In this guided session Dr Priti Nanda Sibal demonstrates how correct sitting posture enables comfortable deep breathing and introduces a series of simple yoga‑based exercises aimed at improving gut health and digestion. She first shows a practical posture‑assessment method using a three‑folded blanket and a straight stick to ensure the hips, knees and lower legs are evenly grounded without gaps. She explains that a balanced posture allows natural diaphragmatic breathing, which she equates with meditation. The session then covers specific asanas and mudras: Agni Sara (morning fire‑breath exercise), Vayu Mudra (finger gesture for digestion), Vajrasana (post‑meal seated pose), and a structured 8‑16‑32 breathing sequence performed lying on the left side after meals. Dr Sibal emphasizes the importance of performing these routines consistently—Agni Sara each morning, the mudras and Vajrasana after each meal, and the 8‑16‑32 breathing routine after breakfast, lunch or dinner—to boost intestinal motility, maintain stomach acidity, and promote overall gut health. She concludes by offering a 12‑minute video of additional early‑morning exercises and invites participants to ask questions.
Chapters
Hi Payal, good morning. Good morning, ma'am. What we all need to know, ki ham log badte kaise hain? Yes, so I used to keep making efforts. But Isbarna, when I was there, I was told, especially breathing exercises, listen to your body. Same rule, hamko isme bhi follow karna hai. And kyoki hamko rule ni follow karte hai, isliye ham breathing me gare ke liye lambi der baat nahi pate hai. Tu kichaba mein se baat te hai, toh kya hota hai, kabhi yahan namnesori hai, kabhi yahan dar door hai hai, dusra. Look at this, ye ni toh niche lagao hai mera, ye nikit na ho pade hai. To iska matlab kya hai, body balance mein nahi hai meri. Yes. So what we need to make sure, ye sab important mein hai, ki ham se baat rehain, ham se baat parein, No, important is that we both need to sleep well and we can comfortably sleep comfortably. Right? So I want to ask you, what do you think? Or what do you prefer? What is your facility? But I want to know, are we both equally raised? Can you see this blanket now? And can you see how many layers are there in this blanket? One fold. I pressed my hand like this so that there is no crease there, because if there will be crease, it will create discomfort. Folded one fold, then I have this much of blanket. With my hands, I made sure there is no crease and folded this. Now see what I'm going to do. I'm going to now sit on this blanket. Now this is three-folded blanket, and you will have to decide what is your fold. And the way I've told you to sit I'm sitting now like this, no ache, no pain. I am so comfortable, I can sit like this for 30 minutes, 1 hour without any problem. How do I know? No, it's no pain. My knees are just— see, both my legs, right, lower legs are touching the ground comfortably. Nothing is pressing over anything else and And now the last test you need to do where you will need somebody's help is take a long stick like this and tell somebody when you are sitting like this, they should put this stick from the floor to your neck. Straight. Now you have to see, is there a gap between this stick and your head? If there is a gap, means the posture is not right. So initially, you know, I always used to make effort and sit like this. Even if I would become fat or something, I would make sure that I am able to do this asana, right? But what happens? I'm stretched here, I'm stretched here, I'm stretched here. And look at the gap here, there is a one-hand gap here. This leg, there is no gap. Now if this is the situation, the body can never be in balance. So the way we need to sit is comfortably and listen to our body. The way I always tell you, listen to your body when you eat food, your body speaks to you. Similarly, listen to your body when you exercise. If you are feeling any iota of discomfort anywhere, forget it, change it. There has to be a different way to do it, right? So now Make— we have to make sure that both our knees and the lower legs are touching the ground and nothing is over the other part. So this is the way I try to sit, but even now you will see my leg is slightly raised. See, right? Even on the other side, it's slightly raised, a little less but raised. So what do I do with this now? So I have taken a blanket And I folded it in 3 layers, no crease at all. Now I will sit on this blanket and you will see the way my posture will change. See, both my legs are completely on the ground. If you can see them, I don't know how. Yes, I hope you can see them. At least you are able to get what I'm wanting to tell you guys. This is important because some point of time all of us will do breathing exercises, we will sit into meditation or whatever. So this is the way. Now I'm very comfortable. Now how do I know that I'm comfortable? Take your spouse, your friend's help, or your, you know, help's help. Find a straight stick, long stick. Put it at the base touching your hips. Straight stick. Now you have to see whether this stick and your head, they touch with each other or there is a gap. So when we were made to do this exercise with the stick, we had this much of gap, this much of gap. So that means one layer either has to be increased in your sitting posture or decreased. So for me, this roll of 3 is perfect. For you, what is perfect, you will have to find out, right? But try and then do this test to know. This is a one-time test, but this is amazing because now when I sit like this, I am not uncomfortable at all. There are no aches and pains, no problem. I can sit for as long as I want, right? Also, the second thing they taught me was— I always thought meditation is a very difficult word, I will not be able to do it, I am not meant to do it, right? But finally what I realized there was meditation is nothing other than deep breathing. And if with deep breathing you can chant either Gayatri Mantra or just Om, Or Soham. These are just forms of breath which we take, right? And that is meditation actually to begin with. So when we sit in this posture, it becomes very easy for us to breathe. So for example, let's see, how do we breathe? So please take a deep breath in. Hold. And a deep breath out. A deep breath in. Hold. And a deep breath out. A deep breath in. And a deep breath out. Now one more thing what I realized when I was doing this, when I'm sitting like this, I don't have to work on my