Take a Breath: The Free Wellness Tool You Already Carry Everywhere

We spend an awful lot of money trying to feel better.

Supplements. Apps. Fitness trackers. Meditation subscriptions. Massages. Cold plunges—which are also a fantastic place to practice intentional breathing. Fancy mattresses. Red-light therapy mats, stands, and gadgets. Vibration plates and cupping devices for lymphatic drainage.

All sorts of things promising better sleep, less stress, improved focus, lower blood pressure, and a calmer nervous system.

And meanwhile, one of the simplest tools we have has been sitting right under our noses the entire time.

Literally.

Our breath.

I know. Breathing hardly sounds groundbreaking. We've been doing it since the day we were born without giving it much thought.

But that's exactly what makes breathing so interesting.

Most of the things our bodies do automatically are pretty much off-limits to conscious control.

You can't simply tell your heart to beat more slowly. You can't order your blood pressure to drop a few points. And when your nervous system decides something is stressful, saying, Okay, body, we're perfectly fine now, doesn't always convince it.

Breathing is different.

It happens automatically, but we can also take control of it.

And that gives us a rather remarkable little doorway into our nervous system.

Your Body Has a Gas Pedal and a Brake

Think of your nervous system as having a gas pedal and a brake.

The sympathetic nervous system is the gas pedal. It helps us respond when something requires action. Heart rate increases. Breathing gets faster. We become more alert. This is part of the familiar "fight-or-flight" response.

That system isn't bad. We need it.

The problem comes when our foot seems to stay on the gas all day.

Traffic. Deadlines. Difficult conversations. Work stress. Family worries. Financial worries. Health worries. Phones buzzing. Emails arriving. Device alarms sounding—hello, Dexcom and Omnipod for those of us in the insulin-dependent-diabetes world. News alerts flashing.

I am even a somewhat reformed news junkie in the name of reducing stress, although I still like knowing what is happening in the world.

Our bodies don't necessarily distinguish all that well between there's a tiger chasing me and I just received an email that made my blood pressure go through the roof.

Then we have the parasympathetic nervous system—our brake. This is the "rest-and-digest" side of things. It helps tell the body that the emergency has passed and it is safe to settle down.

Slow, controlled breathing can help us gently press that brake.

And the wonderful part?

Much like Kegels for our pelvic floor and several other fun things in life, it's free. It requires no equipment. And you can do it almost anywhere.

Try This Right Now

Before we get into any more science, try one breath with me.

Breathe gently through your nose for:

1... 2... 3... 4.

Now slowly breathe out:

1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6.

That's it.

Do it again.

Four seconds in.

Six seconds out.

If you continue that rhythm, you'll take about six breaths per minute.

That slow pace—roughly five to six breaths per minute—shows up again and again in research on controlled breathing.

And there's something particularly interesting about that longer exhale.

Why the Exhale Feels So Good

Your heart doesn't actually beat at exactly the same speed every second.

When you inhale, your heart rate naturally tends to speed up slightly.

When you exhale, it tends to slow down.

So when we breathe slowly and let the exhale linger a little longer, we spend more time on the body's "slow down" side of the equation.

The vagus nerve plays a role in this process. You may have heard about the vagus nerve because it's become something of a wellness celebrity lately, but it is a very real and important communication pathway between the brain and many of our organs, including the heart.

Scientists are also very interested in the relationship between vagal activity, inflammation, stress regulation, and healthy aging—particularly the chronic low-grade inflammation that sometimes gets the clever nickname "inflammaging."

Slow breathing can influence vagal activity and our body's ability to settle after stress.

It can also affect heart-rate variability, or HRV.

If you wear a smartwatch, Oura Ring, WHOOP, or another health tracker, you may already have seen HRV without really knowing what it means.

HRV is essentially the tiny variation in time between heartbeats. In general, greater variability at rest can be one sign of a nervous system that is flexible and able to adapt rather than remaining stuck in high-alert mode.

Slow breathing can increase HRV during the practice.

You don't need to understand any of that, however, to benefit from breathing.

Your body already understands it.

Why About Six Breaths a Minute?

Here's where the science gets pretty cool.

At around five to six breaths per minute, breathing can begin to synchronize with some of the natural rhythms involved in controlling heart rate and blood pressure.

It's a little like pushing someone on a swing.

Push at random times and the swing moves a little.

Push at exactly the right point in the swing's natural rhythm, and suddenly each little push creates a much bigger movement.

Researchers sometimes call this resonance breathing.

For many people, that sweet spot falls somewhere around five to six breaths per minute, although, of course, we're not all identical.

Which is why I wouldn't turn breathing into yet another health metric we have to perfect.

Find your sweet spot—the pace that makes you feel better.

