For when you are stuck in shutdown there is a faster practice: short sharp exhales driven from the belly, letting each in breath happen by itself, about twenty of them.
It is meant to rouse, so expect to feel more awake and a little buzzy afterwards rather than calm. Twenty is plenty. Sit down before you start so that stopping is easy, and stop earlier than planned if you feel dizzy or light headed.
Qur’an and Sunnah
he cried out in the deep darkness (Quran 21:87). The first move out of that dark was an act rather than a mood, which is the spirit of this one.
وَذَا ٱلنُّونِ إِذ ذَّهَبَ مُغَٰضِبࣰ ا فَظَنَّ أَن لَّن نَّقۡدِرَ عَلَيۡهِ فَنَادَىٰ فِي ٱلظُّلُمَٰتِ أَن لَّآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّآ أَنتَ سُبۡحَٰنَكَ إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
And remember the man with the whale,when he went off angrily, thinking We could not restrict him, but then he cried out in the deep darkness, ‘There is no God but You, glory be to You, I was wrong.’
Qur’an 21:87read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
Direct evidence for rapid breathing practices is scarce, and one finding is worth knowing first. In a controlled study, people with panic disorder and generalised anxiety disorder reacted more strongly than others to a hyperventilation challenge. Deliberate fast breathing is not that challenge, but it moves in the same direction, so if your anxiety arrives as breathlessness this is the practice to leave alone.
Pittig A, Arch JJ, Lam CW, Craske MG. (2013). Heart rate and heart rate variability in panic, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and generalized anxiety disorders at baseline and in response to relaxation and hyperventilation.. International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Fast forceful breathing pushes the body towards alertness, which is the opposite of what most breathing advice is aiming at.
When not to
Skip it entirely with high blood pressure, heart disease, glaucoma or pregnancy, and skip it when you are already anxious rather than flat.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
There is no breath that calms everyone. The one that settles your friend may leave you worse, and that is information about your body rather than a failure in you.
To find the soft ocean sounding breath, breathe out through your mouth as if fogging up a mirror. Then keep that same slight narrowing at the throat with your mouth closed, and let the sound get quieter and quieter.
A child cannot watch their own breathing, so give them something to watch instead. Bubbles through a wand show the out breath as it happens: too hard and it bursts, too weak and nothing comes.