Having done nauli for a year

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

I’ve been doing it more or less every morning for about a year now, roughly between 12 and 20 rounds (with one round being 10 rotations in each direction, as much as I can do with relative ease). Here are my thoughts on it…

It wakes me up like nothing else. Generally a good thing but I have also gone too far with that, doing more than 20 rounds on mornings when I’ve been tired and ended up feeling a bit raw during the rest of the day.

It feels pretty good, but for me it feels better the more I bend forward, so I do it this way. I can do it standing more straight but that feels like hard work and is not as pleasant.

Over the year it has slowly strengthened my whole abdominal area, in a way that I can feel but not see because I think it’s the deeper muscles that get some exercise. I notice it when I have to use these muscles.

Being vegan I’d say that constipation isn’t generally one of my problems so it’s hard to tell what nauli does for my digestion but now that I think about it, it’s been a while since I had any longer periods of heartburn (meaning more than a few days).

And somehow it strengthens me morally. I don’t know how to put it but it makes me feel more secure and releaves a lot of tensions.

All in all it’s not bad and I’ll continue to do this for a while.

#2

Hi Terje,
Thanks for sharing your experience with nauli kriya! I’ve just started practicing that (after 12 years of a hatha yoga practice). I agree, it’s quite energizing. I’m still trying to “get” it (I practice in front of a mirror, and don’t really see much going on). Thanks for the tip of bending forward a bit more - I’ll try that next time. I start with agni sara, agni sara kriya, nauli, then nauli kriya, and sometime a feel a little light-headed after all that. I’m thinking I should keep jalandhara bandha during all this so the prana doesn’t rush up to my head. What do you think?

#3

I think that if you’re feeling light headed it may be because your holding your breath for just a little too long. Someone told me this a while ago and it turned out to be true in my case. Try making the round shorter and see how that feels.

I’m not rhe right person to describe how one learns how to do nauli since it’s one of those things I just stumbled upon but perhaps one good thing to keep in mind if you feel that not much is happening is that the muscles doing the action are on your sides and even on your back, while the muscles that look like they move are pretty much passive.

#4

Terje,
Good point that maybe I’m holding my breath too long. Thanks for the tip that I should try working the obliques/back muscles more than rectus abdominus…that might be why I’m not really seeing the nauli shape that I would expect. I’ll try that. Thanks again for providing this information. I’ve been strangely fascinated with this kriya lately.

#5

It is strangely fascinating, so why not :slight_smile:

I think this here is a good explanation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXv55uDcfmw

#6

You should not be doing Nauli if you are getting any heart burn as it could make it worse.

#7

yogacambodia, maybe I wasn’t very clear. I’m not getting any heartburn from doing nauli, on the contrary, it’s been a long time since I experienced any heartburn at all and the last time I can remember it just passed away quickly, lastet for a day or so. I used to have it for weeks when it was bad. Whether or not this has anything to do with nauli I’m not completely sure of but it may. Why not, huh?

In any case, as with all yoga (and anything else you do actually), if it’s causing you pain, don’t do it. If nauli was causing me any trouble I’d stop doing it. However, I personally think that the warning for nauli are a bit exaggerated, there’s not that much harm you can do to yourself with it as far as I can see.

#8

Thanks for the link, Terje. Very informative…