Kaki means crows, this mudra is named that because inhaling through your pursed lips in this manner resembles a crows beak.
- Begin by finding your meditation posture, sitting tall breathing slow and deep through your nose.
- Perform nasagrai drishti, which is softly gazing toward the nose tip. This helps to calm the mind
toward more meditative states. - Pursing your lips as pictured slowly draw in the air. Inhaling through your pursed lips makes your lungs work harder to draw in the air thus strengthening your lungs and improving breathing.
- Hold in for up to 30 seconds, maintaining your soft gaze, lips closed.
- Slowly exhale through your nose.
- Repeat for a total of 3x
In my pranayama classes this is often combined with puffing the cheeks as you hold your breath. Puffing your cheeks is the yogi way of helping to take care of dental health, it brings extra oxygen into the mouth which help to balance the bacteria of the mouth. Bad bacteria are usually anaerobic and do not thrive in an aerobic environment.
Kaki Mudra with Puffed Cheeks
- Sitting in your meditation position; Slowly inhale through your pursed lips, slightly sucking your cheeks in.
Close your mouth and holding your breath in while you puff your cheeks out, hold for about 30 seconds keeping your eyes open and maintaining a softnasagrai drishti.- Slowly exhale through your nose
- Repeat for a total of 3x