Breathing exercise · 5 · 5 · 5 · 5
How to use Slow box breathing for a cold morning, on a low-energy afternoon
Simple counts — 5 · 5 · 5 · 5 — and a circle that keeps time.
Follow the circle. It counts for you.
How it works
The pattern is a square — 5, 5, 5, 5 — and you trace it with your breath. Low-energy afternoons are what this was written for. Stay with what you can actually feel.
Why it can help
Because nothing changes from round to round, the exercise stops being interesting — and that is exactly what you want at a difficult moment.
The pattern, in seconds
| Phase | Length | Starts at |
|---|---|---|
| Inhale | 5s | 0s |
| Hold | 5s | 5s |
| Exhale | 5s | 10s |
| Hold again | 5s | 15s |
One round is 20 seconds. At the default 8 rounds this practice runs 160 seconds — about 2 minutes — plus a breath or two of ordinary breathing between rounds.
Good for
- in a hospital corridor, waiting for news
- when the weather has been grey for a week
- in the car, parked, before you go inside
Tips
- Set a timer for the rounds you want, so you are not watching the clock.
- If your mind wanders to counting the rounds left, that is normal. Come back to the numbers.
- A hold should feel like a pause, not like running out of air.
Please note
If holding your breath makes you dizzy or uncomfortable, skip the holds entirely and breathe slowly and evenly instead. Never push through lightheadedness. If you are pregnant, or manage a heart, blood pressure or lung condition, check with a doctor before doing breath holds.
If this rhythm does not suit you, try 4-6 breathing — 4 · 6 — for travel days, when you have been on screens all day, Tight box breathing: 8 rounds for a ten-minute window, before you go back to something hard or 6-2-6-2 breathing for the hours after people leave, when you have been on screens all day.