Slower breathing, for two minutes
Breathe in for four seconds and out for six, twelve times. Follow the sun on screen, or close your eyes and count.
What this is
About six breaths a minute, with the out-breath longer than the in-breath. Slow breathing at around this pace has been studied for its short-term effects on anxiety and heart rate variability: reviews of controlled trials report lower self-reported anxiety and measurable changes in heart rate variability while people breathe this way and shortly afterwards. The evidence is about those minutes, not about lasting change.
Two cautions. Some people feel light-headed breathing slowly at first, so stop and breathe normally if that happens. And don’t do this while driving.
The review: Zaccaro et al. (2018), Zaccaro A, Piarulli A, Laurino M, et al. (2018). How breath-control can change your life: a systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12, 353.
If you want to talk to someone
You can book a first session with a licensed psychologist.