We’re told to meditate, take a break, get more sleep, exercise, unplug… all good advice, but sometimes you need something you can do right now. In the middle of a stressful workday. Before a difficult conversation. When your mind is racing. Or when you simply feel like you need to come back down to earth.
That’s one reason we’ve been paying more attention to breathwork.
You don’t need an hour-long meditation session or a perfectly quiet room. In fact, research suggests that just five minutes a day of intentional breathing may be enough to make a meaningful difference in how you feel.
A little breathing can go a long way
Researchers at Stanford studied 108 people who practiced either mindfulness meditation or one of three different breathing exercises for just five minutes a day over 28 days.
The results were interesting: the breathing exercises were associated with improvements in mood and reductions in anxiety, and cyclic sighing (the breathing technique that emphasized a double inhale followed by a long exhale) performed particularly well compared with the other approaches.
In other words, a few minutes of intentional breathing appeared to be a simple way to help shift how participants were feeling. And that makes sense when you think about what happens to our breathing when we're stressed.
We tend to breathe faster and more shallowly. Deliberately slowing and lengthening the breath (particularly the exhale) can help encourage the body to shift away from that heightened, “fight-or-flight” state.
Try the cyclic sigh
This one is incredibly simple.
1. Inhale slowly through your nose.
2. Take a second, shorter inhale through your nose completely filling your lungs.
3. Slowly exhale through your mouth.
That's one cycle.
Repeat it for about 5 minutes, focusing on making that final exhale long, slow, and relaxed.
It almost feels like the kind of giant sigh you naturally let out at the end of a long day. And there's a reason a sigh feels so good. Your body naturally sighs throughout the day, and researchers believe these physiological sighs help regulate breathing and relieve some of the buildup that happens in the lungs.
The beauty of cyclic sighing is that you're simply taking something your body already does and making it intentional.
Don't overlook box breathing
Cyclic sighing isn't the only breathing technique worth trying.
Another favorite is box breathing, especially when you need something simple and structured. Try this:
Inhale — 4 seconds
Hold — 4 seconds
Exhale — 4 seconds
Hold — 4 seconds
Repeat for a few minutes.
If holding your breath doesn't feel comfortable, skip the holds and simply focus on slow, steady breathing with a longer exhale. The goal isn't to perform the exercise perfectly. It's to give yourself a few uninterrupted minutes to slow down.
So the next time you're overwhelmed, don't necessarily reach for your phone or try to power through it.
Stop. Breathe. Take five minutes.
Try a few cyclic sighs. Try box breathing. Sit somewhere quiet. Step outside. Let your shoulders drop. Give your nervous system a chance to catch up with you. You may be surprised by how different you feel on the other side.
We're always looking for simple, practical ways to help you feel better, perform better, and thrive without making wellness more complicated than it needs to be.
Sometimes, it starts simply by taking a deep breath.