Before you speak in public
In for 4, hold for 2, out for 6, for two minutes. The gentlest, built for this moment: you can do it in your chair without anyone noticing.
Breathing to
Breathing exercises for before you speak
Four breathing exercises for the minutes before a presentation, a meeting, an interview, or an oral exam. They don't make the nerves go away: they give you something concrete to do with them while you wait your turn.
Breathings to start with
Box breathing 4-4-4-4
Four equal counts of 4 seconds: in, hold, out, hold. For when you want a firm structure to keep your mind occupied.
4-4-6-2 breathing
In for 4, hold for 4, out for 6, rest for 2. Like box breathing with a longer exhale: a middle ground between getting organized and letting go.
The singer's exhale
In for 3, then release the air through your mouth in an even thread that grows from 12 to 20 seconds. For warming up your voice in private, not in the waiting room.
How to use them
Do them once you've arrived, five to ten minutes before your turn. Sit with your feet on the floor, loosen your shoulders and jaw, and breathe through your nose. Pick just one. If the holds bother you, stay with the first one or skip its pause.
When it's time to talk, let the count go. Take an unhurried breath before your first sentence and speak as you breathe out. The singer's exhale is for beforehand, on your own: it trains a steady release of air, which is what carries a long sentence.
What to expect
The evidence is thin, and it isn't about public speaking. In a 2012 trial of 46 musicians, one 30-minute session of slow breathing before a test in front of a camera improved measures of heart rate variability. The anxiety they reported wasn't clearly different from the control group's.
A 2021 study of 30 adults compared tactical breathing, a relative of box breathing, with prolonged exhalation during a task with noise and time pressure. With tactical breathing, the body was less revved up. With the long exhale, performance was better. In how stressed people felt, there was no difference. Both studies are small, and neither one tested these exact counts.
In other words: your body may settle a little while the nerves stay put. That's normal. And no breathing exercise replaces having rehearsed.
When to ask for help
If you feel dizzy or tingly, drop the count and breathe normally. If you're pregnant or have a heart, lung, or blood pressure condition, or you've had panic attacks, check with your care provider before doing breath holds.
If fear of speaking in front of others keeps you from studying or working, a mental health professional can help. This practice doesn't replace that.
Frequently asked questions
How should I breathe before public speaking?
Slowly, through your nose, with the exhale longer than the inhale. The Before you speak in public sequence does it with 4 seconds in, a 2-second pause, and 6 seconds out, for two minutes. Do it sitting down, once you're already there.
How long before I speak should I do it?
Five to ten minutes before your turn tends to be comfortable. Two to four minutes is plenty to try it. Don't do it while you're driving there.
What do I do if I run out of breath while I'm talking?
Pause, close your mouth, and take an unhurried breath through your nose. A two-second pause feels long to the speaker and normal to the listener. Shorter sentences help too.
Do they work for a job interview or an oral exam?
You use them the same way: a few minutes beforehand, sitting down. The studies that exist are small and weren't run in interviews or exams, so treat these as a way to wait with more composure, not as a promise.
Sources
- Wells et al. (2012), Matter Over Mind: a randomised-controlled trial of single-session biofeedback training on performance anxiety and heart rate variability in musicians, PLoS ONE
- Röttger et al. (2021), The Effectiveness of Combat Tactical Breathing as Compared with Prolonged Exhalation, Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (Europe PMC)