These videos provide a basic and useful breathwork or pranayama practice and are all worth watching. I recommend them and will be practicing them.

Lucas Rockwood

Balancing Breath (‘water breathing’)

This 4:4 breath is recommended whenever we feel the need to balance the body. It can be done at any time.

Slowing Breath (‘whiskey breathing’)

This 4:8 breath is recommended when we want to slow down. 10 rounds are suggested

Energising Breath (‘coffee breathing’)

3 rounds of 20 breath expulsions are recommended in the morning, before exercise and at 3 pm in the afternoon.

Joe DiStefano

The 1:3 breath, alternative nostril breathing (Nadi Shodana) and ‘baby postures’ are recommended to support the calming parasympathetic nervous system and to get out of the continuous alert mode of the sympathetic nervous system.

Max Strom

Breathing intentionally we create a ‘sustainable life.

Breathing preceeds meditation . Calm and control the breath before attempting to control the mind.

Suppressing grief creates anxiety. We are taught to suppress grief .. grief is about loss. We avoid our own grief and the grief of others. Our suppressed grief creates anxiety which is reflected in our shallowness of breath,

The 4:7:8 breath is recommended. Inhale for four, retain for seven and exhale for eight.

Stacey Schuerman

5 to 10 minutes each day focussing on your breath.

Body awareness, letting go, accepting what is now, notice movement of body as you breath the natural spontaneous breath. Peace on inhale, release on exhale

5 deep breaths. The exhalation is as long as the inhalation .. 4:4, 5:5, 6:6 etc

Noticing the breath moves into meditation.

Wim Hof (breath, body and mind)

“Fully in and letting go” 30 times.

This is like the ‘complete breath’ in yoga but the exhalation is a release not a full/deep exhalation.

After the thirty breaths start the timer, take a full breath then exhale and hold breath out. Breath in and hold for 15 seconds stop timer then exhale.

3 rounds in morning

The ‘Wim Hof Method’ also includes cold showers.

Beginners in breathwork would be best advised to start with deep inhalations and exhalations of equal length as taught by Stacey Scheurman. I would recommend sticking with just this for a while for a minimum of 10 minutes each day though 10 minutes in the morning and 10 in the evening would be better.

At a later stage, the 4:8 calming breath recommended by Lucas Rockwood would be good in the evening while the energising breath is a good practice one or two times during the day – perhaps around 3 pm as Rockwood suggests.

Metronomes