Alternate nostril breathing is a calming and balancing exercise. It is amazing for anyone and absolutely safe to be practiced by pregnant women. It is great for those new to breathing exercises or meditation. I find that alternate nostril breathing is extremely helpful in calming the mind, even on days where my thoughts won’t stop running through my head. I like to practice it also on days where I feel a little down. It truly helps to concentrate and find ease.

In addition to that breathing and relaxing exercises in general are a great way to practice calming your self and connecting to your self as a preparation for birth.

Tips:

• If you are new to breathing exercise I suggest starting with a practice of five minutes and increasing it slowly. You can set your alarm clock on the setting your alarm to ring so that you don’t think about when the five minutes will be over.
• If you feel dizzy throughout the exercise release your hand and take a few regular full abdominal breaths. It is completely normal for it to happen if you do not usually practice breathing exercises as your system is not used to taking in such a high amount of oxygen

Instructions:
– sit comfortably on the floor or on a chair or sofa
– rest your left hand on your thigh
-bring down the index and middle finger of your right hand. For this exercise we only use the thumb and ring finger of the right hand.

– if that doesn’t feel right you can also lift the index and middle finger and place them on your forehead

• close the right nostril with your thumb, inhale through the left
• close the left nostril with your ring finger, exhale through the right
• keep the position of your fingers, inhale through the right
• close the right nostril with your thumb, inhale through the left
• keep repeating this cycle