breathing. Automatically it flows the right way. When I breathe in, my abdomen comes out. When I breathe out, my abdomen goes in. Out, in, out, in, right? Whereas the moment I remove this, Because now I know it, no? Now see, my breathing becomes affected because now there is a pressure on my hips. So there is a blockage here. So in the lower abdomen, I feel a little bit of blockage. The moment I put it here, the breath starts flowing very, very comfortably. So make this change and do write in the group if you see any difference. Second thing, what now we want to know is, post-30 years, we start making less acid in our body. Okay, now when we make less acid, what does that mean? It means that we are not able to absorb proteins in our body. Our digestion goes for a haywire. What is that one simple asana which if we do, we can be good? It is Agni Sara Asana. So whatever yoga routine you have in the morning, do include Agni Sara Asana. How do we do Agni Sara Asana? Anybody who knows how do we do Agni Sara Asana? I'm sure a lot of us practice yoga here and we are doing that. Very simple. Take a deep breath in. Exhale all the breath you have. A little more. Try and touch your abdomen to your spine. And now without inhaling, just move your stomach like this. This is one way of doing it. You can also do it in a standing posture. Bend your knees a little. Inhale, exhale completely, and now we can do it. So your aim should be that you start with 30 minutes— 30 seconds, and you do it for 1 minute. You stand with your legs a little bent, slightly relaxed. Breathe in, breathe out. Now when the whole breath is out, take deep breaths and exhale. 30 seconds to 1 minute, and you will start seeing a difference in your digestion very soon. Now, once we have done that, in the same standing position, just relax your intestine. Slowly take deep breaths. And just keep moving. You know, any sorts of twisting helps our gut. And remember, kohadi gut exercises, they are— they cannot be exerting you. Just fold your knees a little. Sync this movement with your breathing. And then a little slowly. With your breath. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Great. Now few more asanas for gut which are important. After eating your food, if we can sit for 2 minutes in Vajrasana. It helps in digesting our food. So Vajrasana, very simple. How many of us sit after eating food in Vajrasana? Great, we know it, but most of us forget it. So very simple, just sit like this for 2 minutes. So post-lunch, post-dinner, post-breakfast, even if you can sit twice, it is perfect. The other thing which you can do if you are not able to to do this is Vayu Mudra. So wherever you are, just bring your first finger to this point of your hand. Sorry, can you see it? Yeah, just below the thumb, this point. So first finger, your index finger on this point of your thumb. And these 3 fingers straight. Now they have to be facing the sky. And just— this is called Vayu Mudra. Wherever you are sitting, you are sitting on your chair, you are walking, just do this pose for 2 minutes. So it's all about getting into that habit. So just do this Vayu Mudra for 2 minutes. It will help us digest better, right?
This is to be done post-meals.
Post-meals. Post-meals for digestion. Agni Sahar has to be done in the morning because if in the morning we start with a good acid in our stomach, then what happens? The whole day our digestion remains good. So this Vayu Mudra Is very, very important for us. Simple. A lot of you would be thinking, is me hai kya? What is there? But it helps you digest your food better, right? And now this you can do anywhere, even if you're traveling post-meal, you can sit in the car and do this for 2 minutes, right? And then very, very important is 8, 16, and 32 round. Now what is this? And we can continue this, and this is the last exercise. 8, 16, 32. So post your meal, lie down on the left side. Lie down on your left side like this. I am just trying. Okay, yes. So lie down like this with your knees folded. Right, for 8 deep breaths. Now after 8 breaths, become straight and now take 16 breaths in this posture. So our hands are up, legs are folded, and how many breaths we need to take? 16. 16. Yes. And once you've taken 16 breaths like this, you have to move to your right. The baby were on your left, and you have to take 32 breaths. So 8, 16, and 32— this is the number for gut health. See what happens. Why is this so important? You would think it is like sleeping, it is like taking a nap, right? I also thought that, but this is important because when we eat food, if our body is not doing anything else and focusing on our gut, the digestion happens better and faster. This is why, because it again helps to create focus in our stomach area, right? It is simple, but they say that during our old days, you know, traditional days, this was routine. Post-meal, people used to do this before doing anything else, and therefore the digestion was always good, and they were, you know, healthier than we are today, right? If you have any questions, you can ask. And what I'm going to do is one more thing I'm going to do. Today I'm going to share with you a 12-minute video, right? In that video we have all the exercises which we should do early morning. They help in intestinal motility, right? You choose any, plus what I have shared with you today, and that should be your early morning routine, at least for gut health. Yeah, any questions you can ask, and otherwise we can have a great day. Any questions?
I'm just saying, 16:32 routine, this should also be done in the morning?
No, no, this is post-meals.
This is post-meals.
So whatever, if you can do after breakfast and dinner also, it will be great.
Okay.
If you can do only after dinner also, that will also add a lot of health to you.
Right after having your meals?
Whenever you can do it. There are women who— huh?
Right after having your meals, you can do it.
Exactly. After meals, immediately after meals. Means in this retreat where we were, Immediately post-meals, we were called to the exercise hall for 15 minutes to do this, and then we were given time to rest. Okay, right. So whenever you can, uh, it is very helpful, very simple. In fact, you will feel very relaxed and calm if you start doing this. Shilinder, do let me know if it helps your calmness. Yeah, any other questions? So the video I'm going to share with you, you choose any 5 exercises which you can do from that video, right? All the best and see you on Saturday.
