Breathing Exercise: Guided Box and 4-7-8 Breathing

How to use the breathing exercise

1. Pick a pattern. Each card shows its counts in seconds, in the order you breathe: 4-7-8 means in for 4, hold for 7, out for 8. Choose Your own to set every step yourself.
2. Pick a length. A number of minutes, a number of breaths, or No limit. When time runs out, the session finishes the breath you are on, so it never cuts you off mid-exhale.
3. Press Start (or the Space bar, or tap the picture). A three-second Get ready count comes first, then follow the animation: the orb grows as you breathe in, stays full while you hold, and shrinks as you breathe out. The label and the countdown under it show the step and the seconds left in it.
4. Pause or stop any time. A soft bowl rings when the session is over, and the minutes are added to Your practice.

Full screen turns the page into a calm, distraction-free view: good on a laptop at your desk or a tablet on the nightstand. The screen stays on during a session in browsers that allow it.

The breathing patterns

• Box breathing (4-4-4-4). In, hold, out, hold, all for the same count. The even rhythm is easy to remember and gives your attention something steady to follow. The Box path animation draws it literally: one side of the square per step.
• 4-7-8 breathing. Popularised by Andrew Weil: in quietly through the nose for 4, hold for 7, out through the mouth for 8 with a soft whoosh, the tip of the tongue resting behind the upper front teeth. He suggests just 4 breaths at a time at first. What matters is the ratio, not the seconds, so if the hold feels long, raise the pace so that one count is shorter.
• Coherent breathing (5.5-5.5). Slow, even breaths with no holds, about 5.5 breaths a minute. Breathing at around 5 to 6 breaths a minute is also called resonance breathing.
• Cyclic sighing. A full breath in through the nose, a short second sip to top up the lungs, then a long, slow breath out through the mouth. Around 5 minutes is a typical session.
• Longer exhale (4-6), triangle (4-4-4) and equal breathing (4-4) are gentle options without long holds, and a good place to start if you are new to breathing exercises.

Animations and sounds

Choose the guide you find easiest to follow. Orb fills and empties like your lungs. Box path sends a light around a square, triangle or circle, with each step labeled. Wave scrolls your breath as a graph, so you can see the next step coming. Bloom is a flower that opens as you breathe in. Six color palettes, including a light Sand, set the mood.

You can breathe with your eyes closed, too. Soft swell is a warm chord that grows and brightens as your lungs fill and settles to a quiet hum as they empty, and Breath sound is a soft airy breath to follow in and out. Soft chimes and Bowl ring once at each change, and on Android phones the page can vibrate at every change. Add rain, ocean, stream, wind, a campfire, night crickets, brown or pink noise, or a soft drone underneath. The nature sounds are real recordings; the cues, noises and drone are generated in your browser.

Share a session or put it on your website

When a session ends, or you stop one after a minute or more, Share result appears next to Stop. Its link opens a card on this page with your pattern drawn as one breath, its pace and rhythm, and the breaths and minutes you did. Try this pattern sets it up for whoever opens it, ready to start. The link holds only the pattern (or your own four counts), the pace, the session length you picked and, for a session you stopped, the seconds you breathed. Your animation, colors, sounds, volume and practice history never go into it.

Teachers, therapists and wellness blogs can embed the exercise for free: open Embed this on your site under Share and embed, and the widget opens with the settings on screen.

Your practice

Each session you complete or stop after at least 20 seconds adds its minutes to Your practice: your current streak of days in a row, today’s minutes, your total, and a 20-week calendar. It is shared with the meditation timer, so both kinds of practice count toward your streak. It is stored only in this browser. Nothing is uploaded, and Clear history removes it.

Tips

• Breathe gently. The goal is slow, easy breathing, not big gulps of air. If you feel dizzy or uncomfortable, stop and breathe normally.
• Holds should feel easy. Lower the pace, or use a pattern without holds, rather than straining.
• Sit or lie somewhere comfortable. Don’t do breathing exercises while driving or in water.
• A few minutes at the same time each day, for example before bed or between meetings, builds the habit. The streak in Your practice helps.

For a longer sit with bells, a soundscape and optional guidance, use the meditation timer. To dim a room for an evening session, put a black screen on a second display. To play one steady, soft note while you breathe, use the tone generator.