Box breathing gains attention as a simple tool to tame stress and anxiety
Box breathing is presented as an evidence-based technique helping people such as Maria Medina cope with stress after the La Guaira earthquakes.
After catastrophic earthquakes struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Maria Medina, a 31-year-old programme manager living in Florida, adopted box breathing to ease nightly anxiety and insomnia. She first learned the method in 2020 from a therapist while balancing graduate studies and full-time work during the Covid pandemic. Breathwork coach Stuart Sandeman explains the technique as a four-second inhale, hold, exhale, and hold cycle, insisting the intervals stay equal, and cites its adoption by US Navy SEALs and the England football squad.
A June study published in Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology by researchers at Texas State University and the University of Toronto Mississauga reported that box breathing can prevent large increases in heart rate and other stress markers during high-pressure tasks. Dr Helen Garr, a GP treating medical staff, recommends the practice, highlighting that the final exhalation hold trains the body to tolerate higher carbon-dioxide levels, reducing panic responses.
The article also features Brittany Lamm, a California-based life coach who practices the technique each morning and incorporates it into client sessions, noting that most of her clients feel markedly better afterward. Together, these accounts illustrate growing anecdotal and scientific support for box breathing as a portable stress-management tool.
Why it matters
Simple breathing exercises like box breathing can help many people manage stress and improve mental health without medication.
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