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Belly Breathing

A practice card

A slow breath that can tell the body the emergency is easing. Two minutes. Anywhere.

When

When your chest is tight, your thoughts are fast, or you notice you have been holding your breath.

How

Put one hand on your chest and one on your belly.

Breathe in through the nose, slowly, and let the lower hand rise first. The upper hand stays almost still.

Breathe out through the mouth, longer than you breathed in. Let the belly fall.

Keep going. If you count, try four in, six out. If counting is stressful, don’t count — just make the out-breath longer.

Now

begin

2:00

Breathe in as it grows. Out as it shrinks. The page waits with you.

After

Notice one thing that is different — the shoulders, the jaw, the speed of the thoughts. That difference is often the body easing out of alarm. You can do this in a car, a meeting, a queue.

This is a teaching, not treatment. If you’re struggling, a doctor or therapist can help. If you’re in danger right now, call your local emergency number or a crisis line (in the US, call or text 988).

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