5-Minute Alternate Nostril Breathing For Calm & Balance

Take 5 minutes to calm your mind, restore balance, and feel centered with this Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhana) session. Known for its calming and balancing effects, this practice is one of my core daily rituals—whether on its own or as part of a longer sequence. In just a few minutes, you’ll calm your nervous system, restore mental balance, and feel more centered and at ease.

This session is suitable for all experience levels, with clear instructions as well as silent practice.

For beginning practitioners: please reach out if you'd like more guidance or additional instructions.

Tip: for best results, practice daily to reduce stress and cultivate inner balance.

Transcript

A very warm welcome to this alternate nostril breathing practice. If you already know how to do this you can just begin and you'll notice that some of the instructions will still be useful along the way. Otherwise I'll just explain. First some attention to posture. Make sure you are sitting upright but also relaxed. You want to have your head slightly tilted down but your throat free. And gently close your eyes on an exhalation. In a moment you'll use your right thumb and your right middle and ring finger to close your respectively right nostril and left nostril. The core sequence is always the same. You start by breathing in through your left nostril, Then you exhale through your right, Then inhale through your right and then exhale through your left. Now we're going to begin. I want you to do this at your own pace. So first empty your lungs fully and then simply begin. So left in, Right out, Right in, Left out. And again breathing very gently. This is a very gentle balancing practice. If you need a break take a break and otherwise just keep going. Now as you're doing this I want you to put your awareness gently on your third eye, The spot between your eyebrows. So keep on breathing the alternate nostril breathing left, Right, Right, Left at your own pace. And at the same time without straining your eyes allow your inner gaze to be open. Allow your inner gaze to rest softly in the space between the eyebrows as if you could see inwardly toward that point. And then keep the focus there relaxed and effortless, Almost like your attention is glowing there. And now just practice like this for a few minutes at your own pace, Quietly, Calmly. Shoulders relaxed, Face relaxed, Awareness on your third eye location, Left, Right, Right, Left. Very good. And then ending on an exhalation to the left nostril then let go of the practice, Letting go of all doing and simply rest for the rest of the practice until you hear the bell.

Reviews

Great no-nonsense ANB practice - maybe better for those with a little experience, I can imagine someone brand new to ANB might need the process to be described and guided a few times before doing it on their own, but for a more experienced practitioner, it's nice to be left to just do it at your own pace without a lot of talk. Lovely description of how to focus the attention on the third eye. Thank you, Hans, I'm really enjoying your practices. 🙏