Basic and should be done only ten minutes tops is fast alternate nostril breathing for 20 seconds, breathe normal, then after twenty seconds do it again, then do slow alternate breathing the rest of the time. Do not breathe to within an inch of your life. Starting out especially a normal type breath filling 75% of your lungs is right. Also in this alternate breathing normal breathing rhythm is used, neither fast nor slow - normal. Look up alternate breathing or google image the same for picture of the form used. Make sure you sit tall and relaxed. Do this basic type for the first five years. Left and right nostrils are ida and pingala channels and make your body alternate between the two which is balancing and purifying.
Extending the exhale has the physiological effect of relieving anxiety. You can sing a song that you enjoy to experience what you are after.
An important aspect of the efficiency of any practice or movement is to observe the sensation that follows . Breath in, breath out, observe the sensation that follows. This is called bio feedback.
It's a good point - biofeedback is often seen as a process which involves some mechanism like lights dimming or sound changing but the real biofeedback in the body - the heartbeat, breath and pulse. These determine the flow of chi or prana as some people have heavy breath and some light, some slow some fast, so an external timing such as during the entrainment stuff isn't really suitable for people because it's not integral to the organism. So then this thought of internal biofeedback is something to consider when thinking of pranayama, and the awareness of ones breath also includes the five pranas which are the 5 pulses, and the hearthbeat. How do you focus on all this at once, the point is this is your essential focus already, your being, relinquish focus, keep focus, awareness is what you are so why stress over it. I shudder when I meet people who talk about concentration. Meditation is the opposite of concentration
In pranayama there's no concentration on breath, it's just a mostly physical exercise though in some systems there are also visualizations - I would steer clear of visualizations and go with let mind flow at first, though I like to sometimes breathe in and out a Sanskrit mantra A, or Tibetan mantra A, but this is a more Dzogchen Buddhist type teaching.
1.Equal Breathing - Balance can do a body good, beginning with the breath. To start, inhale for a count of four, then exhale for a count of four — all through the nose, which adds a natural resistance to the breath. 2.Abdominal Breathing Technique - With one hand on the chest and the other on the belly, take a deep breath in through the nose, ensuring the diaphragm (not the chest) inflates with enough air to create a stretch in the lungs. The goal: Six to 10 deep, slow breaths per minute for 10 minutes each day to experience immediate reductions to heart rate and blood pressure. 3.Alternate Nostril Breathing - A yogi’s best friend, this breath is said to bring calm and balance, and unite the right and left sides of the brain. Starting in a comfortable meditative pose, hold the right thumb over the right nostril and inhale deeply through the left nostril. At the peak of inhalation, close off the left nostril with the ring finger, then exhale through the right nostril. Continue the pattern, inhaling through the right nostril, closing it off with the right thumb and exhaling through the left nostril. 4.Skull Shining Breath - Ready to brighten up your day from the inside out? This one begins with a long, slow inhale, followed by a quick, powerful exhale generated from the lower belly. Once comfortable with the contraction, up the pace to one inhale-exhale (all through the nose) every one to two seconds, for a total of 10 breaths. 5. Progressive Relaxation - To nix tension from head to toe, close the eyes and focus on tensing and relaxing each muscle group for two to three seconds each. Start with the feet and toes, then move up to the knees, thighs, rear, chest, arms, hands, neck, jaw and eyes — all while maintaining deep, slow breaths.
Breathing is redundant, from unda, like a wave. Like the tide the inhalation rises from a period of low slack and at the peak of inhalation there is a high slack period followed by exhalation and the next slack period. These slack periods should represented as you count breaths. Four example equal breathing becomes inhalation 4 counts, hold 4 counts, exhale 4 counts, hold 4 counts etc.. It should be noted that these holds between inhalation and exhalation should relaxed and not glottal stopped.
