for more on how this posture helps promotes deep breathing.

Repeat this technique as often as needed throughout the day to help induce expectoration.

Just as with proning, the expectoration technique is showing us how to use traditional yogic practices to promote health. The COVID-19 pandemic has opened a door for health practitioners of all backgrounds to explore ways of working with the lungs to help affected patients.

If you are dealing with a respiratory condition, in need of a good clearing of the lungs, or simply looking for a new down-regulating breathing technique, you can give this a try for a safe and gentle way to clear your lungs on your own.

Additional Useful Links:
Breath techniques videos
Prema Yoga Institute Breath Coaching Course

Hannah Slocum Darcy is a yoga teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and adaptive practice for many life stages and scenarios.

Lessons on the Lungs from COVID-19: Benefits of Proning

Prone postures that aim the belly down and open up access to the back body – where the lungs reside -- can be incredibly nourishing, in addition to beneficial for breathing. When working with clients with respiratory issues – whether recovering from COVID-19, those with a history of smoking, or even someone battling a nasty winter cold, here are some postures you can bring them into to recruit the lungs: 

• Child’s pose – This can be done with a blanket between the thighs and the belly to increase the dome-like shape of the back, opening up more space for the lungs to expand.

• Paschimottanasana – Rather than working to lengthen the spine and move the collarbones toward the feet, it's alright to let the spine round in this variation to maximize the posture’s benefits for the lungs.

• Rabbit pose – If it is appropriate for the client to put pressure on the head and neck, lifting the hips away from the heels and rolling to the crown of the head can relieve pressure on the lungs.

• Restorative twist – With the knees bent to one side, create a prone, restorative twist by lying the belly and chest on the mat, then turning the head toward or away from the knees. This is a good way to incorporate twists without compressing the lungs.

• Supta savasana – Taking savasana on the belly is not only a way to release pressure on the lungs in a prone position, but it can be very comforting for clients suffering from anxiety as well.

As the COVID-19 pandemic marches on, it is teaching us complementary practitioners new techniques for working with breath – not just as a pranayama practice to support general healing, but to specifically target respiratory illness and recovery. Learning what we have from the medical field and its emphasis on putting critically ill COVID-19 patients on their bellies, we can prescribe prone asanas to optimize lung function.

Hannah Slocum Darcy is a yoga teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and adaptive practice for many life stages and scenarios.

Meditating with Mantras and Mudras in Therapeutic Yoga

Some of the most famous images in yoga are of a silver-haired and wrinkled B.K.S. Iyengar in an advanced posture just a few years before his death well into his nineties, or a pink lipstick-wearing Tao Porchon-Lynch displaying increAfter practicing yoga over a long enough period of time, most of us encounter its more nuanced components that don’t necessarily fall into the category of asana or pranayama. These types of practices are especially of interest to yoga therapists, as they tap into the more subtle forms of using yoga for healing.

In meditation, we sometimes make use of mantras and/or mudras. Mantras are words or phrases that can be repeated aloud or to oneself with the rhythm of the breath, and mudras are the use of the hands to focus the brain. While most yoga practitioners have had some exposure to these concepts, as yoga therapists, we can go a step deeper to understand why they are used and how they can support healing.

What makes mantras and mudras of such interest to yoga therapists is how they tap into the parts of the body that can be most effective for promoting healing. The Homunculus Diagram shows the human body in proportion to the amount of nerve endings in each part. For this reason, when offering a yoga chikitsa, yoga therapists pay special attention to the parts of the body with the greatest number of nerve endings because of their efficacy to support healing – the face, lips and mouth (mantras) and the hands and fingers (mudras).

Thus, mantras and mudras help link physical actions to the functioning of the mind. Especially for active students, those who find meditation challenging, or those who are pitta vitiated, Ayurvedically-speaking, mantras and mudras can be a highly effective point through which to access meditation.

Mantras

Mantras have transcended the yoga community and are commonly cited as ways to enhance performance and in self-help circles. We repeat these words or short phrases to manifest an outcome or send out an intention, reminiscent of a prayer.

In yoga, mantras are chanted or repeated silently. When chanted or spoken aloud, we activate the healing capacities of connecting the brain to the mouth, lips and tongue. Even if repeated silently, mantras can help focus the mind during meditation.

Some common mantras include:

• Kirtan kriya – Four syllables, sa ta na ma, meaning birth, life death and rebirth – make up this classic mantra. The Kirtan kriya can be highly effective in focusing the mind during meditation when it is repeated over and over in a melodic way.

• Peace mantras – Om shanti shanti shanti is a common mantra used to call in peace, often heard at the end of a yoga class or to conclude a longer chant. Another mantra for peace can be more personal, such as breathing in “I am at peace,” and repeating it on the exhale. If “at peace” does not resonate with you, you can substitute another state of being to help bring a sense of ease to the mind and body.

• Devotional mantras – Mantras can also be used to chant devotion to a belief system or deity. One of the most common devotional mantras is the Gaytri mantra, which Sri Swami Satchidananda translates as “Let us meditate on Isvara [God] and His Glory who has created the Universe, who is fit to be worshipped, who is the remover of all sins and ignorance. May he enlighten our intellect." 

Mudras

Given the concentration of nerve endings in the hands and fingers, using them in meditation is said to be the most effective body-based yoga style to improve brain function. It also makes mudras one of the most accessible forms of asana, given the undeniably physical aspect of the practice. If you’re working with a client in a hospital setting, or if you’re working to introduce a more physical practice, mudras can be a great way to ease into asana.

Some common mudras

• Anjali mudra -- The most common mudra most of us are familiar with is Anjali mudra, or bringing the hands to a prayer position at the center of the chest. This is a devotional position meant to bring awareness to the heart’s center and can be found within many other asanas.

• Dhyana mudra – Place the non-dominant hand in the lap, face-up, with the dominant hand resting face-up on top of it. This is a powerful mantra for promoting healing and balance, by symbolically cradling our yang side and allowing it to rest.

Once you’ve introduced mantas or mudras to a yoga therapy client, the next step is putting them together.

• Mala beads – Chanting or repeating a mantra 108 times as you hold a mala is one of the most classical examples of devotion. Hold the mala in your right hand, draped over your middle finger. Using the thumb, touch one bead, silently or out loud speak your mantra, and slide your thumb to the next bead, being sure to skip over the large guru bead. At PYI, we chant “aham Prema” 108 times to honor the divine love inherent to our lineage.

• The Kirtan kriya – Once you’ve learned sa ta na ma, you can add the hands. On sa, lightly touch the thumb to the index finger, bring the thumb to the top of the middle finger for ta, the fourth finger for na, and the pinky finger for ma. Repeat.

Mantras and mudras are well known in yoga, but it’s their therapeutic effects where they really stand out. Ultimately, mantras and mudras are simple and highly accessible tools to deepen a therapeutic yoga experience.

LINKS:

https://www.intuitiveflow.com/the-magic-of-the-hand-mudras/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwRoHC83wx0&feature=youtu.be

https://www.yogiapproved.com/om/mantras-explained-use/

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Hannah Slocum Darcy is a yoga teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and adaptive practice for many life stages and scenarios.