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Three breathing exercises, five minutes a day
The first on waking, the second when tension rises, the third before sleep. You start now, with your breath as your only equipment.
Before you start. These exercises are slow and are practiced sitting or lying down. They are wellness practices and go alongside your medical care. Talk to your doctor if you are pregnant, take medication for the heart or blood pressure, or live with epilepsy, glaucoma, poorly controlled asthma or a recent operation.
The three rules
Breathe in through the nose. It filters, warms and slows the air. Fill to 60%. If the chest pulls, shorten the counts. The belly moves before the chest. One hand on the belly, one on the breastbone: the lower one rises first.
How many times do you breathe per minute?
Sit down. Leave your breathing as it is. Press the button at each inhale for one minute. Most adults land between 12 and 20. The target of the 5-5 is 6.
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breaths counted
The 5-5
On waking, before the phone · 5 minutes
The gesture. Breathe in through the nose counting to five. Breathe out through the nose counting to five. Chain the two together without a pause. Thirty times.
Why it works. Five seconds in plus five seconds out make six breaths per minute. At this rhythm, the heart starts to oscillate with the breath: it speeds up on the inhale, slows down on the exhale, and the gap between the two grows wide. Researchers call this point the resonance frequency.
What you will feel. After two minutes, the exhale becomes easier than the inhale. The shoulders drop a notch. Around the third minute, many people yawn.
If five seconds feels impossible, do 4-4 for the first three days, then move to the 5-5.
The sigh
When tension rises · 30 seconds
The gesture. Breathe in through the nose, about halfway. Hold the air, and take a second short breath in through the nose, on top of the first. Let everything out through the mouth, over twice as long. Repeat five times.
Why it works. The body does this by itself, when we cry and two or three times an hour during sleep. The double inhale reopens the small air sacs that collapse over the course of the day, and the long exhale slows the heart. In 2023, a Stanford team followed 108 people for a month: cyclic sighing produced the biggest mood improvement among the exercises tested (Balban et al., Cell Reports Medicine).
What you will feel. A drop. The body comes down a notch in three or four cycles, and you feel it in the shoulders before you think it.
The exhale lets go: let it come out on its own.
The 4-8
Once in bed, lights out · 2 minutes
The gesture. Breathe in through the nose counting to four. Breathe out through the mouth, lips barely parted, counting to eight. Ten times. If you lose count, it is working.
Why it works. The heart slows with each exhale and speeds up with each inhale. The vagus nerve takes over as soon as the exhale lasts longer than the inhale. A ratio of one to two sets the effect in within a few cycles.
What you will feel. Around the sixth or seventh cycle, the count gets blurry. A heaviness in the legs and in the jaw.
The morning 5-5 is for settling. The evening 4-8 is for letting go. Same family, two doses.
What guided practice changes
Alone, we breathe at 60%. With a guide, we go further with confidence. Breathwork sessions are booked online, in a group on Saturdays or one on one.
To go further, a free guide on the mechanics of the breath (in French): breath manual (opens in a new tab).