KidsAges 3 to 104 min

Rainbow breathing

Five colours, five slow breaths. Climb up a colour as you breathe in, slide down the other side as you breathe out, then start on the next one.

Ready?

In 3 · out 3 · 5 breaths · 0:30

For you, once they’re asleepTry 4-6 breathing: it’s Unwind in the app, free

How do you do rainbow breathing?

Sit tall or lie down. Press Start on the rainbow above and follow the dot together, or trace a rainbow on paper.

Start at the bottom of the outside colour, finger on the line.
Breathe in through your nose for 3 seconds as you climb up to the top of the arch.
Breathe out slowly for 3 seconds as you slide down the other side.
Move one colour in and breathe the same way again.
Five colours, five breaths, about 30 seconds. From about 7, slow it to 4 seconds in and 5 out.

The breath out can be a little longer than the breath in, never shorter. That slow slide down is the part that helps a body settle.

How do you do rainbow breathing with kids?

There are two ways, and most children like both.

With a finger. Trace the rainbow on the screen, on a drawing or in the air. It’s good for sitting still: at the table, in the car, in a waiting room.

With your arms. Stand up with your arms by your sides. Breathe in as you sweep both arms out and up into a big arch over your head. Breathe out as they float back down. Call out a colour each time. It’s the one for wiggly bodies, and for a whole class at once.

Ready?

In 4 · out 5 · 5 breaths · 0:45

For you, once they’re asleepTry 4-6 breathing: it’s Unwind in the app, free

For ages 7 to 10: a slower rainbow, 4 seconds in and 5 out.

A rainbow breathing script to read aloud

Read it slowly, and breathe along yourself. Your pace becomes theirs: two quiet minutes with Breathform beforehand slow yours down.

Let’s make a rainbow with our breath. Put your finger at the bottom of the red. Breathe in through your nose… up, up, up, to the top. And breathe out slowly… all the way down. Now the yellow. Breathe in… up to the top. And out… slowly down. Now green… now blue… and the last one, purple. Look at the rainbow you made. How does your body feel now?

Seen from behind, a mother and two children sitting on a striped blanket on the grass, her arms around them, looking at a rainbow over green hills — One person calls the colours, everyone breathes together: it works for a class or a family on the grass.

What age is rainbow breathing for?

Roughly 3 to 10, with a different version for each end.

Under 4: the arm rainbow, done with you, with no counting. Just “up” and “down”.
4 to 6: the finger trace, 3 in and 3 out.
7 to 10: slower, 4 in and 5 out, and they can lead it for a younger brother or sister.

If your rainbow fan wants something new, star breathing and lazy 8 breathing use the same idea with a different shape.

Can rainbow breathing help at bedtime?

Yes. Lie down and trace a rainbow across the ceiling with your eyes, slower than in the day, with the out-breath stretching longer each time. Whisper the colours. By purple, some children are yawning. There’s a full routine in breathing exercises for kids to sleep.

Does rainbow breathing work?

Rainbow breathing itself hasn’t been studied: it comes from classrooms and children’s therapy, where it’s used to turn slow breathing into something a child can see and follow.

Children breathe faster than adults: in a large review, the typical rate fell from 44 breaths a minute at birth to 26 at age 2, and kept falling into the early teens (Fleming et al. 2011). That’s why the counts here are short. Most of the research on slow breathing is in adults, where a slower pace is linked with feeling more relaxed (Zaccaro et al. 2018).

So: a playful way to slow down, resting on research in adults rather than children.

Every study on this page (2)

Fleming et al., 2011: Systematic review of 69 studies of healthy children: the median resting breathing rate falls from 44 breaths a minute at birth to 26 at age 2, and keeps falling into early adolescence.
Zaccaro et al., 2018: In 15 small studies of healthy people, slow breathing was linked with feeling more relaxed and alert, and less anxious.

Questions people ask

Is there a rainbow breathing printable?

You can make one in two minutes, and children like it more when they’ve made it. Draw five arches, one inside the other, and let your child colour them. Mark an arrow up one side and down the other. Slip it into a plastic sleeve and it lasts all term. Ready-made cards are collected on printable breathing exercises.

How many rainbows should we trace?

One rainbow is 5 breaths, about 30 seconds, and that’s often enough. If your child is enjoying it, trace a second one more slowly. Stop while it’s still fun: a rainbow they ask for again tomorrow does more than three they sat through today. For a calm-down moment, one rainbow, then a hug, works well.

What if my child goes too fast?

Lots of children rush at first, and that’s fine. Slow your own voice and stretch the words: “up… up… up… and down… slowly… down”. Let them follow the dot on the animation, which sets the pace for both of you. Even a little faster than the count is usually slower than they were breathing before, and it gets easier with practice.

Can rainbow breathing help with worries?

It can give a worried child something to do with their eyes, hands and breath at the same time, which leaves less room for the worry to run. Practise it on calm days first, so it’s familiar when a worry comes. For more breaths to try when feelings are big, see breathing exercises for kids.