A Five Minute Practice for When You Are Wound Up
August 2026 · 2 min read · By Vanessa Chugani
I trained as a meditation teacher in 2008 and I have taught a lot of people who were convinced they could not meditate. Almost all of them could. They had simply been told to empty their mind, which is not a thing minds do.
The practice
Five minutes. Sitting or lying, eyes open or closed.
- Put one hand on your chest and one on your belly. This is not decorative, it gives your attention somewhere to go.
- Breathe in through your nose for a count of four.
- Breathe out through your nose, or through pursed lips, for a count of six. The out breath being longer than the in breath is the whole mechanism here.
- Keep going. Your mind will wander, usually within two breaths. When you notice, come back to the count. Noticing that you wandered is the repetition, not a failure of it.
- After five minutes, stop and sit for a moment before you get up.
Why the longer out breath
Because it slows the heart slightly on each exhale, and lengthening it lengthens that effect. That is genuinely all you need to know. You do not need to think about your vagus nerve, and you certainly do not need to buy anything.
What this will and will not do
It will usually take the top off acute agitation within a few minutes. Done regularly it makes the wound up state a little less sticky.
It will not treat an anxiety disorder. If your anxiety is persistent, interferes with your life, or arrives with physical symptoms that frighten you, please see a doctor. Breathing practices are a reasonable thing to do alongside proper treatment. They are a poor substitute for it, and I would rather say that plainly than let a free article stand in for care you actually need.
When people give up, and why
Three things account for nearly every person who tells me they cannot meditate.
- They expected a blank mind. The mind wanders. That is the exercise, not an obstacle to it.
- They started with twenty minutes. Five is better because you will actually do it.
- They only tried it in crisis. A practice you have only ever used at your worst moments is one you will associate with your worst moments. Do it on ordinary days.
Where this meets Reiki
If you learn Reiki Level 1, you get a version of this you can do with your hands resting on yourself, which many people find easier to stick with because it gives the hands a job. But you do not need Reiki, or me, to do the five minutes above. Do it tonight.