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Toolkit at a glance
Every tool in the book, the short version
Each technique is taught properly in its chapter, with its story and its evidence. These are the drawer you open when you already know the name and just need the steps. The Quick Chooser below runs the other way: you know the situation, not the tool.
Two rules, no exceptions
Never practice any technique on this site while you are driving, operating machinery, or doing anything that needs your full attention. The slow ones can make you drowsy, faster than you’d expect. And never practice a breath-hold, bellows breath, or any vigorous breathing in or near water. Read Before you begin for the doctor’s list and the rest.
- The SoundcheckChapter 3
Thirty seconds, five questions, one number. Always the first move.
- Belly BreathingChapter 3
Let the belly expand on the inhale. The default under everything else.
- The Physiological SighChapter 4
Two inhales, one long exhale. About four seconds. The fastest reset in the book.
- The Exhale-Weighted BreathChapter 2 and 4
Out longer than in. The one movement nearly every technique in the book is a variation on.
- The UnravelChapter 4
For tension that has already moved in, not a single spike. Scales to the size of the thing.
- Box BreathingChapter 5
Four equal sides. Invisible under a table. For pressure you have to sit through.
- Six Breaths a MinuteChapter 5
Five in, five out. Built for the long hour rather than the sudden spike.
- The Ninety-Second Allowing, and the SlateChapter 4 and 6
Stop fixing it. Let it crest and pass. Name it plainly. Next take.
- HummingChapter 6
Three to five hums on a comfortable pitch. A clamped throat can’t do it, which is most of the point.
- GroundingChapter 6
For the moment you’re floating above your own head rather than merely upset.
- Bellows BreathChapter 7 · cautions apply
Thirty seconds, seated, then stop and notice. The release afterward is the technique.
- Micro-RecoveryChapter 7
Eyes far, three exhale-weighted breaths, shoulders down. Once an hour.
- The CO2 AlarmChapter 8 · cautions apply
Not a technique. The one piece of physiology that takes the fear out of a held breath.
- The Trap DoorChapter 9
Attention low, breath empty, one easy inhale, and let the floor drop on the way out.
- The Joyful Exhale LadderChapter 9
The book’s central method, taught in full only after the physiology has been earned.
- The Pilot LightChapter 10
Three anchors, four seconds each, two weeks. The practice that survives a bad day.
- The DoorChapter 7 and 10
Hand on the handle, one long exhale, the day’s weather left on the step.
- 4-7-8 BreathingChapter 11
Four rounds, no more. If the hold is too much, four in and eight out.
- The Nostril AnchorChapter 21
Cool air in, warm air out, nothing to count or change.
- The In-Bed SequenceChapter 11
Lights out, five steps, and the rule for 3 a.m.
- Invisible BreathingChapter 5, reapplied throughout Part Two
So nobody in the room can see or hear you doing it.
Quick Chooser
You know the situation, not the name
Two rules cover every row without exception: nothing here gets practiced while you’re driving or operating machinery, the gentle rows included; and nothing vigorous (bellows, any breath-hold) goes anywhere near water.
The physiological sigh, chapter 4. Skip the long meditation and skip bellows breath, because a spike doesn’t need more arousal added on top of it.
Box breathing or six-a-minute pacing, chapter 5, run silently. A handful of sighs stacked in a row won’t outlast an hour the way a paced rhythm will.
The soundcheck the moment you sit down, box or six-a-minute for the wait, one sigh in the last sixty seconds, chapter 17. Afterward, the Unravel, parked or standing, before you carry it home.
One physiological sigh, quiet, then the slate (that one’s over, next take) and in. Chapter 17 for the exam, chapter 16 for the queue. Don’t replay it, and don’t hit the ready button at a nine.
Treat the click as a doorway, with one Trap Door, the Secret Smile, and one slow six-count exhale before you join, chapter 18.
