Yogic breathing exercises for beginners

Before you start

A good pranayama teacher in India usually makes beginners wait before the "real" techniques, and for a reason: you cannot regulate what you have not first observed. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika puts it bluntly: the breath is tamed "by slow degrees" (2.15).

• Where: a quiet, aired room, away from smoke, incense and traffic fumes.
• When: in the morning before breakfast, or at least two hours after a meal.
• How: sitting upright on a cushion or a chair, or lying down for the first two exercises. Through the nose.
• How long: each exercise below takes two to five minutes.

The seven exercises, in order

1. Observe the natural breath (3 minutes)

1. Close your eyes and simply notice that you breathe. Change nothing.
2. Notice where you feel it most: nostrils, throat, chest or belly.
3. Notice the coolness of the air coming in, the warmth going out.
4. Notice which nostril is more open. Very often one is: physiologists call it the nasal cycle.

2. Belly breathing (3 minutes)

1. One hand below the navel, one on the chest.
2. Inhale through the nose so that the lower hand rises while the upper hand stays almost still.
3. Exhale; the belly comes back by itself. No pushing.

If the chest moves more than the belly, practise lying on your back with the knees bent for a few days.

3. The full yogic breath (10 rounds)

Inhale into the belly, then the lower ribs, then the upper chest, in one smooth wave; exhale in reverse. Stop at about 80 per cent of your capacity. This three-part breath is a modern teaching device, taught in Sivananda and Bihar School classes, not a technique of the haṭha texts.

4. Lengthen the exhalation (3 to 5 minutes)

Count in for 4 and out for 6, then 8. This 1:2 ratio slows the breath to about five breaths a minute without any effort. It is the single most useful change most people can make, and the basis of resonant breathing.

5. Alternate nostril breathing (5 minutes)

Nadi shodhana, without retention: right hand in viṣṇu mudrā (index and middle fingers folded), in left, out right, in right, out left. This is the first technique the Hatha Yoga Pradipika teaches (2.7-2.10).

6. The humming bee breath (5 to 10 rounds)

Inhale silently; exhale slowly with a low hum, lips closed, teeth apart. You can close the ears gently with the thumbs. Then sit a minute in silence. Bhramari is the technique Indian teachers readily give to restless beginners.

7. Ujjayi, the whispering breath (3 minutes)

Breathe through the nose with a slight narrowing at the back of the throat, as if fogging a mirror with the mouth closed. The sound stays soft, audible to you alone. Ujjayi is the breath of many yoga classes.

A daily plan for four weeks

Then keep one simple rule: five minutes of slow breathing every day, whatever the technique. The breathing timer counts the phases for you.

And the modern techniques?

Box breathing, the 4-7-8 breath and resonant breathing are modern counting patterns. Resonant breathing has no retention and suits beginners from the first day; box and 4-7-8 include holds, which some people should skip.

What research says

A 2023 meta-analysis of 12 randomised trials of breathwork (yogic and non-yogic) found lower self-reported stress than in control conditions, with small to moderate effects, and lower anxiety and depressive symptoms in secondary analyses; the authors call for caution because of bias and the variety of methods. A 2018 review of 15 studies in healthy people linked slow breathing (under ten breaths a minute) with higher heart rate variability and less reported anxiety. In a 2023 one-month Stanford trial, five minutes a day of breathwork, especially exhale-focused cyclic sighing, improved mood and lowered breathing rate more than mindfulness meditation. These are short studies, mostly in healthy volunteers: encouraging, not a cure.

Common mistakes

• Breathing too deeply. Big breaths at a slow rate can cause tingling or lightheadedness. Breathe more softly, not more slowly.
• Forcing a count. If you gasp, shorten it.
• Holding the breath on your own before weeks of comfortable practice.
• Raising the shoulders on the inhalation.

Where to go next

When these feel easy, read the full page on pranayama, then the bandhas. The Breath chapter shows every technique by level.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Fincham GW et al. Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials. Scientific Reports, 2023 DOI 10.1038/s41598-022-27247-y PMID 36624160 checked October 17, 2026
2. Balban MY et al. Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 2023 DOI 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895 PMID 36630953 checked October 17, 2026
3. Zaccaro A et al. How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2018 DOI 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00353 PMID 30245619 checked October 17, 2026
4. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, translated by Pancham Sinh, Sacred Books of the Hindus vol. XV part 3 (1914), Internet Archive checked October 17, 2026

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