Pranayama for Beginners: Four Breathing Practices to Start With
By Yogishri ·
Pranayama is the yogic practice of working with the breath. The word joins prana, the life energy that the breath carries, with ayama, extension or regulation. In the classical eight limbs of yoga it comes after asana: once the body can sit steadily, the breath is refined, and a refined breath prepares the mind for concentration and meditation.
For beginners, the aim is not to hold the breath for long or to breathe forcefully. It is to become aware of the breath, to let it slow down and deepen naturally, and to build a short daily practice you can keep.
Before you begin
- Practice on an empty or light stomach — about two hours after a meal.
- Sit comfortably with the spine upright: cross-legged on a cushion, kneeling, or on a chair with your feet flat.
- Breathe through the nose unless a practice says otherwise.
- Never strain. If you feel dizzy, breathless or uncomfortable, stop and breathe normally.
1. Breath awareness (3–5 minutes)
Close your eyes and simply watch the natural breath without changing it. Feel the air at the nostrils — slightly cool as it enters, slightly warm as it leaves. Notice where the body moves as you breathe. When the mind wanders, return to the breath. This is the foundation of every other practice, and a meditation in itself.
2. Abdominal breathing (5 minutes)
Place one hand on the abdomen and one on the chest. As you breathe in, let the abdomen rise gently; as you breathe out, let it fall. The chest stays relatively still. Let the exhalation become a little longer than the inhalation. Abdominal breathing uses the diaphragm fully and is naturally calming — a good practice before sleep or at any stressful moment.
3. Alternate-nostril breathing — nadi shodhana (5 minutes)
- Rest the index and middle fingers of your right hand between the eyebrows. The thumb controls the right nostril, the ring finger the left.
- Close the right nostril and breathe in slowly through the left.
- Close the left nostril, open the right, and breathe out through the right.
- Breathe in through the right, close it, and breathe out through the left. That is one round.
- Continue for five to ten rounds, keeping the breath smooth, quiet and unhurried. Do not hold the breath at this stage.
Nadi shodhana means “purification of the channels”. It balances the breath between the two nostrils and is traditionally practiced before meditation.
4. Humming bee breath — bhramari (3 minutes)
Breathe in through the nose. As you breathe out, keep the lips closed and make a soft, steady humming sound, like a bee. Feel the vibration in the head and face. Repeat five to seven times, then sit quietly and notice the silence that follows. Bhramari is also a doorway into the yoga of sound — see What Is Naad Yoga?
A simple daily sequence
Two minutes of breath awareness, five minutes of abdominal breathing, five rounds of nadi shodhana and five rounds of bhramari take about fifteen minutes. Finish with a few minutes of sitting in silence. Practiced every morning, this short sequence steadies the day.
Going further
Stronger practices — breath retention, kapalbhati, bhastrika — are best learned with a teacher who can see how you respond. Pranayama is taught in every live online yoga class and in person in Rishikesh.