Win­ter is noto­ri­ous for increas­ing one’s pre­dis­po­si­tion towards colds, aller­gies, sinus infec­tions, etc.  One of the sim­plest ways to com­bat a nasal drip or mucous build up is through pranayama and nasya.  Nasya is one of the five Ayurvedic purifi­ca­tion treat­ments  used in pan­chakarma ther­apy; but it also stands alone as a help­ful way to pre­vent win­ter from tak­ing a hold on the body.  Nasya can be used in con­junc­tion with a neti pot to amplify its mucous clear­ing properties.

I recently under­went extreme win­ter tem­per­a­ture changes (Texas-Russia), and found the fol­low­ing breath­ing exer­cises and nasal clear­ing tech­niques to be quite help­ful in reestab­lish­ing bal­ance and pre­vent­ing com­pli­ca­tions due to cli­mate differences.

1.  Nasya helps to clear and lubri­cate the sinus pas­sage­ways, reliev­ing acute and chronic sinus prob­lems such as aller­gies, mucous con­ges­tion, dry nasal pas­sage, and snor­ing. Nasya also helps to relieve headaches, migraines, stiff neck, fatigue, insom­nia, and stress related prob­lems. It reduces anx­i­ety, clears and strength­ens the mind, and stim­u­lates the ner­vous sys­tem.  Nasya is praised in yoga because of its effects on con­cen­tra­tion and med­i­ta­tion, as well as its lubri­cat­ing action which soothes the dry­ing of the nasal pas­sages from reg­u­lar breath­ing prac­tices (Pranayama).  Nasya is com­pletely safe for most peo­ple (see con­sid­er­a­tions below for when you want to avoid nasya) and extremely effec­tive due to its rapid absorp­tion into the mucous mem­branes of the sinus pas­sages. The active herbal ingre­di­ents are effec­tive much faster when absorbed through the nasal pas­sage than when taken orally.

Con­sid­er­a­tions:

Make sure you use a high qual­ity oil. You can buy med­icated oils which are usu­ally a sesame oil base with herbs to  increase the med­i­c­i­nal prop­er­ties of the nasya ther­apy.  Alter­na­tively you can use plain sesame oil.  Choose plain, nat­ural sesame oil – do not use sesame oil that is sold in the gro­cery store for Asian cooking.

It is best to do nasya in the morn­ing or in the after­noon. Do not do a large dose nasya if you have just eaten.

Do not per­form large dose nasya if you have fever, acute rhini­tis, extreme fatigue, or have just given birth. Also avoid nasya treat­ment on days you are fast­ing or have taken drugs or alco­hol.  A nasya treat­ment is not to be per­formed on young chil­dren or on the elderly, but a small dose can be done on anyone.

Nasya works best in con­junc­tion with neti. You may want to alter­nate nasya with neti if you have a lot of con­ges­tion and mucous prob­lems. Be aware that too much neti can cause dry­ing of the nasal pas­sage, so it is impor­tant to per­form reg­u­lar nasya to keep the nasal pas­sage well lubricated.

2.  Ujjayi (vic­to­ri­ous breath). Ujjayi pranayama is the foun­da­tion of proper breath­ing and one of the most com­monly prac­ticed yoga breath­ing tech­niques. In Ujjayi pranayama one must tune the ears and mind to con­tin­u­ally and con­sciously cre­ate har­mony of sound dur­ing inhala­tion and exha­la­tion.  An unsteady breath leads to an unsteady mind there­fore Ujjayi is also prac­ticed to smooth the flow of breath and har­mo­nize the breath­ing rhythms.

Instruc­tions
Find a com­fort­able seated posi­tion. Gen­tly exhale all of the air from the lungs.
Inhale gen­tly allow­ing the air to pass into the body with ease and no resis­tance.
Exhale make a sound with the mouth closed that sounds like “hhh­hha”.
Make the sound the same through­out the exha­la­tion. This will indi­cate the same amount of air leaves the lungs through­out the exha­la­tion. An uneven sound usu­ally indi­cates an unsteady ner­vous sys­tem. This will smooth out dur­ing prac­tice.
A sound that is too loud indi­cates too much inter­nal con­flict. Mus­cles are used in the exha­la­tion and other mus­cles are used in restrict­ing the exha­la­tion and also to cre­ate the sound. Use the mus­cles lightly so that the con­flict of energy within is soft and pres­sure does not exits around the tem­ples.
After mas­ter­ing the above, progress to the fol­low­ing:
Inhale and restrict the air flow to make the sound “sssss”. Keep the sound con­stant and smooth.
Exhale make a sound with the mouth closed that sounds like “hhhhha”.