Pranayama
Breathing and meditation, answered with numbers: how many rounds, how long, when, and who must not.
17 pages here so far, with more added as they are taught and photographed.
Bhramari (Humming Bee Breath)
The humming bee breath, taught step by step: shanmukhi mudra, how many rounds, use at night, blood pressure evidence and who should avoid it.
Anulom Vilom (Alternate Nostril Breathing)
Anulom Vilom taught properly: 12 rounds on a 4:4:8 count, when to practise, how it differs from Nadi Shodhana, who must skip the retention, and the evidence.
Kapalbhati (Skull Shining Breath)
Kapalbhati taught safely: who must never do it, BP, hernia, pregnancy and glaucoma, plus 3 rounds of 30 strokes, correct technique and the honest evidence.
Nadi Shodhana (Channel Cleaning Breath)
Nadi Shodhana taught properly: 10 rounds on a 1:4:2 ratio built up over six months, jalandhara bandha, who must skip the retention, and what the trials show.
Ujjayi (Victorious Breath)
Ujjayi ocean breath taught properly: how to find the throat sound, 20 breaths at 1:1, using it through asana, and the study that says it is not best for BP.
Bhastrika (Bellows Breath)
Bhastrika bellows breath: 3 rounds of 20 breaths at 30 a minute, how it differs from Kapalbhati, who must never practise it, and what the one good trial found.
Yoga Nidra (Yogic Sleep)
Yoga Nidra for sleep, with a full 10 minute script to read or record, how the stages work, what the insomnia trials found, and who should not practise alone.
Sitali (Cooling Breath)
Sitali pranayama step by step: 9 rounds at 4:6, a week by week ladder, who must avoid it, and why the one study that measured cooling found the opposite.
Sitkari (Hissing Breath)
Sitkari pranayama step by step: 9 rounds at 4:6 through parted teeth, a week by week ladder, the tooth sensitivity caution, and what the cooling studies found.
Surya Bhedana (Right Nostril Breathing)
Surya Bhedana step by step: 9 rounds at 4:6 in through the right nostril, a week by week ladder to 27, who must avoid it, and what the nostril studies found.
Chandra Bhedana (Left Nostril Breathing)
Chandra Bhedana step by step: 9 rounds at 4:6 in through the left nostril, a ladder to 27, what the 22 patient blood pressure study found, and who should skip it.
Sama Vritti (Box Breathing)
Box breathing, or sama vritti, in 10 rounds of 4:4:4:4: a week by week ladder, what the stress trial measured, who must skip the holds, and the desk version.
Dirga (Three Part Breath)
Dirga pranayama, the three part breath, in 12 rounds at 4:6: belly, ribs, chest, a week by week ladder, why the exhale grows, and what deep breathing does not do.
Kumbhaka (Breath Retention)
Breath retention, taught safely: who must never hold a breath, 9 rounds at 4:4:6, a month by month ladder, and why bahya kumbhaka waits a year.
Om Chanting (Chanting the Syllable Om)
Om chanting as a daily practice: how to pronounce AUM as three sounds, 9 to 21 repetitions at 4:12, a week by week ladder, and what the fMRI pilot found.
Trataka (Candle Gazing)
Trataka candle gazing step by step: 3 cycles of 3 minutes gazing and 2 closed, how to set the room up, the eye and epilepsy cautions, and what the trials found.
So Hum (So Hum Breath Meditation)
So Hum meditation step by step: think so on the inhale and hum on the exhale, 10 minutes building to 20, a week by week ladder, and what the 51 trials found.
How these pages are written
Pranayama is the half of yoga that most classes rush and most websites describe without ever committing to a number. These pages do the opposite. Each one opens by telling you how many rounds and how many minutes, because that is the question you came with, and then explains what the practice is doing and how to tell whether you are doing it or straining at it.
The order matters here more than it does with asana. Breath practices are taught in this school only after a student can sit upright and still without effort, and the calming practices are taught long before the forceful ones. That is not caution for its own sake: retention and rapid breathing genuinely change blood pressure and genuinely have people they are wrong for, and every page states who those people are before it states a single benefit.
The seven practices here, roughly in the order I teach them: Bhramari, the humming breath, which is almost impossible to do badly; Anulom Vilom, the simplest counted practice; Nadi Shodhana, which is the same shape with a ratio and a retention; Ujjayi, the only one used while moving; and Yoga Nidra, which is lying down and asks nothing at all. Two are forceful and come last for a reason: Kapalbhati and Bhastrika both appear in the avoid lists on several of the condition pages, and both pages say so before they say anything else.
Where a practice has been studied properly, the page links the study and says plainly what it did and did not show. Where it has not, the page says that too, and gives you the teacher’s own observation from four decades of classes instead of dressing an opinion up as evidence.
Start here
If you are not sure where to begin, these three are the ones the teacher sends new students to first, in this order.
Bhramari, the humming bee breath
The one to learn first: calming, hard to get wrong, and useful the same night for sleep.
Learn to stand and breathe here before you sit and breathe.
Pranayama is the practice most worth having somebody listen to. Every class ends with it.
Questions people ask
Should I learn asana or pranayama first?
Asana first, in almost every case. Pranayama asks you to sit upright and still for several minutes, and a body that cannot yet do that will spend the practice fidgeting rather than breathing. In this school pranayama is taught only once a student can sit steadily, which for most people is a few weeks in.
Why do these pages give exact counts?
Because vague instructions are how people get hurt or give up. If a practice is nine rounds, the page says nine rounds. If a ratio is four to four to eight, it says so, and it says what to do when you cannot manage the eight yet. A page that only tells you to breathe deeply has told you nothing you did not know.
Is pranayama safe if I have high blood pressure?
Some practices are calming and some raise pressure sharply, and they look similar from outside. Breath retention and forceful practices such as kapalbhati are the ones to be careful with. Every page here lists who should not do that particular practice. Tell the teacher your reading before you start anything.
What time of day is best?
Early morning on an empty stomach is traditional and is genuinely easier, because the stomach is empty and the mind has not started the day yet. Each page states its own best time, and several practices are also useful at night. Leave at least two hours after a meal.
How long before I notice anything?
Most people notice something in the first sitting, usually that the mind is quieter for a few minutes afterwards. Changes you could measure, in sleep or in resting pulse, take weeks of near daily practice. Anyone promising you more than that in a fortnight is selling something.
Can pranayama be learnt from a page?
More safely than asana can, because there is less to go wrong with your alignment. The part a page cannot do is hear you: strain in the breath is audible, and it is the one thing a teacher catches immediately. Learn the practice here, then let somebody listen to a round or two.
Practise live, from wherever you are
The same class, taught live over video, camera on and corrected by name. Slots that land in the evening in the Gulf and the UK, and an early-IST slot that is a US evening.
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