Yoga Diary: Brushing Your Teeth

We talked about Wakeup Yoga in the last post.

The next logical activity that comes after waking up is brushing your teeth.

New York Times wrote an article about How to be Mindful While Brushing Your Teeth. Dr. Fern White, a dentist in Australia who practices mindful dentistry says, mindful brushing gives your brain a chance to rest and sets a peaceful tone for the day ahead or the night ahead.

Besides just mindfulness, Niyama and Pranayama are the two limbs out of the eight limbs of Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga that relate to the art of brushing your teeth.

Niyama – Observances. These are duties directed toward self. Out of the five Niyamas, Sauch or Internal /external cleanliness or purification applies to brush your teeth.

Pranayama – Regulation /control of breath

Sadanta Pranayama:

One of the types of pranayama is called Seetali pranayama or cooling pranayama. Seetali, Seetakari and Sadanta pranayama are part of the cooling pranayama. Sadant pranayama is done as follows

• Sit in any meditative posture or comfortable position.
• Open your mouth and keep the upper set of teeth on the lower set and keep the tongue behind the teeth.
• Inhale air through the gaps of the teeth and feel the cool air touching the gums.
• Close the mouth and exhale through the nostrils and feel the warm air going out of nostrils.
• Repeat this for 3-5 times in the beginning. After regular practice, you can increase the count to 6-9 times.

Benefits:

• Induce muscular relaxation and overall cooling effect
• Allergies due to cold can be effectively overcome by prolonged practice
• Keep the teeth and gums healthy

Limitations:·

• People suffering from low blood pressure cold, sore throat, bronchitis etc. should avoid this.
• People with sensitive teeth, missing teeth or dentures should avoid this.