Preventing burnout with breathing
Recognising the early signs and restoring your capacity to recover with daily breathwork.
Read articleYou know the feeling: the tension rising. Your heart rate goes up, your breathing sits high in your chest, and your head is full. The good news: you always carry a switch to turn that around. Your breathing.
The extended out-breath: breathe in for 4 counts and out for 6 to 8 counts, three to five times in a row. That long out-breath brings you to a slow pace of about six breaths a minute, and that is what lowers your heart rate. You usually notice the effect within a minute, and you can do it anywhere.
Your autonomic nervous system has two modes: active mode (sympathetic) and recovery mode (parasympathetic). Under stress, active mode is on. Your body gets ready to fight or flee, even if the stress is only a full inbox or the thought of your overflowing to-do list.
Your breathing is the only function of that nervous system you can steer consciously. That makes it a direct switch. Breathe out slowly and for a long time, and you arrive at a pace of about six breaths a minute, which is what your body responds to. Your heart rate drops, your muscles relax, your head calms down. You need no device and no months of training.
At the core of almost every exercise below is the same principle: make your out-breath longer than your in-breath. That is not a trick; it is based on how our body is built.
The simplest and fastest. Breathe in deeply through your nose for four counts, and out through your mouth or nose for six to eight counts. Repeat for a minute. That is all it takes.
Use this one when you feel acute tension: before or after a difficult conversation, after an unpleasant moment in traffic, or when you notice your breath sitting high and fast. Because the out-breath is longer than the in-breath, you tip your nervous system straight towards calm.
This one is known among marines and top athletes, precisely because it is simple and reliable. Breathe in for four counts, hold for four counts, breathe out for four counts and finally hold again for four counts. Picture a square and trace its sides.
Box breathing gives your mind something to hold on to, which helps when your thoughts are shooting in all directions. Good for focus under pressure: before a presentation, an exam, or a moment when you need to be sharp but feel tense.
Breathe in deeply through your nose for four counts, hold for seven counts, and breathe out through your mouth for eight counts. The long out-breath and the pause in between make this the most calming of the four. Do no more than four rounds in a row, especially at first.
This technique is ideal for switching off at the end of the day or when you cannot fall asleep at night. Read more in the article sleep better with breathing.
I do this exercise myself before sleeping, every evening if I can. Often five minutes, sometimes ten or longer. It calms my head and really prepares my body for a long, unbroken night. Although my young children unfortunately decide whether that night actually happens.
Two short in-breaths through your nose in a row (the second tops up the lungs further), followed by one long, complete out-breath through your mouth. Two or three times is enough.
The double in-breath reopens collapsed air sacs in your lungs, and the long out-breath releases a lot of CO2 in one go. This is the fastest thing you can do to let an acute spike of tension or irritation subside. You actually already do it automatically when you sigh deeply after a rotten moment. In the article on the physiological sigh you will find the technique step by step, with a breathing circle to do it with straight away.
Acute spike or irritation: the physiological sigh. Tension building up during the day: the extended out-breath. Need to stay sharp under pressure: box breathing. Switching off and sleeping: 4-7-8 breathing.
More important than choosing the perfect technique is doing something in the moment itself. Any form of slow, conscious breathing helps.
An exercise in a moment of stress helps acutely. But if you want to become calmer for good, repetition counts. By practising for a few minutes every day, your nervous system learns to switch back to recovery mode faster. You then not only react more calmly to stress, you also slip into it less quickly. A 2023 Stanford study (Balban et al., Cell Reports Medicine) confirmed this: five minutes of breathwork a day improved mood and measurably lowered the stress response, and the effect grew stronger the longer people kept it up.
That is exactly why De Adempauze works with daily guidance rather than one-off sessions. Via WhatsApp, Ada sends you a short exercise every day that suits how you are doing. Ada only speaks Dutch for now, but will be speaking English soon. You can read the biology behind the approach on the page about the method.
Breathwork is safe for most people, but it does not replace medical care. With heart rhythm disorders, serious mental health problems, pregnancy or if you are in doubt, check with a doctor first. If you feel dizzy during an exercise, stop and just breathe normally. That usually means you are forcing it too hard.
An extended out-breath works fastest. Breathe in for four counts and out for six to eight counts. With a longer out-breath you reach a slow pace of about six breaths a minute without counting, and at that pace your heart rate often drops within a minute.
For an acute effect, do an exercise at the moment you feel stress. To become calmer for good, five minutes of daily practice helps most, because your nervous system then gets used to recovery mode.
Yes. A 2018 systematic review (Zaccaro et al., Frontiers in Human Neuroscience) found that slow breathing increases heart rate variability and reduces anxiety, depression and anger. Further research at Radboud University (PNAS, 2014) showed that breathing techniques measurably influence the stress response and the immune system. In the research it is mainly the slow pace that counts, about six breaths a minute, not the exact ratio between in and out.
Recognising the early signs and restoring your capacity to recover with daily breathwork.
Read articleHow the 4-7-8 technique shifts your body into recovery mode so you fall asleep faster.
Read articleIn two minutes you breathe yourself calm. A short breathing session every day via WhatsApp, tailored and at your moment, two weeks free. Ada only speaks Dutch for now, but will be speaking English soon. Rather talk first? The twenty-minute introductory call is free too, and in English.