Week Two - Ida Nadi, The Moon Channel

Hello everyone,

Thank you to everyone who made it for our first hatha class of the new term last Sunday, where we began our exploration of the nadis with an awareness of prana. The practice was all about supporting and stabilising the spine so that energy could flow freely, unhindered. The word prana is linked to the breath, the nervous system, the spine...but it means life-force. That which is alive inside you; a flow of energy. This week, as we enter into the world of the nadis - which are the energy channels through which energy prana flows - I am excited to announce a softening moon themed yoga practice! We will work to open the hips, calm the mind, and go inward with our attention to ground and find centre.

I write to you this morning after the night of a new moon, which is so perfect! In this week's 5pm hatha we will explore ida nadi - the channel of energy flow in the body that is said to feel a little bit like the moon. Before you sigh and roll your eyes: I know...this sounds wacky! But ida nadi is really just the felt sense of softness inside yourself. Sleepiness, even. It's a quality of gentleness...a coolness... maybe a feeling of something a little bit wild and untamed...almost feminine...certainly dark and cold...but illuminating and powerful...deeply nourishing and caring...and always moving in waves and cycles.

This ida nadi is described in yoga as a channel of lifeflow in the body that runs up and down the length of the spine in a spiralling pattern. It is associated with the left side of the body and the left nostril, as well as the right side of the brain, and the parasympathetic nervous system - meaning that, when activated and flowing freely - ida nadi can help us to feel calmer, more grounded, more intuitive, and even more creative. Physically, when ida nadi is flowing and in balance with other nadis, it can help us to digest food and absorb nutrients better, sleep more deeply, and accelerate our natural healing and functional systems.

Fascinatingly, modern science largely agrees with the yogic concept of ida nadi, in that we know that breathing more dominantly through the left nostril is linked to having the parasympathetic nervous system switched on (this is your body's rest and digest state). *The nervous system is essentially how our seven trillion nerves communicate signals to and from the brain to coordinate our actions, thoughts, and even feelings. It's very complex! But it gets broken into several branches and sub-sections, and the parasympathetic nervous system is part of the autonomic nervous system, which is our involuntary response system. The involuntary nervous system has two branches; sympathetic and parasympathetic. To put it very simply, what we're talking about here is how our body can get unconsciously triggered to become very stressed - like we're running to save our lives - or can be unconsciously triggered to feel very safe - like we're cosy and warm in our bed. 

...Ida nadi and the parasympathetic nervous system is the cosy and warm in bed one.

As the daughter of a poet, it's hard for me not to see a mystical parallel in scientific fact. Sun and moon. Day and night. Sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Pingala and ida nadi. It all feels the same. All natural things are perfectly balanced with opposing forces. This ida nadi that we're exploring on Sunday, the moon sense, considered in yoga to be a river of subtle energy running up the spine that feels something like intuition, calmness, even femininity...is synonymous with the activation of our parasympathetic nervous system; which is how our body switches on digestive, healing, and restoration signals. Everything we know about the parasympathetic nervous system, which is linked to the left nostril and the ability of our brains to calm down, ties in seamlessly with these moon-like qualities of ida nadi that were taught so many years ago in traditional yoga. It's almost like those yogis knew what they were talking about!

In any case, you can expect a calming, gentle hatha flow this Sunday at Thrive. An honouring of winter and a new moon cycle, prepping the soil for seeds of renewal. We'll focus on sensation over shape in practice - it will be a chance for you to ground into your breath, open your hips, and move through a fun (and often lesser taught) moon salutation! Chandra namaskara. Let me know if you'd like me to save you a space :)

Goodnight World

Settle your head pet

Send your bones to sleep

Every moment that we rest

Brings a moment's peace

You not be missing nothing

The sunshine sleeping too

The stars are lining up, love

To watch your dreams with you

And if you make a wish on one

Before you go to sleep

You might meet that very star

Out there in them dreams

Goodnight stars

Goodnight sky

Goodnight moon and sunshine

Everyone I love lies under you tonight

Goodnight trees

Goodnight bees

Goodnight rivers and valleys

Goodnight big old bold world

Goodnight world, goodnight

A song by Lisa O'Neill

Le grá,

Macha