Uneven box breath for a night shift

How it works

The pattern is a square — 4, 4, 6, 2 — and you trace it with your breath. Pick this one when you are short on time. Let the physical world hold your attention.

Why it can help

The equal sides keep your breathing from drifting into the shallow, fast pattern that stress tends to produce.

The pattern, in seconds

One round is 16 seconds. At the default 8 rounds this practice runs 128 seconds — about 2 minutes — plus a breath or two of ordinary breathing between rounds.

Good for

• in the minutes before an appointment you are dreading
• when you have been given bad news and need to keep functioning
• when the afternoon has gone flat

Tips

• If your mind wanders to counting the rounds left, that is normal. Come back to the numbers.
• Practising when you are calm makes it available when you are not.
• 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.