Pranayama for Beginners: Where to Start

Pranayama is not deep breathing. Deep breathing is what you do when somebody tells you to calm down. Pranayama is the deliberate regulation of the breath, its length, its ratio, its pauses, as a way of working on the nervous system and, in the traditional framing, on energy itself.

Before any technique: sit well

Nothing works from a collapsed spine. Sit on enough height that the knees fall below the hips and the lower back holds its own curve without effort. A chair is entirely acceptable. The position should be forgettable within a minute; if you are still negotiating with it, change it.

The first practice worth learning

Nadi shodhana, alternate nostril breathing, is the usual starting point, because it is self-correcting. If the breath is forced, it becomes obvious immediately. Begin without any retention at all, equal in and out, for five minutes.

• Breathe only through the nose, quietly enough that you cannot hear it
• Keep the inhale and exhale the same length
• Add no holds, no counts and no ratios for the first several weeks
• Stop at the first sign of strain, breathlessness or agitation
• Practise before food, not after

If a breathing practice leaves you tense, you have not done it badly. You have done too much of it.

What not to do alone

Retention, holding the breath in or out, and the more forceful practices such as kapalbhati and bhastrika belong under supervision. They are powerful, which is precisely why they are worth learning properly rather than from a video.