Take a breath, on purpose.

When we are stressed or angry, breathing is often the first thing to change. It gets quicker and higher in the chest. "Control your breathing" is advice we have all heard many times, and it holds up: a minute of slow, steady breathing is one of the simplest ways to calm the body down.

01Stress changes how we breathe

Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence describes this well. In a moment of anger or fear, the body goes on alert before the thinking brain has caught up, and it takes a while to settle again. Fast, shallow breathing is part of that alert. Harvard Health describes rapid, shallow chest breathing as a common response to stress, and slow, deep belly breathing as a sign of the opposite: the body relaxing.

The useful part is that it works in both directions. Breathing is one of the few parts of the stress response we can control on purpose. If we slow the breath down, the body tends to follow.

02How slow breathing calms you

Slow breathing works on the nervous system. Breathing slowly, with longer out-breaths, activates the vagus nerve and the body's "rest and digest" side. Heart rate and blood pressure come down. A 2018 review of the research found that breathing at around six breaths a minute was linked with higher heart rate variability, a sign of a calmer, more flexible nervous system, and with feeling more relaxed and in control.

This is why yoga, meditation and most sports teach controlled breathing: it keeps the body's alarm system turned down so you can stay steady and focused.

03A few minutes is enough

This does not need a mat or an hour. In a 2023 study from Stanford, people did five minutes of breathing a day for a month. The group practising "cyclic sighing", with slow, extended out-breaths, had the biggest improvement in mood and the biggest drop in physiological arousal, more than a group doing mindfulness meditation for the same time.

A minute of slow breathing is a small pause that the whole body notices.

04A one-minute pause for the workday

I try to use this after a tense meeting, before a difficult call, or whenever I notice my shoulders are up near my ears.

1. Sit or stand comfortably. Let your shoulders drop and put a hand on your belly if it helps.
2. Breathe in through your nose for about four counts, letting the belly rise rather than the chest.
3. Breathe out slowly for about six to eight counts, through the nose or gently through the mouth. The longer out-breath is the part that calms.
4. Repeat for one or two minutes. That is around six to ten breaths. Then carry on with your day.

If you feel dizzy, you are breathing too hard. Make the breaths smaller and gentler, or stop and breathe normally.

05Where to read more

1. Harvard Health Publishing, Ease anxiety and stress: take a (belly) breather.
2. Harvard Health Publishing, Relaxation techniques: breath control helps quell errant stress response.
3. Zaccaro A. et al. (2018), How breath-control can change your life: a systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
4. Balban M. Y. et al. (2023), Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal, Cell Reports Medicine.
5. Cleveland Clinic, Blood oxygen level.
6. Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (1995). My reading notes.

General information, not medical advice. If you have a heart or lung condition, panic attacks or frequent breathlessness, talk to a doctor before starting breathing exercises.