My mom asked me about box breathing this weekend, mainly for a visual since a podcast did a poor job of a verbal explanation.
I think it was Brené Brown who first introduced me to box breathing (or square breathing) but she didn’t come up with the technique. Regardless of origin (according to Calm, it’s based on pranayama, an Ayurvedic form of breathwork that originated in India), it’s a simple but often effective breathing exercise to calm the nervous system fairly quickly.
Inhale for a count of four. Hold for a count of four. Exhale for a count of four. Hold for a count of four. Repeat.
You can visualize going around the four sides of a box (this is the extent of my Canva skills):
With Love,
Natalie