Ins and Outs of Lefts and Rights

Asana (or the postures of Hatha Yoga) serve many purposes, depending on the lineage you study and the path of Yoga that you follow, but overall there is a general agreement that asana is designed to keep the body in a state of harmony and free from dis-ease. One of the many ways it does so, is by supporting the digestive system.

As your snacks progress through your digestive tract, they eventually make their way to your colon, which has three main sections: The ascending colon, which travels up the right side of your lower abdomen, the transverse colon, which extends across your lower abdomen, and the descending colon, which comes down the left side of your lower abdomen. This means those snacks come through your intestines, then come up the ascending colon, cross over through the transverse colon and then down and on their way out, through your descending colon.

Why am I telling you this? Because it’s precisely why we always practice a posture on the right side of the body first, followed by the left side.

Lets take a low lunge for example. You come into a forward fold, then step your left foot back, lower your left knee to the mat and then lift your torso up. In that shape, your right thigh is gently pressing into the ascending colon, helping to move anything that might be currently progressing through your colon, along in the correct direction. You follow up by taking a lunge with the left leg forward, thus gently pressing on the descending colon, continuing this process of moving things along as they should.

If we were to take the lunge with the left side forward first, we run the risk of pushing our snacks backwards, rather than forwards, which can result in possible discomfort and even constipation.

Twists are where things can get a bit… twisted. When we take a seated twist, the lower half of our body is fixed, and the upper half does the moving. Then we turn our upper body to the right, we press our torso into the right thigh, putting pressure on the ascending colon, and then we follow up by repeating the posture and turning our upper body to the left, which as we know, presses on the descending colon. So all is well with seated twists.

However! When we take a reclined twist, meaning we are laying down on our backs, we actually have to do the opposite action in order to achieve the same results! Unlike when we are seated, now it’s the upper half of the body that’s fixed, and the lower half that will be in motion. Picture it, your lying on your back, your knees are bent and your feet on your mat. You can’t turn your upper body, so you have to turn your lower body. If you lower your knees to the right first, your left thigh will be pressing into your descending colon first. So in order to put pressure on the ascending colon first, we actually have to turn the legs to left, so that the right thigh presses up into the ascending colon. Then we switch and turn the legs to the right, thereby setting the left thigh up to put pressure on the descending colon.

Please note that if you have a generally healthy digestive system, twisting in the wrong direction first isn’t going to constipate you for days. But if we’re going to practice asana, why not maximize the benefits to the best of our ability.

Another place right over left crops up in our practice is when we turn to our side as we make our way out of Savasana. Teachers will often tell you to turn to the right, and while this doesn’t have anything to do with the digestive system, it can actually have an effect on it.

While there are several reasons why you’re encouraged to turn to the right, one of the main reasons is the subtle impact it may have on how relaxed you feel. When we turn onto our right side, we inevitably put pressure on the right armpit, which in turn opens up the left nostril. The left nostril is energetically connected to Ida Nadi, which when activated, triggers a more calming, lunar energy in the body.

When we turn to the left, we put pressure on the left armpit, opening the right nostril, which is connected to Pingala Nadi, and therefore triggers a more solar or energized response in the body.

So in theory, turning to the right will keep you more calm, and turning to the left will wake you up a bit.

I think it’s important to note that it takes a bit of time for the opposite nostril to open, and subsequently trigger a change in our energetic state. So turning to the right side for one or two breaths isn’t likely to have a massive impact on whether you stay calm coming out of Savasana or not.

However, turning to the right has the potential to negatively impact those who suffer with acid reflux or gerd. When we turn onto our right side, the juices in our stomach settle to the right, which makes it very easy for those juices to then travel up the esophagus. On the flip side, when we turn onto our left side, they obviously settle on the left side of our stomach as well, and subsequently no longer have a direct path up the esophagus.

So while those one to two breaths might not trigger either Ida or Pingala Nadi, they can definitely trigger pain and discomfort from acid reflux. This is one of those moments where going the traditional route isn’t always best.

I feel like it’s so important to understand the whys of our practice, and to know that there really is a method to the madness. Hopefully this info has helped you to connect a little more fully with your asana practice!