If four seconds in and six seconds out feels lovely, wonderful.

If five seconds in and five seconds out feels more natural, that's wonderful too.

The bigger idea is:

Slow down.

Breathe comfortably.

Don't force it.

Four Easy Ways to Try Breathwork—Plus a Bonus: Ahhh... SIGH

You absolutely do not need to become a breathwork expert.

1. The 4–6 Breath

This may be the easiest place to start.

Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds.

Exhale gently for 6 seconds.

Repeat for two to five minutes.

That's about six breaths per minute, and the slightly longer exhale may help encourage relaxation.

If counting makes you more stressed instead of less stressed—which would rather defeat the purpose—forget the numbers. Simply slow your breathing and let your exhale last a little longer.

2. Belly Breathing

Put one hand on your chest and one on your belly.

As you breathe in, allow your belly to gently expand rather than lifting your shoulders and upper chest.

Then slowly exhale.

This encourages the diaphragm—the large breathing muscle beneath the lungs—to do more of the work.

Nothing dramatic needs to happen. Your stomach doesn't need to look like you're inflating a beach ball.

Just breathe.

3. Box Breathing

Some people love structure.

Try:

Inhale 4.

Hold 4.

Exhale 4.

Hold 4.

Then repeat.

This technique has become popular with athletes, military personnel, and others looking for a simple way to steady themselves under pressure.

If holding your breath feels uncomfortable, skip the holds. No one gets a medal for suffering through relaxation.

4. Breath Meditation

This may be the easiest meditation for people who insist they "can't meditate."

Sit comfortably and focus on your breathing.

That's it.

Notice the air entering your nose.

Notice your belly moving.

Notice the exhale.

Your brain will wander because that's what brains do.

When you notice it wandering, simply come back to your breath.

You didn't fail at meditation.

Coming back is the meditation.

And if you combine that attention with slow breathing—perhaps four seconds in and six seconds out—you get a lovely combination of mindfulness and controlled breathing.

Two Minutes Still Counts

This is important because wellness advice has a terrible habit of becoming another item on our already ridiculous to-do lists.

You do not have to begin with 20 minutes of breathwork every morning while sitting cross-legged on a special cushion facing the sunrise.

Try two minutes.

While the coffee brews.

Before you walk into work.

Sitting in the car before an appointment.

After a frustrating phone call.

Before responding to a text that perhaps deserves a response from your calm nervous system rather than your spicy one. 😊

Before bed.

Or anytime you notice that your shoulders have somehow migrated toward your ears.

A couple of minutes may help change how you feel in the moment. If you enjoy it, gradually work toward 10–15 minutes most days, which is closer to the amount used in many studies of regular slow-breathing practice.

Consistency probably matters more than perfection.

And then there's my new favorite...

The Physiological Sigh: The Double-Inhale Trick I Learned From Andrew Huberman

While listening to Andrew Huberman's new book Protocols, I came across another breathing technique that immediately caught my attention—partly because it is ridiculously simple and partly because Huberman and his Stanford colleagues have actually studied a repeated version of it.

It's called the physiological sigh.

Try it:

Take a deep breath in through your nose.

Then, without exhaling:

Take one more little breath in through your nose.

Then:

Let it all out with one long, slow exhale through your mouth.

That's it.

Inhale.

Little second inhale.

Looooong exhale.

The second inhale helps expand the lungs a little further, and then that lovely long exhale helps slow things down.

A Stanford study compared several five-minute daily breathing practices with mindfulness meditation over about a month. All of the groups experienced benefits, but the group practicing this repeated double-inhale/long-exhale pattern—called cyclic sighing—showed the greatest improvement in positive mood and the largest reduction in breathing rate.

And I particularly like this technique because it gives us another option.

Think of the 4-seconds-in, 6-seconds-out breath as something you can settle into for several minutes when you intentionally want to quiet things down.

Think of the physiological sigh as something you can pull out of your pocket when life suddenly gets a little loud.

Before the difficult conversation.

When you're sitting in traffic and running late.

When an email makes you want to type a response that perhaps shouldn't be sent quite yet. 😊

Or when you simply notice that your body is tense.

Big inhale through the nose.

Little second inhale.

Looooong exhale through the mouth.

Maybe repeat it once or twice.

I love wellness practices like this because there is almost no barrier between learning about them and actually trying them.

You don't need to order anything.

You don't need an app.

You don't even need to remember where you left your keys.

You just need to breathe.

Can Breathing Really Lower Blood Pressure?

Potentially, yes—and this is where I think breathwork deserves more respect than it sometimes gets.

Research on slow breathing has found reductions in heart rate and blood pressure in some studies, along with improvements in measures of nervous-system regulation, anxiety, and perceived stress.

