Lower Your Heart Rate With This Slow Breathing Exercise (4 second inhale, 8 second exhale)

With each exhale, your heart rate slows down.
Download my free breathing app "Pocket Breath Coach:

Get my free ebook about breathing exercises for anxiety!

My favorite device for measuring and lowering heart rate!

Your heart rate naturally slows down as you exhale, so we can take advantage of this by exhaling for twice as long as we inhale. This is called 2:1 ratio breathing.

Here are 6 tips to drastically lower your heart rate with this breathing exercise.

You don’t have to master each of these principles at once. Start by practicing #1 and #2, and gradually add in the rest.

The 6 tips are:

1. Maintain the slow, rhythmic breathing pattern for 20 minutes. Try to do the whole 20 minutes without stopping, but take a break is if you feel lightheaded.

2. Inhale through your nose, and exhale through your mouth like you’re gently blowing out a candle. Keep the air flowing smoothly both in and out.

3. On the exhale, let the shoulders relax and sink down. Imagine the shoulders feel heavy. On the inhale, don’t let the shoulders rise, let the belly expand instead.

4. Focus your attention on the center of the chest. Imagine the air is flowing directly in and out of the heart.

5. Evoke a feeling of gratitude. Focus on the feeling of gratitude in your body, rather than trying to think of reasons to be grateful. Imagine a spark of gratitude in the center of your chest, slowly expanding to fill your entire body with gratitude.

6. When you get distracted, bring your attention back to relaxing the shoulders, then focusing on the heart, then evoking a feeling of gratitude.

Leave a comment below if this exercise helped slow your heart rate!

[mthr]

I’ve suffered from panic and anxiety since i was a child. After years of this constant fight or flight my resting heartrate at 16 is 80-120 bpm. This has made me a severe hypochondriac about my heart and cardiovascular health. These breathing exercises help a lot. Thank you.

[cactus]

thanks for this! its great to hear that im not the only one who has a high heart rate due to anxiety (im 17), i thought I was the only one. Most of the time it is late 90s-110 bpm, and when im really stressed and just walking it can be 140-150. Thanks !

[marypsych]

I have tachycardia and did too much today and was barely able to breathe. Took 4 rounds before I could breathe again. Thanks so much for your help

[pythonkid]

I did this for about 15 mins and my heart rate went from 103 to 82 ... Omg that was amazing!! Thank god I found this! Life changing fr! I used a medito app 6 minute session before and it did not work at all. Thanks so much!!!!

[lazywaffle]

Absolutely amazing- went from 104 to 76🙏 Thank you

[Cong.Chwd]

this helps alot thank you. i reached 200 last month and this calms me everyday 🙏 God bless you all

[mindbodyfitness]

Love this!!! No just water and breathing❤️❤️❤️I play this as background noise and my body is starting to breathe deeply, on this count, automatically. What an effn miracle 😁

[catherinem]

Nine minutes into this and my heart rate went from 102 to 92
GOD BLESS YOU💛

[vionceir]

Thank you, this helped me a lot! I'm a young person with a lot of problems so every night my heart beat would go fast. This helped me stay calm, thank you!

[albertnandor]

Thank you so much! From 149 it went to 81 in 15 minutes! Thank you!

[Stygian_Gloom]

Thank you for this, I’m suffering from extreme anxiety and this is helping me, thank you so much for helping me feel better

[salvadorolivo]

reduces blood pressure..went from 147/101 to 117/87...in about 10 listening to the water sounds and breathing lightly... Yes it does work....heart beat coming down as well... Yes it does work....thank you for the help.. God bless you all and once again thank you

[magicman]

Went from 104 to 86 after this. Thank you!

[rachelwoodfull]

Thanks for this. I’m in hospital and had an allergic reaction to medication making my heart rays 170bpm. I did this twice and it has come down to 120!

[mindbodyfitness]

Oh my gosh!! I just became cognizant of the birds in the background. My absolutely favorite sound❤️🦅

[ratguyevan]

Tomorrow is my first day of school this year, I'm sorta nervous and scared, I did this for just a few minutes and my heartbeat is softer and slower. Overall I feel a lot calmer. Thank you so much for this. :)

[smartin]

Okay Okay. I won't lie. I wasn't actually a believer.😄 I give plasma twice a week and sometimes my anxiety is a mess. Today my heart rate was 114. I did this exercise and it dropped to 98. Thank you for this

[misbahailia]

This was very redreshing/calming. Thank you, God bless.

[marinaephremis]

WOW it works love light strength and blessings

[squrrelz]

This helped so much, especially after seeing some creepy stuff on tiktok. My heart was POUNDING, but its gone now, thanks to this video :)