---
title: "Guided Breathing Pacer with Patterns | Mellow Harbor"
description: "A visual breathing pacer with ready-made rhythms (resonance, long exhale, cyclic sigh, triangle) or your own in, hold and out times. Watch the tide."
url: https://mellowharbor.cyou/breathing-patterns/
---

# Guided breathing patterns

Pick a rhythm and breathe with the tide: in as the water rises, out as it falls. Or set your own in, hold and out times.

## The rhythms

- **Resonance 5.5**: equal in and out breaths of about 5.5 seconds. Around five to six breaths a minute is the pace heart-rate-variability researchers call resonance breathing.
- **Even 5-5**: the same idea in round numbers, six breaths a minute.
- **Long exhale 4-6**: a breath out longer than the breath in, an easy way to slow down without holds.
- **Cyclic sigh**: breathe in through the nose, take a second short sip to fill up, then let a long breath out. In a 2023 Stanford study it lifted mood the most of the exercises tested.
- **Triangle 4-4-4**: box breathing without the empty hold.
- **Equal 4-4**: a gentle place to start.

## Making your own

Choose *Your own* and set each phase in half-second steps; a hold of 0 is skipped. Under each rhythm you will see breaths per minute. Slower is not always better: if you feel short of breath, shorten the phases. Your choices are remembered on this device.

## Sources

- Lehrer PM, Gevirtz R. Heart rate variability biofeedback: how and why does it work? *Frontiers in Psychology* 2014;5:756. [doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00756](https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00756)
- Balban MY, Neri E, Kogon MM, et al. Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. *Cell Reports Medicine* 2023;4(1):100895. [doi:10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895)

## Questions

**Which rhythm should I start with?**

Equal 4-4 or long exhale 4-6. Neither has a hold, so they suit almost anyone. Move to resonance breathing once a slow, even rhythm feels natural.

**Should I breathe through my nose?**

Breathe in through your nose for all of these rhythms. Breathe out through your nose or softly through your mouth, whichever lets the out-breath stay smooth.

**Why does the water move slowly at the ends?**

The tide eases in and out, like real breath: lungs fill fastest mid-breath and slow down near full and empty. The count in the middle stays exact.