But I wouldn't throw away the blood-pressure medication and replace it with a breathing exercise.

Breathwork is best thought of as an adjunct—one more helpful tool alongside medical care, exercise, nutrition, sleep, medication when needed, and all the other pieces that contribute to cardiovascular health.

And because research quality varies, we shouldn't pretend scientists have identified one magical breathing formula that works the same way for everyone.

They haven't.

What we do know is that slow, comfortable breathing can influence the nervous and cardiovascular systems in measurable ways—and it costs approximately $0.00.

That's a pretty impressive return on investment.

Nose or Mouth?

When you're comfortable doing so, try breathing through your nose.

The nose isn't simply an alternate entrance for air. It warms, filters, and humidifies the air we breathe. The nasal passages are also involved in nitric oxide production, which plays interesting roles in airway and vascular function.

Some small studies have found differences in blood pressure and autonomic activity between nasal and mouth breathing, although this is another area where the research continues to evolve.

But again, I wouldn't make this complicated.

Nose in. Slow breath. Gentle exhale.

If you're congested or nasal breathing isn't comfortable, breathe however allows you to breathe easily.

What About Holding Your Breath?

A short, comfortable pause can certainly be part of breathwork.

But longer breath holds aren't necessary to get the benefits of slow breathing.

In fact, the physiology during a breath hold is more complicated than simply "longer hold = more relaxation."

So if you're doing this for everyday stress management, there is no reason to turn it into an underwater endurance competition.

Slow and comfortable wins.

And What About Breathing Into a Paper Bag?

Many of us grew up seeing this in movies.

Someone has a panic attack, someone produces a paper bag, and suddenly they're breathing into it.

There was actually a physiological reason behind the idea.

When someone hyperventilates, they breathe too quickly and can blow off too much carbon dioxide. Low carbon dioxide can contribute to dizziness, tingling, lightheadedness, and other sensations—which can make the person feel even more frightened and breathe even faster.

Rebreathing exhaled air from a bag was intended to restore some of that carbon dioxide.

But paper-bag breathing is no longer considered a good first-aid strategy.

Why?

Because not every person who is breathing rapidly is having a panic attack. Serious medical problems can cause similar symptoms. Rebreathing air from a bag can reduce oxygen and potentially worsen a dangerous situation.

For ordinary anxiety-related overbreathing, gently slowing the breath is a much safer approach than reaching for a paper bag.

Another old wellness trick that made some physiological sense but didn't age particularly well.

Perhaps the Best Part: You Already Own Everything You Need to Breathe

There are plenty of wonderful things we can buy to support our health.

But I also love discovering things that require absolutely nothing.

No subscription.

No equipment.

No charging cable.

No app.

No special clothes.

No supplement.

You don't even have to leave your chair.

You simply have to remember that something your body normally does without asking you can also become something you intentionally use.

When life speeds up, slow your breath down.

When your thoughts are racing, give your mind something simple to follow.

When you feel yourself reacting, take one slow breath before you respond.

And perhaps once or twice a day, give yourself five quiet minutes to breathe slowly for absolutely no reason other than allowing your body to remember what calm feels like.

We spend so much of our lives searching for complicated ways to become healthier.

Sometimes the lovely little answer is something we've been doing all along.

Breathe in.

Breathe in just a little more.

And let it all go.

🐝 A Honey Note

Not everything that improves our lives has to be difficult or expensive.

Sometimes taking care of ourselves looks remarkably ordinary.

A walk. A glass of water. A good night's sleep. A conversation with someone we love.

Or simply stopping long enough to take one slow, intentional breath.

Perhaps that's worth remembering on the days when life feels a little too loud.

Breathe in what you need. Let go of what you don't. And keep living this lovely, complicated life.

And if you'd like to take your breathing practice somewhere a little more adventurous, I have another suggestion: a cold plunge.

I am obsessed with them.

There is nothing quite like cold water to quite literally take your breath away—and then make the rest of the world disappear while you concentrate on doing one thing:

Breathe.

Cold exposure isn't necessary for breathwork, of course, but I find that it creates an incredible exercise in controlling my breathing when every instinct in my body initially wants to do the opposite.

One caveat for my fellow science rabbit-hole people: if building muscle is the goal of your resistance training, I wouldn't make an ice bath your immediate post-workout ritual.

Research suggests that cold-water immersion right after resistance exercise may blunt some of the adaptations we're working so hard to create. Give those muscles some time first.

Because apparently, even something as simple as when to get cold can send us down another fascinating rabbit hole of why.

Science.

There's always something interesting waiting around the corner for the curious among us. 😊

With a slow breath and a curious heart,

🍯 Honey 🐝