How to Practice Alternate Nostril Breathing

Breathing exercises are an excellent tool to relax and recharge at the same time. They’re a crucial component of many relaxation methods: yoga, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation and mindfulness.

Now you’re probably familiar with deep belly breathing, but have you ever heard of alternative nostril breathing?

Alternate nostril breathing is an ancient yogic practice that soothes your nervous system. In Ayurvedic medicine, it’s believed that this breathing technique harmonizes the two hemispheres of the brain and restores the balance in your body and mind.

Although the scientific verdict is still out on that, what’s clear is that alternate nostril breathing triggers a relaxation response in your body. Slow breathing helps you switch from the ‘fight of flight mode’ of the sympathetic nervous system to the calm ‘rest and digest’ state of your parasympathetic nervous system. This shift may help ease fatigue, pain and brain fog, which are all too common symptoms in many chronic illnesses. A small brain study even indicates that alternate nostril breathing leads to more calming brain wave patterns.

What’s more, alternate nostril breathing also significantly improves your heart rate variability (a key marker of nervous system resilience and stress recovery), your respiratory functions and your mental capacities, such as your attention span and eye-hand coordination.

And the best part is: you can boost your heart, lungs and mind in just a few minutes a day. Here’s how you can start practicing alternating nostril breathing whenever you want to feel more balanced.

How to Practice Alternate Nostril Breathing 

Whenever you’re feeling stressed or you need a quick pick-me-up, practice alternating nostril breathing to release tension, sharpen your focus and gently boost your energy. In short, you’ll want to breathe in through one nostril only, and exhale through the other.

Let’s break down how alternate nostril breathing works:

• Sit in a comfortable position. You can close your eyes if you want to.
• Place your right hand over your nose. Let your pointer finger and middle finger rest lightly in between your eyebrows.
• Hold your right thumb over your right nostril and breathe in through your left nostril.
• Once you’ve fully inhaled, hold your breath for a second. Close off your left nostril with your ring finger, release your thumb and breathe out slowly through your right nostril. Pause for a moment once you’ve fully exhaled.
• Breathe in deeply through your right nostril. Close your right nostril off with your thumb, open your left nostril and breathe out. There’s a little pause at the bottom of your exhalation before you breathing in again through your left nose.

Or to put it simpler: Breathe in left, breathe out right. Breathe in right, breathe out left.

This is one round of alternative nostril breathing. Repeat this cycle 1-5 times when you feel anxious, restless or frazzled.

You can practice alternate nostril breathing any time of day, wherever you are. It’s a particularly helpful technique to calm you down whenever you feel anxious or tense. Alternate nostril breathing can also clear your mind and relax your body before bed. Because it requires little effort and can be done seated or lying down, this breathing exercise is an accessible strategy even on low-energy days.

Think of alternate nostril breathing as a nervous system reset; small and quiet but surprisingly powerful when practiced consistently.

Have you ever tried alternate nostril breathing? How did it make you feel? 

For more breathing exercises, take a look at The 4-7-8 Breathing Technique: How to Deeply Relax Your Body and Mind and ‘The Physiological Sigh: A Science-Backed Breathing Exercise for Stress and Anxiety’. You could also try ‘The Mindful Body Scan’ to relax from head to toe.