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Practice · mindfulness
Sit down, follow the timer, and for five minutes do one thing: notice your breath. When your mind drifts and you notice, come back. Each time you come back, a star appears in the night sky. No emptying your mind, no doing it well.
Stuck at any step? Tap the top-right corner and ask ForestSage.Mindful breathing is the most basic mindfulness practice. Mindfulness means paying attention to this moment and seeing clearly what is happening, without rushing to judge or change it. The practice comes from meditation traditions; the American medical professor Jon Kabat-Zinn brought it into hospitals as one of the core practices of the course he founded, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).
It is simple: sit comfortably and rest your attention where the breath is clearest, such as the nostrils, chest or belly, following each breath in and out. Your mind will soon drift, and that's normal; each time you notice you've wandered, gently bring your attention back to the breath. The noticing and coming back is the practice. This five-minute version follows the practice collected by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, with the steps written in our own words.
It differs from the three-minute breathing space: the breathing space has three steps (notice what's here, narrow to the breath, widen to the whole body) and is a way to pause in the rush; this practice spends five minutes on the breath alone, practising coming back again and again. Nor is it slow breathing: you don't change how fast or deep you breathe; let the breath be however it is.
What does research say? One experiment found that after a short period of focused breathing, people reacted less strongly to upsetting pictures (Arch and Craske). But an analysis pooling many studies of brief mindfulness (Schumer, Lindsay and Creswell) also found that a few minutes of practice usually helps negative mood only a little, and it varies from person to person. So rather than expecting to relax straight away, treat it as practising a skill: noticing you've wandered, and bringing your attention back.
When you go quiet, uncomfortable feelings sometimes get stronger, and that's common; if it's getting worse, open your eyes, look around and stop at any time. If you've been through trauma or are prone to panic, attending to the breath can sometimes make you more uneasy: keeping your eyes open, sitting for less time, or choosing a different practice are all good choices.
This exercise isn't therapy and doesn't replace professional treatment for anxiety or depression. If racing thoughts, poor sleep or low mood have gone on for a while, working with a counsellor or psychologist will take you further.
Mindful breathing is the most basic mindfulness practice and one of the core practices in Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course; this five-minute version follows the practice collected by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley.
The before and after ratings, "which comes closest" and "when to sit next" are our additions, so you can compare and take something away; settling in, finding the breath, following it, noticing and coming back, and the closing line keep the original method.