The point is not to breathe correctly. The point is to give a body that is bracing something else to do.
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What you need
Nothing. Somewhere to sit, stand, or lie down. Three minutes.
What it helps with
Three minutes. Five steps. Works sitting, standing, or lying down, and nobody around you will notice you are doing it.
The steps
- Put one hand on your belly. Just below your ribs. The other hand on your chest if you want a comparison. You are going to try to move the bottom hand and not the top one.
- Breathe in through your nose for four. Count slowly. The belly hand should rise. If the chest hand rises instead, that is normal at first — it changes with practice, not effort.
- Hold for one. Only one. This is a pause, not a breath-hold. If holding makes you dizzy, skip it entirely and go straight to the out-breath.
- Out through your mouth for six. Longer out than in is the part that does the work. Let it go slowly, like you are fogging a window rather than blowing out a candle.
- Repeat ten times. That is about three minutes. Stop if you feel light-headed and breathe normally for a minute before trying again.
When to use it
- At the start of a flare, before the pain has your full attention
- In a waiting room, before a procedure or a blood draw
- Every night for two weeks, so it is available when you actually need it
If it does not work the first time
It usually doesn't, and this is the single biggest reason people abandon it. Breathing skills work because they are practised when things are calm and then retrieved when things are not. Doing it for the first time mid-flare is like learning to swim during a rescue.
Put one hand on your belly. Just below your ribs. The other hand on your chest if you want a comparison. You are going to try to move the bottom hand and not the top one.
