3 Breath Practices for a Calm and Open Heart
The instruction to “take a breath” is common, practical, and often reassuring advice. We can all appreciate the power of a deep inhale–exhale. Many years ago, at an introduction to meditation for beginners, I heard this same instruction and learned of the connection between the breath and our ability to return to balance and ease. “We can always return to the breath,” the teacher assured us.
My reaction landed somewhere between irritation and relief. I was irritated that the key to undoing my tendency toward anxiousness and distraction was something I’d had access to all along. And I was relieved that an essential foundation of practice — at a time when so much about meditation felt odd and otherworldly to me — was so readily available, even mundane.
As the Theravada Buddhist teacher Shaila Catherine explains in “
The Buddha’s Breath Practice,” the Buddha recommended going into the forest, sitting under a tree, and “being with” the breath. He was the first person to teach this practice of
anapanasati, “mindfulness of breathing,” and it is a core practice across most Buddhist traditions.
In today’s world, science has demonstrated what meditators have known for thousands of years — that deep, abdominal breath encourages full oxygen exchange and is beneficial, even transformative, for body and mind. By shifting our breathing deep into our belly, we can return to a parasympathetic state — a place of calm and balance.
A powerful example of this appears in the
January 2026 issue of Lion’s Roar, where Sharon Suh shares
four trauma-informed mindfulness practices for healing and wholeness, including a personal favourite of mine, the 5-7-8 breath. In this practice, you breathe in for a count of five, hold that breath for a count of seven, and finish with a slow exhale for a count of eight. Even just a few rounds of this breath can be hugely beneficial.
Below, you’ll find that and two more breath practices to help you put the Buddha’s wisdom into action. May they allow you find an opportunity to return to the breath — again, and again, and again…
—Beth Wallace, Associate Publisher, Finance & Operations, Lion’s Roar
