What's the Best Breathing Exercise?

For most people, I’d start with something very simple: slow, gentle breathing through your nose, with around five or six seconds in and five or six seconds out.

This is often called coherent breathing, and it’s one of my favourite breathing practices.

But there’s an important catch.

The best breathing exercise depends on where you’re starting from.

If you’re completely new to breathing exercises, five or six seconds can feel surprisingly slow. So you may want to build up to it gradually.

And if you’re anxious, there’s another thing to know. The advice you often hear is to “take a big, deep breath”.

That can actually make some people feel worse.

So rather than giving you one magic breathing exercise, let me show you what I’d actually teach a friend.

What would I teach a friend over a cup of tea?

Imagine a friend comes over for a cup of tea and asks me:

“Shamash, what breathing exercise should I do?”

I probably wouldn’t launch into a lecture about the autonomic nervous system.

I’d first ask where they are with breathing exercises.

If they’re completely new, I’d keep it very simple.

1. Breathe in and out through your nose. That’s it. See if you can do that comfortably for a minute.
2. Try three seconds in and three seconds out. Keep the breathing soft and comfortable. There’s no need to take a huge breath.
3. When that feels easy, try four seconds in and four seconds out.
4. Then, when you’re ready, try five seconds in and five seconds out.

What I’m doing here is gradually moving towards coherent breathing.

I wouldn’t start a beginner with six-second breaths because it can feel like being asked to run a marathon when you’ve just put your trainers on.

Slow breathing takes a little practice.

If you force it, you can end up feeling as though you need to gasp for air. That rather defeats the purpose.

There’s no prize for getting to five or six seconds quickly.

Spend a few days at three seconds. Then four. Stay there for a while if you like.

Your breath isn’t going anywhere.

What’s my own favourite breathing exercise?

My favourite simple practice is coherent breathing.

You breathe in for just over five seconds and out for just over five seconds, ideally through the nose.

I first came across this approach through James Nestor’s book Breath, and later explored it more deeply through the work of Dr Patricia Gerbarg and Dr Richard Brown, who have done a great deal of research into slow breathing.

I like it because it’s simple.

You don’t need special equipment. You don’t need a particular room. You don’t need to sit cross-legged on a mountain.

You can do it sitting at your desk, walking slowly, or lying in bed.

And once you have some experience with breathing exercises, you can start to combine different elements.

This is actually what I tend to do myself.

1. Coherent breathing for the pace. Around five or six seconds in, and five or six seconds out.
2. Light, slow, deep breathing for the quality. This is sometimes called LSD breathing. The idea is to breathe gently rather than taking big breaths. The breathing is low and relaxed, with the diaphragm doing most of the work. So think less air, not more.
3. Ocean breathing for the sound. In yoga, this is often called ujjayi breathing. You gently narrow the back of your throat so that the breath makes a soft sound, a little like the sea.

I like this for two reasons.

First, the gentle resistance makes it harder to over-breathe.

Second, the sound gives your attention something to rest on.

I find it both calming and quietly energising.

So that combination is probably my favourite.

But I wouldn’t start there.

Start with the nose.

Start with three seconds.

Keep it easy.

Can a breathing exercise make anxiety worse?

Yes.

And this is probably the most important part of this whole article.

When someone is anxious, they’re often told to “take a deep breath”.

The problem is that most people hear deep and think big.

So they take a huge breath in.

Then a huge breath out.

Then another huge breath.

And another.

But deep breathing doesn’t necessarily mean big breathing.

Deep breathing is more about where the breath goes and how comfortably you breathe, rather than how much air you can squeeze into your lungs.

And if you’re already anxious, you may already be breathing a little more than you need.

Adding lots more air can sometimes make you feel even more uncomfortable.

So if you’re anxious, I’d try something different:

1. Breathe through your nose, in and out.
2. Slow the breathing down, rather than making it bigger.
3. Make the breath lighter, if you can.
4. Try gently cupping your hands over your nose and mouth, leaving some gaps between your fingers, and breathe through those gaps.

The last one may sound slightly odd.

But it means you breathe back some of the carbon dioxide you’ve just breathed out, and some people find this surprisingly soothing.

What about breath holds?

