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How to do a breathing exercise

A breathing exercise is simply slowing your breath on purpose for a few minutes. The five things you need to start, the first rhythm, and the mistakes almost everyone makes.

6 min read

A breathing exercise sounds mysterious, but the recipe is one sentence: slow your breath on purpose for a few minutes. The rest is detail — how many seconds in, how many out, whether you hold in between.

What follows is for someone who has never done one. Five minutes is enough.

Your first breathing exercise in five steps

1. Sit, don't lie down. Back straight, shoulders loose. Lying down pulls you toward sleep; unless sleep is the goal, sit.

2. Breathe in through your nose. The nose warms the air and slows it. Breathing in through the mouth speeds the breath up, which is the opposite of what you want.

3. Make the exhale longer than the inhale. Every technique shares this. Four seconds in, six seconds out is a fine start.

4. Count. Counting does two jobs: it keeps the pace steady and it gives the mind something to hold.

5. Keep going for three to five minutes. One minute is short, twenty is long for a beginner. Three minutes every day beats twenty minutes once a week.

The easiest start: five and a half breaths a minute

Don't pick a technique on your first session. Five and a half seconds in, five and a half out — no holds, no mouth. That comes to about five and a half breaths a minute, and it is the most studied rhythm there is. Its name is Coherent Breathing.

If you want to see the rhythm, play the strip below: one full cycle is right there.

How long and how often

Once a day, three to five minutes. Building the habit matters more than stretching the session, so a fixed time of day helps more than a longer session. The first thirty days are exactly for that.

Common mistakes

Breathing in too deeply. The most common one. Too much air and the exhale can't keep up, the chest tightens and you may feel light-headed. The breath should be slow, not deep.

Pushing the air out. The exhale is a release. Push it and the sound turns harsh, the flow breaks.

Chasing the numbers. If four seconds doesn't fit, go down to three. The rhythm should fit you, not the other way round.

Practising somewhere noisy. A television pulls your attention away, and if you use an app that measures, room noise breaks the measurement too.

What you will feel

Most people say their shoulders drop and their mind slows after a few minutes. This is an exercise for relaxation and focus. It is not treatment and does not replace medicine. If you feel dizzy, tingly or uncomfortable, stop and go back to normal breathing. In pregnancy, with blood pressure or heart conditions, or with a history of panic attacks, stay away from techniques with long holds.

Breathing exercises with children

Children can do them too, only shorter and more playful. Have an adult there and do it together: children learn most easily by watching you.

• Keep it short. A minute or two, or five to ten breaths, is enough.
• Make it a game. Breathe in through the nose as if smelling a flower, breathe out slowly through the mouth as if making a candle flame flicker without blowing it out. Lying on the back with a small toy on the belly works too: watching it rise and fall with the breath holds attention.
• Pick a rhythm without holds. Long holds and fast breathing are not suitable for children. Deep and Slow, or simply "make the exhale longer than the inhale", is enough.
• Don't push. Stop when they get bored. If there is dizziness or discomfort, go back to normal breathing.

You can use Soluklan together with your child. If you choose "I'm under 13" as the age in the intake quiz, the suggested durations get shorter, and techniques with fast breathing or long holds show a warning.

Which technique to move on to

• Before sleep: 4-7-8 Breathing or Extended Exhale
• To settle quickly in a tense moment: The Physiological Sigh
• To focus: Box Breathing
• The whole map of what helps when: Which technique, and when

If you want to measure whether you are doing it right

Counting has one weakness: you can believe you are holding the rhythm when you are not. Soluklan listens to your breath through the microphone, measures whether the exhale lands on the rhythm, and tells you at the end what went right and what didn't. We also explained how the microphone hears the breath.

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