Box Breathing
Ilana Friedman, Advanced Clinical Fellow
What do Navy SEALs, athletes, yogis, and nurses have in common? They all practice a technique called “Box Breathing”, also commonly known as “Square Breathing.” This is an easy, quick, and approachable breathwork technique with amazing benefits and payoffs.
When we are activated by stress, our internal systems react like we are literally being chased by a sabretooth tiger. Although our bodies have evolved to do incredible things over time, our fight-or-flight system hasn’t gotten the upgrade that tells us that a stressful work email is not, in fact, the aforementioned sabretooth tiger chasing us. Maybe we’ll get there by iOS 73.6... When we experience activation/stress, our heart rate rises, our cheeks may flush, and our breath quickens, and staying in activation too often or for too long can have major adverse effects on our health and wellbeing.
Box breathing can be used before, during, or after a stressful event to help calm your system. A performer I know practices box breathing before auditions and performances to help curb performance anxiety. One could use it during turbulence on a flight to quiet flying fears or after a particularly charged meeting to bring the body back into homeostasis.
Now that you’re all excited to give it a try, how do you do it? It is incredibly simple yet amazingly effective.
Box Breathing: How To
Get comfortable. You can close your eyes if that helps you or check out a handy visual like THIS ONE on YouTube.
Breathe in for a count of 4. You can picture tracing one side of a box in your mind,
stopping at the next corner.
Hold the breath at the top for a count of 4. Picture tracing the next side.
Exhale for a count of 4. Trace the third side.
Hold at empty for a count of 4. Complete the box.
Repeat until you feel your system is out of activation. It can be useful to gradually slow
the count as you begin to calm down.
(Note: If you feel any dizziness or an uptick in anxious feelings, just let go of the technique and breathe normally.)
I have found this simple yet effective technique to be a “go-to” in my bag of calming tricks and I hope you find it useful. Teach me your favorite breathwork technique in the comments!