BREATHING PROPERLY can help with stress and overall wellness especially if it focuses on varying the inhale and the exhale. Box breathing (aka square breathing), which emphasizes equal-length inhales and exhales, works by balancing the two and has been shown to regulate stress and improve performance.
In basic breathing, the inhale increases the heart rate, and the exhale decreases the heart rate. When you’re stressed, your heart rate increases. When you’re at rest and relaxed, your heart rate decreases. The box breathing technique is simple and easy to learn. The entire practice focuses on the inhale, a hold, an exhale, and a hold. There are four basic steps:
- Inhale through your nose for four counts. Expand the belly and ribs to ensure a full breath.
- Hold for four counts without inhaling or exhaling.
- Exhale through your mouth for four counts, emptying the lungs and allowing the belly and ribs to return to their normal position.
- Hold with empty lungs for four counts.
Continue to repeat these steps until you feel a sense of relief. You can also practice box breathing regularly, incorporating it into your daily routine.
Box breathing has both physical and mental benefits. Physical stress is felt when the sympathetic nervous system—or the fight-or-flight response—is activated. When you are stressed, your sympathetic nervous system goes into overdrive to get you out of danger.
Box breathing can also free you of this state. Controlled deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which counters the sympathetic nervous system’s response, lowering heart rate and blood pressure and allowing the body to enter a state of relaxation.
Reducing stress can improve mental well-being. Deep breathing has been shown to improve biomarkers (or measurable indicators) for stress, decreasing blood pressure and levels of cortisol or stress hormone in saliva.
People who practice deep breathing exercises, like box breathing, have been shown to have increased attention, which leads to better focus and mental clarity.
The more you practice box breathing, the easier using the technique will be when stress arises. Incorporating box breathing into a daily routine can improve reactions to stress. Practicing box breathing on a regular basis has been shown to reduce biomarkers for stress like cortisol levels.
To summarize, box breathing has a variety of mental and physical benefits—improved mental health, reduced stress, lower blood pressure, and better mental clarity, focus, and energy.
Tips for practicing box breathing include making it a part of your daily routine, varying the pace of your four counts, and finding a quiet place to practice. Other deep breathing techniques focus on diaphragmatic breathing, longer exhales, and longer inhales. By Manny Palomar, PhD (EV Mail APRIL 7-13, 2025)