About thirty seconds of seated bellows, chapter 7, not five minutes, but only if you’ve read that chapter’s contraindication list and none of it applies to you. Otherwise a brisk walk plus one good sigh. Slow breathing on a depleted system can just feel more flat.
The soundcheck, chapter 3, then one Trap Door if there’s a beat to spare, chapter 9. Skip the full ladder, since you don’t have time to run it and you don’t need to.
Soundcheck and an Unravel before, the sigh in the provoked instant, box or six-a-minute while they talk, slate and Unravel after, chapter 22. If the room is unsafe rather than hard, call the number in that chapter (in the U.S., the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788), not a breath.
The blown-take sequence, chapter 6, in order: ninety seconds of allowing, one factual slate sentence, then the single repair available to you (an apology, a correction, a follow-up text) and nothing beyond it. Then three to five soft hums, then back into the room. Don’t replay the moment in your head, and don’t pretend it didn’t happen either.
Micro-recovery on the hour, chapter 7, and the day map’s habit anchors, chapter 10. A single strong morning practice will not survive nine unbroken hours on its own; it needs scheduled recovery, not a longer dose.
The soundcheck the moment the pressure lets up, the Unravel, ninety seconds and a hum for the sharp ones, and the door before home, chapter 19. The technique isn’t aimed at them but at what their weather left in you.
Six-a-minute under their words, chapter 5, and a long quiet exhale for as long as they’re talking, chapter 14; one sigh in the half-second before your first sentence, chapter 4; the soundcheck and the door once the line clears, chapter 19. None of it is aimed at calming them. The room borrows from the steadiest breather in it, chapter 5, and that’s the contribution.
The evening downshift and 4-7-8 or four-in-eight-out, chapter 11. Skip box breathing’s corners and anything vigorous this late in the day.
No clock, no phone. Then exhale-weighted breathing and the allowing practice, chapters 11 and 20. If twenty minutes pass with no sleep in sight, leave the bed rather than fight it there.
Trap Door, Secret Smile, and the dial, chapter 9. This is direction rather than defense. You’re practicing a skill, and there’s no crisis to manage.
Chapter 15 first, before you conclude the method is broken. Context lock, a raised bar, and a heavier life load are all far more common explanations than a failed technique.
Show them the one thing you use, in a sentence, and point them at the book; if they want more, read it together, chapter 28. Don’t give a lesson, and don’t run the full ladder.
Chapter 8’s explanation, before any technique: the urge tracks carbon dioxide, not a shortage of oxygen. Understanding that alone takes more fear out of the moment than another breathing pattern would.
The four-question field test in chapter 13: what job is this for, what happens if you do less, what would prove it false, and where’s the safety edge. If a claim can’t survive those four questions, it probably isn’t physiology.
The progressive drop toward an open sit, chapter 21, technique first if you’re spiking, then a light anchor once you’re stable enough, then widening only when that feels steady.
Chapters 23 to 26 (the Empty Chair, the Baby Monitor, the Paper Gown, the Number on the Screen) each reapply the tools in this list to that room, with their limits stated.
The sigh if you have to stay upright in front of people, chapter 4; the ninety seconds of allowing if you don’t, chapter 6; the Unravel for what the body is holding between waves, chapter 23. It isn’t a fix, and the chapter says so.
Chapter 16 for the first; chapter 27, twenty short ones, for the rest. Find yours.
Stop running techniques. Feet on the floor, long slow exhales only. If this is new to you, or comes with chest pain or breathlessness that doesn’t ease, treat it as medical and call emergency services. If it’s familiar and passes, get a professional involved before the next one; panic is among the most treatable things a therapist sees, and treating it is a few months’ work, not years. This row doesn’t belong on a chooser table. Go get a person.
Four Weeks on the Clock, a few pages back. This page is for the moment you’re standing in. That one is for the month you’d like to have.
Chapter 3’s soundcheck always works as a first move. It doesn’t fix anything by itself, but it always tells you which row of this page you’re standing in.