A Box Breathing Tool for Relaxation
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Stress has a way of clouding our focus when we need it most. In this post, we'll learn about Box Breathing, a relaxation technique used by professionals and athletes to calm down in 16 seconds. I'll also explore why most visual guides for the technique feel intuitively wrong and share a custom interactive tool that I built that feels right.
What is box breathing?
Box breathing is a simple, effective breathing technique for mindfulness and stress relief that's used by people ranging from Navy Seals to nurses, and is recommended by doctors.
Similar to Transcendental Meditation mantras, box breathing also comes from a yogic practice. In this case it's sama vritti pranayama or focusing on the breath. By stimulating the vagus nerve, part of our body's parasympathetic nervous system, box breathing helps to regulate our heart rate, breathing, and digestion.
Also known as square breathing, its common name comes from the four-part rhythm of its breathwork: inhaling for 4 seconds, holding for 4 seconds, exhaling for 4 seconds, then holding for 4 seconds. This is often visualized as the four sides of a box.
I was first introduced to box breathing by a cousin during COVID, who recommended it as a good way to deal with stress. Looking back, that feels like an ironic-but-happy reminder that we were able to take deep breaths. Years later, I still use it to calm down and reduce stress which has been handy when studying for exams.
Is box breathing better than meditation?
While the goals of box breathing and meditation are similar, there are some differences.
While meditation may provide deeper relaxation and focus, it often feels like we need a special time and place. For example, Transcendental Meditation recommends meditating twice a day for 20 minutes. While dedicating time to meditation is invaluable, it can be hard to set aside the time during the day, particularly in stressful periods.
By comparison, we're always breathing so the only extra thing needed is to focus on timing. Box breathing can be done at home, in the car or on the bus, at work, and even while reading this post. I even met someone who claimed to use box breathing to keep calm during surgery (without anaesthetic)!
Given how easy it is, regular practice got me thinking about how other people have already visualized box breathing.
Three box breathing visuals
Example 1 - Reference
I found that the usual box breathing visual looked like this:
Something irked me about this, though, which was odd since the whole point was to relax!
I realized that there's an upward and download feeling to inhaling and exhaling, probably related to how our shoulders and diaphragm move, so why would animations start from the top-left? I'm not breathing in sideways, after all..
Example 2 - More intuitive
It seemed like the sides of the box - or rather what they represent - should be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. This way the marker will start in the bottom-left, rising as we inhale and falling as we exhale.
In other words, the vertical axis now represents how full our lungs are. This makes intuitive sense to me, even if it's not literally true, and I found a few other examples that used this rotation which was reassuring.
Example 3 - More illustrative
Of course, once I started working with the new animation, I still felt it was missing a way to illustrate the air in our lungs as they fill up and empty.
Once done, this last animation looked pretty close to how I felt practicing box breathing!
An online box breathing tool
Now having a clear visual in mind, I decided to make a box breathing timer but realized there was one last missing ingredient. It seemed like audio, specifically playing a simple frequency, would be really useful. This would help me to keep time while visualizing but without the distraction of having to watch a screen.
In the end, this is a simple tool and only takes 16 seconds for one cycle. Plus, if 4 second intervals are too challenging at first, it can be easily reduced to 3 seconds or 2 seconds.
Conclusion
When all is said and done, I'll continue using box breathing on a regular basis and it will be nice having this tool available to assist if necessary.
Let me know if you have a preference in visuals or other focus techniques. I have a few more ideas to explore in this space but will save those for another post.