I’m also a little cautious about breath holding when someone is already anxious.

Short, comfortable pauses are generally fine for most people.

But long breath holds can sometimes backfire.

If you’re anxious, you may already be very aware of your breathing. The sensation of running short of air can then become another thing for your mind to worry about.

You don’t need to make breathing into an endurance sport.

Is there a danger in breathing too much?

Gentle, slow and light breathing is generally a very different proposition from deliberately breathing hard and fast.

The techniques I’m most cautious about are rapid, forceful breathing practices, particularly when they’re done for extended periods.

And there’s one safety point I really want to emphasise.

Never practise rapid breathing or prolonged hyperventilation in or near water.

It can cause you to lose consciousness without much warning.

I’m quite firm about this in Breathing Exercises For Dummies, and I’ll be equally firm about it here.

If you have a heart or lung condition, are pregnant, or have ever fainted during breathwork, speak with your doctor before trying anything stronger than gentle, slow breathing.

What does the research say about slow breathing?

There’s a growing body of research on slow breathing.

In 2022, Sylvain Laborde and colleagues reviewed 223 studies looking at voluntary slow breathing and its effects on the nervous system.

Their meta-analysis found that slow breathing increased heart rate variability, both during practice and afterwards. They concluded that slow breathing could be advised as a low-cost technique, “with few adverse effects expected” (Laborde et al., 2022).

That’s encouraging.

But there’s another point I think is worth remembering.

You don’t need to get the number exactly right.

A small randomised trial published in 2026 compared a personalised breathing rate with a fixed rate of six breaths per minute, which works out at one breath every ten seconds. People practised for 20 minutes a day, alongside a weekly one-to-one biofeedback session in the lab.

After four weeks, both groups showed reductions in stress, anxiety and low mood compared with the control group, and there was no meaningful difference between them (Sumińska et al., 2026).

It was a small study, with only 88 people, so we shouldn’t make it prove more than it does.

But it fits nicely with something I often see in practice.

You don’t need to find the magical breathing rate.

Five or six seconds in and out is a useful place to explore.

And if five seconds feels too slow, start with three.

Why I don’t only teach breathing exercises

I love breathing exercises.

They’re simple, portable and can be incredibly useful when you’re stressed or anxious.

And I use them myself.

But there’s something else I think is important.

If I put on my Acceptance and Commitment Therapy hat for a moment, I’d say we need to be careful about making the whole purpose of breathing exercises getting rid of anxiety.

Because if every time anxiety appears we immediately try to make it disappear, we can accidentally teach ourselves:

“Anxiety is dangerous. I need to get rid of it before I can get on with my life.”

That can become a rather exhausting game.

Instead, there are two things we can learn.

We can learn how to settle the body when that’s helpful.

And we can learn how to make room for uncomfortable feelings while continuing to do the things that matter to us.

Sometimes you calm your nervous system.

Sometimes you allow the nervous system to do its thing while you carry on with your day.

Both are useful.

That’s one reason I teach breathing alongside mindfulness, rather than instead of mindfulness.

The goal isn’t to spend your entire life perfectly calm.

That would be quite a boring life, actually.

The goal is to have a little more freedom in how you respond to whatever turns up.

So which breathing exercise should you choose?

Here’s the short version.

Brand new to breathing exercises? Start with comfortable nose breathing. Try three seconds in and three seconds out, then gradually build towards five.

Feeling anxious right now? Slow it down and make it lighter. Don’t make the breath bigger. Try gently cupping your hands over your nose and mouth.

Want a quick reset? You could explore the physiological sigh or box breathing and see which suits you better.

Trying to sleep? You could experiment with 4-7-8 breathing or coherent breathing.

Already have some experience? Try combining coherent breathing with light, slow, deep breathing and ocean breathing.

That’s my favourite combination, and it’s quite lovely to play with.

And whichever exercise you choose, go gently.

You don’t need to breathe perfectly.

You don’t need to reach six seconds immediately.

You don’t even need to have a particularly impressive breathing session.

The best breathing exercise is probably the one that feels comfortable enough that you want to come back to it tomorrow.

If you’d like to try coherent breathing now, there’s a short guided practice below.

Just press play and breathe along with me.