Cooling breath (sheetali)

How do you do cooling breath?

Sit comfortably, back upright, shoulders loose. Somewhere with fresh air is nicest: you’re about to taste it.

The player keeps the count: in through your tongue, a short pause, out through your nose.

How do you do sheetali if you can’t curl your tongue?

Do sheetkari instead. Plenty of people can’t curl their tongue, and it isn’t something you can always learn.

Rest your top and bottom teeth lightly together, part your lips and breathe in through the gaps between your teeth. It makes a soft hiss, and the air still feels cool. Then close your mouth and breathe out through your nose, just as in sheetali. Another option is to purse your lips into a small “o”, as if sipping through a straw.

Both names come from yoga’s old texts: sheetali, also spelled sitali or shitali, comes from the Sanskrit for “cool”, and sheetkari from the hissing sound it makes.

Does cooling breath really cool you down?

It cools your tongue, which you can feel. Whether it lowers your body temperature hasn’t been properly tested. The cool feeling comes from air passing over your wet tongue: the same reason blowing on soup cools it.

What we can say is that the breath is slow, about 5 breaths a minute, with a longer out-breath. Breathing that slowly reliably raises heart rate variability, the small beat-to-beat changes that tend to grow when you’re at rest (Laborde et al. 2022). So you may well feel calmer, even if you’re not measurably cooler.

So: a pleasant, slow breath for a hot moment. Enjoy the coolness on your tongue, but don’t expect it to work like a fan.

Every study on this page (2)

• Laborde et al., 2022: Across 223 studies, slow breathing raised heart-rhythm signs of calm, during practice and after, though that alone doesn't prove a health benefit.
• Carpenter et al., 2013: In a 16-week randomised trial of 218 women, paced slow breathing used at each hot flash did not reduce hot flash frequency, severity or bother more than a fast, shallow breathing control or usual care.

Is cooling breath good for anger?

It can help you pause. When you’re fuming, your breathing tends to go fast and hard. A slow breath in over a curled tongue is hard to do while shouting, and the long out-breath through your nose gives you a few seconds before you speak. Nobody has tested sheetali for anger, so treat it as a breather, nothing more. There are more breaths for the moment it flares in breathing exercises for anger.

Can cooling breath help hot flushes?

It may feel nice during one, but slow breathing hasn’t been shown to reduce hot flushes. In a 16-week trial of 218 women, slow paced breathing used during each hot flush did no better than fast, shallow breathing or no breathing practice at all (Carpenter et al. 2013). If a cool breath over your tongue helps you ride one out, there’s no harm in it. If hot flushes are getting in the way, your GP can talk you through what does help.

When should you do cooling breath?

When you feel hot, bothered or both:

• On a hot day, in the shade or by an open window.
• After exercise, once your breathing has settled a little.
• When you’re fuming, before you reply.
• On a warm night, a few rounds before you lie down, with the lights low and Breathform on its dark screen.

If heat is just the trigger and the real feeling is too much going on at once, breathing exercises for overwhelm are made for that. And for the same rhythm without the tongue, 4-2-6 breathing has the same pause and long out-breath, all through the nose.

Cooling breath is one of the classic yoga breaths. Meet the others, each with a player, in pranayama for beginners.

Questions people ask

What’s the difference between sheetali and sheetkari?

Only the way in. In sheetali you breathe in through your tongue, curled into a tube. In sheetkari you breathe in through your teeth, held lightly together with your lips parted, which makes a soft hiss. Both breathe out through the nose, and both feel cool. Sheetkari is the usual swap if your tongue won’t curl.

Can I do cooling breath on a cold day?

You can, but you probably won’t want to. The cool air over your tongue is lovely on a hot afternoon and less welcome in winter. Yoga tradition saves it for heat, both the weather kind and the temper kind. On a cold day, a slow breath through your nose, such as ujjayi breathing, is the more comfortable choice.

Why does my mouth feel dry afterwards?

Because you’re drawing air over your tongue, which dries it a little each time. That’s normal. Keep sessions short, around 2 minutes, close your mouth between breaths and have a glass of water nearby on a hot day. If your mouth stays dry, breathe in through your nose for a few rounds instead.

Can kids do cooling breath?

Yes, and many enjoy it: sticking out a curled tongue feels a bit silly, which helps. Keep it short, three to five breaths, and let them try the teeth version if their tongue won’t curl. It’s a good one after running about on a hot day. There are more playful breaths in breathing exercises for kids.