How to Open Your Third Eye: A Practical Guide

Controlled Breathing – Nadi Shodhana

Slowly and gently breathe in and out, taking deep breaths until you are relaxed and calm.

• use your thumb to block your right nostril and exhale through your left nostril. Take a deep breath through your left nostril while counting to five; feel the left side of your body as the air travels through it
• use your ring finger to block your left nostril (both nostrils are blocked) and hold your breath for the same amount of time (counting to five)
• release your right nostril and breathe out in the same rhythm
• keep your left nostril blocked, and take a deep breath through your right nostril; feel the right side of the body as you draw in a deep breath
• close both nostrils and hold your breath while counting to five; exhale through your left nostril.
• repeat the alternate breathing process
• finish by exhaling through your left nostril

The best practice is to be on an empty stomach in the morning. Start with five minutes of alternate breathing and work up to fifteen minutes a day to reap the full benefits of improved energy flow.

The positive effects of controlled breathing on awakening your third eye:

• paying attention to your breathing helps you focus and draw in the energy
• by being mindful of how you breathe, your breathing becomes slower and the pauses between breaths get longer – the slower we breathe the longer and better we live
• by focusing on our breathing we put our restless mind to work – we tame this mad monkey running through our head and calm our stream of consciousness
• when we become attentive to drawing breaths deep into our nostrils we draw our mind’s attention to our third eye thereby energizing the frontal part of our brain, the center of our superconsciousness
• the sensation of cold air in our nostrils alone is enough to cool our brain and calm our thoughts

Direction Of The Energy Flow

Depending on the direction in which the energy flows in your body, you are able to achieve different states of consciousness.

• CONSCIOUS STATE: the energy flow through our five senses down and out of our body
• SUBCONSCIOUS STATE: the energy flows down
• SUPERCONSCIOUS STATE (in meditation): the energy flows in and up

The connection between the direction of the flow of energy and the levels of consciousness:

When we say: “I feel beaten down. I’m knackered. I’m feeling down,” we intuitively know that we are being drained of our life energy. By wording and repeating these affirmations we only make things worse and allow the energy to drain even faster and more intensively.

But when we say: “I feel high. I’m feeling heavenly. I feel alive,” the energy flows up as we help it accumulate and lift by using these positive affirmations.

The direction of the energy flow is directly linked to how we feel. It helps to meditate regularly since meditation helps us orient the energy flow in and up, which improves our general well-being.

Once you have balanced your energy flow, you can proceed with the third eye meditation practice.

Brain Centers Connected With Third Eye

There are two areas of the brain especially important for opening your third eye – the frontal lobes in the forehead area and the limbic system deep in the middle of the brain. In order to achieve your goal of spiritual awakening, you need to find a way to strengthen the frontal lobes and resist the pull of your baser urges.

Limbic system – the primitive part of the brain associated with:

• instincts
• survival instinct
• primitive emotions such as rage, fear, aggression.
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This part of the brain is most active when a person is very afraid, worried, angry, depressed, or obsessed with negative thoughts. During such times the frontal lobes are virtually incapacitated.

Frontal lobes – the most evolutionary developed part of the brain, the center for:

• happiness
• idealism
• joy
• concentration
• creativity
• abstract thinking
• self-realization.

Frontal lobes and the activity of the frontal part of the brain can be strengthened through meditation. Better integration of the ego means less mental problems, less depression, and less anxiety. With meditation, your social skills stand to improve significantly, you anger management improves, you can exercise more self-control, you become more creative, content, and calm. In time you can even gain control over and regulate the autonomous bodily functions such as your body temperature or your heartbeat.