Personal leadership · Every phase
Breathing calmly
You know two breathing exercises you do every day, and you know what they do and don't do.
Worth reading first: Stress and recovery
Does this sound familiar?
- Before a difficult conversation, I notice I'm holding my breath.
- I've tried one of those breathing apps, but I never actually use it.
- When I'm tense I take a big gulp of air, and then I feel dizzy.
- I've heard you should breathe exactly 5.5 times a minute.
Who it's for, and when
For anyone who feels tense before a difficult conversation, or notices in the afternoon that they're breathing high up in their chest. It's the same in every phase. It's a small tool alongside recovery and sleep, and it doesn't replace them.
Self-test
Three questions about the last two weeks. The result tells you whether breathing is something to work on, and what your first step is.
Over the last two weeks, how often did you deliberately take a few minutes to breathe calmly?
When you were tense, before a difficult conversation or facing a full inbox, did you notice how you were breathing, and do anything about it?
Without exertion, did you feel short of air, sigh or yawn a lot, or have tingling fingers or dizziness?
The model
Breathing deliberately helps a little with stress. Across all the randomised studies, stress, anxiety and low mood go down slightly, but the studies are small and they measure how people say they feel. It's a small tool, not a treatment.
The exact pace matters less than people often claim. In the largest study with a placebo group, 400 people did a breathing exercise for ten minutes a day for four weeks, one group at 5.5 breaths a minute and the other at 12. Both groups improved just as much. What seems to work is the daily moment when you stop and pay attention to your breath.
Slow breathing, under ten breaths a minute, does do something in your body: your heart rate becomes more variable, a sign that your nervous system is putting the brakes on. And more air isn't better. Your blood is already full of oxygen; big gulps lower the carbon dioxide in it, and that's what gives you dizziness and tingling fingers.
Two rules for your safety. Never do fast breathing exercises or breath-holding in or near water, not even in the bath: you can black out underwater without feeling it coming. And if you often feel you can't get enough air, have a tight chest or get tingling without exertion, get it checked by your GP. With chest pain or severe breathlessness, call straight away.
Fincham, Strauss, Montero-Marin and Cavanagh, meta-analysis of breathwork (Scientific Reports, 2023). Fincham, Strauss and Cavanagh, placebo-controlled study with 400 participants (Scientific Reports, 2023). Laborde et al. on slow breathing and heart rate variability (Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2022). Balban et al. on the cyclic sigh (Cell Reports Medicine, 2023).
The cyclic sigh, five minutes
Breathe in calmly through your nose until your lungs feel full. Straight away, take a second short breath in on top of it. Breathe out slowly and fully through your mouth, for longer than the two breaths in together. Repeat for five minutes, on a timer. In one small study, this gave a better mood after four weeks than mindfulness.
Four in, six out, ten minutes
Sit up straight, mouth closed, one hand on your belly. Breathe in through your nose for a count of four. Breathe out for a count of six, through your nose or through pursed lips. Don't breathe extra deeply. What counts is breathing slowly, not taking in a lot of air. If six doesn't work, do five in and five out. That works just as well.
Pitfalls
Practising when you're already panicking
Trying a new technique in the middle of a stressful moment often adds to the tension. First practise for a few weeks while you're calm. Then it's there when you need it.
Carrying on when you feel dizzy
Dizziness, tingling, feeling you can't get enough air: you're breathing too deeply. Stop and just breathe normally.
Watch and read
Lung physiologist Frans de Jongh (University of Twente) on breathing too much, and why breathing well isn't hard. In Dutch.
Watch on YouTubePsychiatrist David Spiegel, one of the researchers behind the cyclic sigh study, explains in four minutes how to do it.
Watch on YouTubeTo go further
Clinical psychologist Inna Khazan (Harvard Medical School) on slow breathing and heart rate variability, without big promises.
Watch on YouTubeRead
Biofeedback and Mindfulness in Everyday Life
Inna Z. Khazan · 2019 · ISBN 9780393712933
A practical book by a clinician on slow breathing and heart rate variability, with exercises for every day.
View the bookApply it
- 1
1. Pick a fixed moment
Link the exercise to something you already do every day: after lunch, before your first meeting, before you close your laptop. You'll stick to a fixed moment. A good intention you won't.
- 2
2. Four weeks while you're calm
Every day, five minutes of the cyclic sigh or ten minutes of four in and six out, on a timer. The studies looked at four weeks, so give it at least that long.
- 3
3. Only then under pressure
Once it feels familiar, use it before a difficult conversation: three breaths with a long breath out before you walk into the room.
Examples
A day with two moments
1pm after lunch: five minutes of the cyclic sigh, timer on, phone face down. 3.55pm before the client meeting: three rounds of four in, six out, in the corridor.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.You're nervous before a presentation. What helps?
2.A colleague says breathing only works at exactly 5.5 breaths a minute. What's right?
3.You want to try a fast breathing technique. Where shouldn't you do it?
4.When's the best time to learn a breathing exercise?
5.What can you expect from four weeks of breathing exercises every day?
6.Someone often feels they can't get enough air and gets tingling fingers, even when they're doing nothing. What's the best step?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
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