Learn to breathe better
Clear guides for practicing calmly and understanding what happens when you slow your breath.
Practical guides
How to start a breathing practice
A guide to your first week of breathing practice: posture, one simple pattern, how long to practice, what you'll feel, and when to check with someone first.
Diaphragmatic breathing: how to breathe with your belly
What diaphragmatic (belly) breathing is and how to learn it lying down and sitting up, how much to practice, and the beginner mistakes worth avoiding.
How to breathe to fall asleep
Slow breathing patterns for bedtime, a ten-minute routine, what the studies say (not much yet), and when it makes sense to get professional help.
How long and how often to practice breathing
How many minutes a day and how many times a week to do breathing exercises, based on what studies measured, plus a simple plan to get started.
Breathing through a stressful moment: what to do in one minute
What to do with your breath when stress hits: a one-minute pause step by step, why the exhale gets longer, and what the studies actually found.
Breathing to focus before you study or work
Three breathing exercises to help you focus before you study or work, a two-minute break between tasks, and what studies have measured about attention.
How to breathe before public speaking
A two-minute breathing exercise for before a presentation, a meeting or an oral exam, how to use your air while you speak, and what studies show.
Posture for breathing: chair, floor or bed
How to set yourself up for breathing exercises in a chair, on the floor or in bed, which position fits your goal, and what the studies say.
Common mistakes in breathing exercises
Six common mistakes in breathing exercises, from taking breaths that are too big to forcing the count and tensing your shoulders, and how to fix each one.
Why deep breathing makes you dizzy, and what to do
Why deep breathing can leave you dizzy or tingly: the role of carbon dioxide, what to do in the moment, how to prevent it and when to see a doctor.
How to design your own breathing pattern
How to build a breathing pattern that fits you: how many seconds to breathe in, hold and breathe out, what studies say, and how to test it without strain.
Keeping a practice going: journal, streaks and expectations
How to turn breathing exercises into a habit: what the research says, how to use a journal and streaks, and what to expect, with no promises.
How to breathe while running: 2:2 and 3:2 rhythms
How to breathe while running: the 2:2 and 3:2 step rhythms, nose or mouth, side stitches and what the research says. With a guide to rehearse them.
Breathing for singing and speaking: breath support
What breath support means for singing and speaking, what studies have measured in singers, and how to practice the quick breath in and long release.
Morning breathing to wake up
Four morning breathing patterns to wake up, from gentlest to liveliest, plus what sleep inertia is and what breathing can and can't do about it.
Box breathing vs. 4-7-8: which to choose
Box breathing vs. 4-7-8 breathing: how they differ, where each comes from, what the studies comparing them found, and which to try for which moment.
How Breath works: the guide, the sounds and your journal
A tour of Breath: how to pick a guided breathing, set the length, pace and sounds, build your own patterns and keep a private practice journal.
Background
Nose or mouth: which should you breathe through?
What your nose does to the air you breathe, what nasal nitric oxide is, when mouth breathing has its place, and what the evidence says about mouth taping.
What happens in your body when you breathe slowly
What changes at about six breaths a minute: your diaphragm, your heart rhythm, the baroreflex, and what the studies still can't tell us.
Coherent breathing and heart rate variability
What heart rate variability is, why it rises when you breathe six times a minute, and what studies of coherent breathing do and don't show.
The vagus nerve and breathing: what is known
What the vagus nerve does, how it shows up in your pulse as you breathe, and whether breathing can tone it: what's established and what's still a hypothesis.
Carbon dioxide is not the enemy
Why carbon dioxide drives your urge to breathe, what the Bohr effect is, and what happens in your body when you hyperventilate. Physiology without the myths.
The diaphragm, the breathing muscle
Where the diaphragm sits, how it moves when you breathe in and out, which nerve runs it and what else it does in your body. Plain anatomy for your practice.
Pranayama: where yoga's breathing practices come from
The history of pranayama: from early texts and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras to hatha yoga and the 20th-century teachers, and where scholars disagree.
Alternate nostril breathing and the nasal cycle
Why one nostril is always more open, how long the nasal cycle lasts, and what studies say about alternate nostril breathing and the brain.
Holding your breath: what happens and when not to
What happens in your body during a breath hold, why you never hyperventilate before holding your breath in water, and who should ask a professional first.
Fast breathing: breath of fire, bellows and kapalabhati
How breath of fire, bellows breath (bhastrika) and kapalabhati differ, what hyperventilation does in the body, and who shouldn't practice them.
Cyclic sighing: what the Stanford study found
The 2023 Stanford study on cyclic sighing: 108 people, four practices, five minutes a day for 28 days. What it measured, what it found, and its limits.
Where 4-7-8 breathing comes from
The origin of 4-7-8 breathing: who Andrew Weil is, how it relates to yoga's pranayama, when it took off, and what studies have actually measured.
Box breathing: from tradition to tactical teams
Where box breathing comes from: its kinship with pranayama, tactical breathing in police and military training, Mark Divine, and what the studies say.
Breathing and meditation: how they differ
Breathing exercises change your breath on purpose; meditation watches it. Where they overlap, what the study that compared them found, and how to choose.
Breath in Zen, qigong and other traditions
How Zen, Taoism and qigong, Christian hesychasm and Sufi dhikr work with the breath: what each tradition teaches, with sources and the differences.
Humming as you exhale: the bee breath and nitric oxide
Humming raised nitric oxide in nasal air about 15-fold in a 2002 study of ten people. What it measured, what it doesn't prove, and how to try it.
How your emotions change the way you breathe
Fear speeds up your breathing; relief brings a sigh. What's known about the link between emotions and breath, in both directions, and what to do with it.
Why we sigh
You sigh several times an hour without noticing. What a sigh is, how it protects your lungs, the brain circuit that triggers it, and its link to relief.
How to read a study about breathing
How to read a study on breathing exercises: how many people, compared with what, who measures, how long it lasted and what goes unpublished, with real examples.
When not to do breathing exercises
Who should check with a health professional first, when to stop, what counts as an intense breathing exercise, and why you never practice in water or driving.
Sound and breath: why an audible rhythm helps
Why a breathing exercise is easier to follow with sound: what studies measured about rhythm, music, silence and mantras, and how to use this guide's sounds.
Breathing at altitude
What happens to your breathing at altitude, how your body acclimatizes, why breathing exercises don't prevent altitude sickness, and when to descend.
Breathing glossary
The words of breathing and pranayama, explained in a few lines.