“I can’t go into surgery right nostril dominated!”

“Wake up sir, there are 15 minutes to go,” implored the nurse who was taking me into the Operating Room at Rhode Island Hospital.

“OMG! My sinuses!” was my immediate reaction. “Holy Shit! I can’t go under general anesthesia with my right nostril dominant!”

I was in a panic. As a breath oriented yogi, all day long I watch nostril dominance, like a cat watches the proverbial mouse hole.

“The left is seriously blocked. I am solar dominated.”

This is pretty much of a disaster from a yogic perspective. I say this, not because of the research that has been done on right nostril dominance, but from long personal experience and daily observation of what the solar side does physically, mentally and emotionally. Right nostril dominance leads to a sympathetic stress response. Research has shown extended right nostril dominance is actually a dangerous condition. Plugged on the left and stuck on the right side, and going into a drug induced unconsciousness, is a bad way to begin surgery.

I had a few minutes.

My daily practice is alternate left right breath for at least an hour every morning at 3am. I then lead a 40+ minute online broadcast by donation every day at 6am. This schedule has made me acutely aware of left versus right nostril dominance and the impact it has on life, body, thoughts and emotions. There are many times during the day when we want right nostril dominance. There are many times a day when we want left nostril dominance. In meditation, we invite a balance to happen. After many years of left right breath practice, it was obvious, lying on the gurney, what needed to happen.

In a supine position, I lengthened my spine, gently turned and tilted my head and neck to the right, dropped the left shoulder blade, and did alternate breathing with my right hand. Turning and tilting the neck to the right will invite the left side, the moon side, to wake up. Nothing doing.

Still resistant, I switched hands. I started using the left hand for alternate nostril breath and kept the chin turned to the right. I took my right thumb under the left hand and pressed the cheek bone away from the midline. It is okay to press the cheek bone hard. It often helps to do a little structural manipulation. The left sinus started to relent, but wasn’t completely finished.

The moon and solar sides of the body were in a process of getting balanced, but time was short. I had to speed things up. I tried a minute of humming and tapping. There is copious research on humming and its effect of vibrating the openings (the ostia) of paranasal sinuses releasing the body’s natural decongestant, nitric oxide. Humming can lead to a 15 fold increase of nitric oxide being released.

“Please nurse, give me another minute.” Uh oh. I don’t have time to get fully into balance.

“Fixing” and “fixing the sinuses” is sometimes a counterproductive mind state that often keeps problems stuck in place. Time to bring out the big guns!

The ultimate technique is to “surrender” to the situation. Let it go!

“Trying to let go” doesn’t work. “Trying to let go” is full of mental effort, a mind state that still resists reality.

“Let go” is dropping into aa effortless state of Being. Sometimes called the path of surrender, one comes into a deep acceptance of what is. Even attachment to a good outcome is completely renounced.

Left and right, sun and moon, ida and pingala came pleasantly back in harmony.

“Okay, I am ready. Give me that Versid and let’s do this.”

I believe being unbalanced when going into surgery is not uncommon. I suspect anesthesiologists, surgeons and doctors would have better outcomes if they tested to make sure patients are not right nostril dominant when going into the O.R. A worse situation is when both sinuses are blocked and the patient is mouth breathing. The research is out there and it’s easy to find.