Breathing Guides: Pick the Pattern for the Moment

Start with the situation, not the pattern

There are seven patterns on this site and they are all free. Which one is best is mostly a question of what you are trying to do in the next five minutes, and the honest answer is often “any of them, as long as you actually sit down”. These guides exist because that answer is not very useful when you are standing in a corridor at nine in the morning trying to decide.

Each guide covers one situation. It says which patterns people tend to reach for, why, which ones to avoid, what the research supports and where it stops. None of them is a treatment, and none of them is a substitute for care from a person. Two of them — the anxiety guide and the panic guide — carry crisis helpline numbers at the top and nothing on the page asks you for money or an email address.

If you would rather skip the reading, the breathing timer runs all seven patterns and lets you switch between them mid-session.

By situation

Five guides, each about one moment in a day.

Anxious momentsWhat to do when you are wound up but not in crisis: which patterns help, which make it worse, and crisis lines if you need a person instead. Before sleepSlower patterns for the last hour of the evening, how long to run them, and why the phone matters more than the pattern. Panic attacksWhat is worth trying in the moment, what to avoid, and the helplines to call. No ads, no upsell, nothing to sign up for. Focus and workShort patterns for the gap between two tasks that will not leave you sleepy at your desk. Blood pressureWhat slow breathing has and has not been shown to do, and why it is not a replacement for anything a clinician has prescribed.

Comparisons and background

Three longer pieces for when you want to know why, not just what.

Box breathing versus 4-7-8Two patterns with holds, side by side, with both timers on the page so you can feel the difference rather than read about it. Breathing apps comparedWhat the paid apps charge, what they give you, and where a free timer is genuinely enough. The 4-7-8 technique, in fullThe longest guide on the site: where the pattern came from, how to build up to it, and what happens if the seven-count hold is too much.

If you want the evidence on its own, without a situation attached, what the research says goes through the studies one at a time and is clear about which ones are small, short or unblinded.

Or go straight to a timer

Every pattern has its own page with a timer at the top and an explanation underneath.

4-7-8 breathingIn for four, hold for seven, out for eight. The longest hold on the site. Box breathingFour equal counts: in, hold, out, hold. Even and easy to keep. Heart coherenceFive in, five out, no holds. About six breaths a minute. Cyclic sighingA double in-breath then one long out-breath, copying the shape of a natural sigh. Extended exhaleIn for four, out for six, nothing held. The gentlest pattern here. Triangle breathingThree counts in, three held, three out. A short cycle for a short session. Energizing breathFast, and the one pattern on this site that asks you to read a safety note first.

What these pages are not

Breathing exercises are not a treatment for anxiety, insomnia, panic disorder, hypertension or anything else, and nothing on this site is written by a clinician. Where a guide cites a study it links the paper and says how small it was. If you are deciding whether to change anything about your care, that is a conversation to have with the person providing it. Read the medical disclaimer.