Anuloma Viloma Timer
Most people breathe in and out for the same count. Anulom vilom asks for an exhale twice as long: 4 in, 8 out.
Try it on your next breath without changing anything. In, then out. For most of us the two halves take about the same time, and when we are busy or tense the whole cycle gets shorter and the out-breath gets clipped. Nothing about that is wrong. It is just the default.
Anulom vilom, the alternate nostril practice, starts by changing that default. Before any breath hold, before any long session, before any talk of energy channels, there is one instruction: breathe in through one nostril for a count, and out through the other for twice that count.
Where the 1:2 comes from
The classical count for anuloma viloma, as it is taught in the Sivananda lineage and many others, is 1:4:2. You breathe in for one unit, hold for four, and breathe out for two. With a unit of four seconds that becomes 4 in, 16 held, 8 out.
Nobody is expected to start there. The hold is the part that asks the most of you, and it is the part teachers tell beginners to leave out. Take the hold away and what is left is the 1:2: four in, eight out. That is the beginner’s practice, and for many people it remains the whole practice for a long time.
It is also the part a timer is most useful for. Counting to four on the way in is easy. Counting to eight on the way out, steadily, without speeding up near the end, is where attention slips. The long exhale is the thing you are actually practising.
How to do it tonight
Sit upright on a chair or on the floor, with your back supported if you need it. Rest your left hand on your knee.
- Close the right nostril gently with the right thumb. Breathe in through the left for a count of four.
- Close the left nostril with the ring finger, release the thumb, and breathe out through the right for a count of eight.
- Breathe in through the right for four.
- Close the right, release the left, and breathe out through the left for eight.
That is one round. Five minutes is plenty to begin with.
Keep the breath quiet. If you can hear air rushing through your nose, you are pulling too hard. If eight counts feel like a struggle, use 3 in and 6 out instead. The ratio matters more than the numbers. Lengthen the count only while it stays easy, and if you feel light-headed, stop, breathe normally and rest.
If one nostril feels blocked, that is often just the nasal cycle: through the day one side of the nose swells while the other opens, and they swap every few hours. Breathe gently and do not force air through the closed side. If a cold has blocked both sides, rest that day.
What the research can and cannot say
It is tempting to attach a number to the long exhale. The honest position is narrower. A systematic review of clinical trials of alternate nostril breathing (published in the International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences) gathered 44 randomised trials, with many different protocols, populations and outcomes. That volume of work is real, but the trials do not converge on one count, one session length or one outcome that a single blog post can promise you.
Studies on slow, deep breathing and heart rate variability have also compared different session lengths, including a 2022 paper that tested 5, 15 and 30 minutes of deep breathing. Those studies help explain why slow breathing is studied at all. They are not proof that 4 in, 8 out will do any particular thing for you.
So this piece makes no outcome claim. The case for the 1:2 count is simpler: it is the traditional starting point, it is easy to learn, and it gives you something specific to practise rather than a vague instruction to “breathe deeply”.
The last nights of Navratri
Sharad Navratri runs this year from 11 to 19 October, with Vijayadashami on 20 October. Tonight is the seventh night. For anyone who has kept a short practice going through the festival, two nights are left.
Those last nights are a good place to settle on one count and keep it. Not a new technique, not a longer session: the same five minutes, at the same time, with the exhale twice as long as the inhale.
And when night nine is done, nothing about the practice has to end. Keep the time of day. Keep the five minutes. Keep 4 in, 8 out. That is the whole plan.
A note on care
Alternate nostril breathing without a hold is gentle, but it is still worth listening to your body. If you are pregnant, or have a heart, lung or blood pressure condition, talk to your doctor before adding any breath hold, and stop any practice that leaves you dizzy or short of breath.
Sources: - Alternate nostril breathing: a systematic review of clinical trials, International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences: https://www.msjonline.org/index.php/ijrms/article/view/3581/0 - Dose-response of deep breathing and heart rate variability (5, 15 and 30 minutes), 2022: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9503478/
Anuloma Viloma Timer is free on the App Store. No subscription necessary.