Lesson 6 of 10 · 3 min · Mind

Cyclic sighing: the breathing exercise that lifts mood

Five minutes a day of one breathing pattern lifted mood more than meditation did in a Stanford study.

1. Your breath is the one part of the body’s stress system you can steer by hand. And the breath out is the part that slows things down.

2. You can feel it with a finger on your pulse. The heart speeds up a little as you breathe in and slows as you breathe out. A longer breath out gives the slowing side more time.

3. In 2023, a Stanford team asked 108 people to spend five minutes a day, for a month, on one of four exercises: three breathing patterns or mindfulness meditation.

4. Cyclic sighing stood out: breathe in through the nose, take a second short sip of air on top, then let it all out slowly through the mouth. Compared with meditation, it lifted good mood the most, the lift grew with each day of practice, and breathing at rest slowed.

5. Try one minute now: six rounds. In through the nose, a little more on top, then a long, slow breath out through the mouth. Follow the words.

6. You can do it anywhere: on a train, before a call, lying in bed. Anxiety fell in all four groups of the study, so the habit matters most. The gains built up over a month of five minutes a day.