5 minutes for you: Box breathing exercise

Try this box breathing exercise to stay calm and focused during a busy workday

15 August 2023 5 minute read

Blonde lady sitting cross-legged on a stool in the garden with her eyes closed

Taking just a few minutes to do this simple breathing exercise can help ease feelings of stress. Try it at your desk before your workday begins, prior to an important meeting, or ahead of your commute home to finish the day feeling calm.

Do your five-minute box breathing exercise now.

The ability to stay calm and focused during a busy workday is key if you want to feel happy and productive. But life can be stressful. A hectic morning trying to get the kids out the door and you into the office on time. A meeting with your manager about this month’s projections. A To Do list that never seems to get any shorter.

Having a mental toolbox filled with different ways to help you breathe, relax, and refocus, without letting stressful moments take over, is important.

While it would be nice to be able to do a yoga class or take a long walk whenever we feel overwhelmed, during a busy day it’s not always possible.

Breathing exercises are a quick way to lower cortisol levels (a hormone that increases during times of stress) and decrease blood pressure, helping you to feel calm and able to concentrate on the job at hand.

How do breathing exercises work?

There are many different types of breathing exercise, but most act to help slow your breath, which can become shallow and rapid during moments of high stress. These fast chest breaths can make symptoms of stress feel worse and last longer. Better Health Victoria states that slowing and controlling the breath can positively impact our brains and bodies in many ways including:

Lowering blood pressure
Lowering heart rate
Reducing levels of stress hormones in the blood
Reducing lactic acid build-up in muscle tissue.

Common types of breathing exercise

Breath control is used in yoga, meditation, and for mindfulness practice to help us feel calm, relaxed, and focused on the moment. Common types of breathing exercise include alternate nostril breathing used to promote relaxation, 4-7-8 breathing to feel calm, and box breathing, which can help de-stress in high anxiety moments.

Rumoured to be favoured by special operatives in the US military, box breathing is so-called because it can help to visualise a box or square (all sides of equal length) during the exercise to regulate your breath into a calm and controlled rhythm.

Your five-minute box breathing exercise

There is no set time to do this exercise. With practice you may feel the benefits very quickly or prefer to take more time to feel fully relaxed. Start with a minimum of two minutes and build up if you can.

Step 1: While you can do this exercise anywhere, if possible, sit up straight with your back supported and feet flat on the floor and close your eyes.

Step 2: Take a deep breath in through the nose for a slow count of four. As you do so, visualise one side of a box as you travel up the first side.

Step 3: Hold your breath for the next count of four. Reduce this this to two or three counts if four feels uncomfortable. Keep your head lifted and focus on the visual of traveling along the next side of the box.

Step 4: Breath out through the nose for a count of four.

Step 5: Repeat from Step 2.