Mindful breathing (breathing meditation)

What is mindful breathing?

Mindful breathing means paying attention to your breathing, on purpose, without trying to fix it. You notice the air at your nostrils, the rise of your chest or belly, the small pause before the next breath. Then your mind wanders off, as minds do, and you notice that too, and come back.

That’s all it is. It’s also called breath awareness or breathing meditation, and it’s the heart of most mindfulness courses.

How do you do mindful breathing?

Sit somewhere you won’t be interrupted for a couple of minutes. A chair is fine. Set a timer, use the player below, or open Breathform and set ten rounds: one round is one breath to count.

The player gives you ten slow breaths, about 2 minutes, with a short rest after each out-breath. Count one on each out-breath. If you’d rather follow your own natural breath, use it simply as a timer and let your breathing go at its own pace.

What is breath counting?

Breath counting is an old meditation method that’s still widely taught: count the out-breaths up to ten, then go back to one. It gives a busy mind a small job, and it shows you at once when you’ve drifted, because the count is gone.

Researchers have used it as a measure of mindfulness itself, because it’s harder to fool than a questionnaire. People who counted more accurately tended to report less mind wandering and better mood (Levinson et al. 2014).

What if my mind keeps wandering?

Then you’re doing it right. Minds wander: it’s what they’re built to do. The moment you notice you’ve drifted is the moment of mindfulness, and coming back to one is the exercise, like a single lift in the gym. A session with fifty wanderings and fifty returns is a good session.

Wandering off isn’t failing. Noticing, and coming back, is the practice.

Be kind when you come back. No sigh, no telling-off: just “ah, planning” and one. If it’s a very busy day, count to five instead of ten.

How is mindful breathing different from breathing exercises?

A breathing exercise changes your breath: you slow it, count it or add a hold. Mindful breathing leaves it alone and changes where your attention goes.

The two meet in the middle. If you find it hard to follow a natural breath, a soft, even pace can hold your attention for you. Anchor breathing, with short pauses at the top and bottom, is a good bridge:

How long should you practise mindful breathing?

Start with 2 minutes a day and add a minute when it feels easy. Five to ten minutes is plenty for most people. In one trial, a mindfulness meditation group practised just 5 minutes a day for a month (Balban et al. 2023). Little and often beats long and rare. When you only have a moment, the 3-minute breathing space is a short, structured version you can do between meetings.

Can mindful breathing help with anxiety?

It can help you step back from anxious thoughts. Mindful breathing doesn’t stop worry. It gives you a moment of distance from it: you notice “worrying”, name it and return to the breath, and for a moment the worry is something you’re noticing, not the whole picture. It’s the same move as urge surfing, one of the tools in breathing exercises to quit smoking.

When anxiety is already high and your heart is racing, a slow breath with a long out-breath acts on the body more directly. The two work well together: a minute of slow breathing to settle, then a few minutes of mindful breathing. Breathing exercises for anxiety has breaths for the moments it climbs.

What does the research say?

In one lab study, students listened to 15 minutes of focused breathing, unfocused attention or worry. Afterwards, the focused breathing group stayed steadier when shown neutral pictures, and was more willing to look at upsetting ones (Arch and Craske 2006). It was a single session in a lab.

In a remote trial of 108 adults, 5 minutes a day of mindfulness meditation lowered anxiety and lifted mood after each session, though a breathing exercise with a long out-breath lifted mood more (Balban et al. 2023). And 4 weeks of online breath counting practice reduced mind wandering compared with other training (Levinson et al. 2014).

So: a well-tried way to steady a scattered mind, with modest, early evidence for the breath on its own. Slowing the breath down has research of its own, linked to feeling more relaxed and less anxious in small studies (Zaccaro et al. 2018).

How well each breath is studied

• Interval breathingSome evidence
• Anchor breathingEarly research or tradition

Every study on this page (4)

• Levinson et al., 2014: In four studies with over 400 people, skill at breath counting was linked to more meta-awareness, less mind wandering and better mood, and 4 weeks of breath counting training improved mindfulness and reduced mind wandering compared with working-memory training and no training.
• Balban et al., 2023: Five minutes a day of cyclic sighing lifted mood a little more than mindfulness meditation, in 108 adults.
• Arch and Craske, 2006: After a 15-minute recorded focused breathing induction, students kept steady, moderately positive responses to neutral pictures and were more willing to view highly negative pictures, compared with unfocused attention or worry inductions.
• Zaccaro et al., 2018: In 15 small studies of healthy people, slow breathing was linked with feeling more relaxed and alert, and less anxious.

What is anapanasati?

Anapanasati is the Pali name for mindfulness of breathing: ānāpāna means the in-breath and out-breath, and sati means mindfulness. It’s a meditation described in early Buddhist teachings, and many modern breathing meditations, including the one on this page, draw on it. You don’t need any beliefs to practise it: the instructions are the same as above.

Questions people ask

Is mindful breathing the same as meditation?

It’s one kind of meditation, and the most common place to start. Many meditations use the breath as their anchor, because it’s always with you and always moving. Others rest attention on sounds, the body or a word. If you’ve tried meditating and found it slippery, counting breaths, as on this page, is one of the most concrete ways in.

Should I breathe through my nose or mouth?

Whichever is natural for you. Mindful breathing doesn’t ask you to change how you breathe, only to notice it. Most people find the nose easiest, and the cool air at the nostrils is a clear place to rest your attention. If your nose is blocked, breathe through your mouth and feel your belly or chest instead.

Is it OK to fall asleep while doing it?

Yes, nothing goes wrong. If you’d like to stay awake, sit up rather than lie down, and practise earlier in the day. If you do it in bed to help you settle, falling asleep halfway through means it did its job. For bedtime there are breaths made for winding down in breathing exercises for sleep.

What if focusing on my breath makes me anxious?

That happens to some people, and you haven’t done it wrong. Watching your breath can make it feel stiff or short for a while. Rest your attention somewhere else instead, like your feet on the floor or the sounds in the room, and let the breath look after itself. A gentle count you follow, like anchor breathing, can also feel easier.