Three ways of breathing for a calmer flight
One for the wait before take-off, one for the flight and a third, the shortest, for any moment. Each with a card to keep on your phone.
Breathing has a peculiarity worth knowing before you board a plane: it runs by itself, without our thinking about it, yet it also lets itself be led when we choose to set the pace. And the body listens to that pace. Slow breathing, in which the air leaves more gently than it comes in, is the breathing of someone at ease, and the rest of the body tends to fall into step with it.
What follows are three simple exercises, each meant for a different part of the journey. There is no need to learn them by heart: each has its own card. Take a screenshot and keep it on your phone. It is worth trying them at home first, unhurried, so that on the plane they already feel familiar.
It also works offline: open this page once before take-off, while you still have internet, and you can come back to it in airplane mode.
1. Box breathing
For the wait: the boarding gate, the taxi to the runway.
- Breathe in through your nose, counting to 4.
- Hold the air, counting to 4.
- Breathe out slowly, counting to 4.
- Hold with empty lungs, counting to 4.
- Start again. Do at least four rounds.
It takes its name from its four equal beats, like the sides of a square. Its virtue is order: counting occupies the mind just enough, and the steady rhythm does the rest. If four seconds feels long, start with three. That was the guidance given to beginners in a Stanford University study published in 2023, in which five minutes a day for four weeks improved participants’ mood and reduced their anxiety.
2. The hand
During the flight, whenever you would like to give your attention something concrete to rest on.
- Stretch out your right hand, fingers apart.
- With your left index finger, start at the wrist, next to the thumb.
- As you trace up a finger, breathe in. As you trace down, breathe out.
- Go round the whole hand like this, finger by finger, to the wrist on the other side.
- Come back the other way and repeat as often as you like.
This exercise brings sight, touch and breathing together in a single gesture. Your finger keeps time, so there is nothing to count, and your attention rests on something as close and familiar as your own hand. We know of no clinical trials devoted to this particular technique, but it is recommended by UK NHS services and school programmes as a way to settle and return to the present moment.
3. The sigh
For any moment. One minute is enough.
- Breathe in deeply through your nose.
- Without letting go, take one more short sip, also through the nose, until you are completely full.
- Let it all out through your mouth, slowly, for twice as long.
- Repeat for one to five minutes.
It is a slow, deliberate version of the sigh the body makes on its own from time to time. What matters is the out-breath, long and unhurried. In the Stanford study it was the exercise that improved mood the most, and the only one that clearly lowered breathing rate compared with the group that meditated. Being so short, it is also the easiest to take anywhere: the departure lounge, your seat, the walk down the jet bridge.
A few pointers
- Practise on the ground a few days before. What the body already knows takes little effort to repeat.
- Don’t force it. If you feel slightly dizzy or tingly, breathe normally for a few seconds and then pick up again.
- Keep your seatbelt fastened, as is always recommended while you are in your seat.
These exercises are a help, not a treatment. If flying is very hard for you, a psychologist can support you, and there are courses designed for exactly that.
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