Breathing guides / Touch Grass
Touch Grass
Touch Grass is even breathing that slows one second at a time: 8 breaths of in 5 and out 5, then 6, then 7, then 8. It takes about 7 minutes, and it is a pattern we built for Pulmonaut.
The counts
| Step | In | Out | Breaths | Breaths a minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 6 |
| 2 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 5 |
| 3 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 4.3 |
| 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 3.75 |
| All four steps | 32 |
In and out stay equal the whole way. Only the length changes, one second at a time.
How to do Touch Grass
- Sit or lie down, whichever is easier.
- Breathe in through your nose for 5, and out for 5. Do 8 breaths.
- Breathe in for 6, and out for 6. Do 8 breaths.
- Breathe in for 7, and out for 7. Do 8 breaths.
- Breathe in for 8, and out for 8. Do 8 breaths.
- Let your breath go back to its own pace before you get up.
Fill slowly rather than deeply. A slower breath does not need to be a bigger one.
Posture
Sit with your back tall, or lie on your back with your knees bent if that is easier. Let your belly move with each breath. There are no holds, so any comfortable position works.
Who it suits
Anyone who finds a slow breath hard to start cold. Touch Grass begins at a pace most people can follow right away and slows down from there, so you arrive at a very slow breath without forcing it. It fits the end of a long day, a break between meetings, or the minutes before sleep.
What the research says
Slow breathing raises heart rate variability during a session, straight after it, and after weeks of practice, across 223 studies (Laborde et al., 2022). A review of slow breathing also links it with feeling more relaxed and more alert (Zaccaro et al., 2018).
In a trial of 400 adults, 10 minutes a day of coherent breathing for 4 weeks lowered stress and lifted mood, but so did the faster breathing used as a placebo (Fincham et al., 2023). Slow breathing may help, but so does taking ten minutes to breathe at all.
We found no study that tests slowing the breath step by step, the way Touch Grass does. The steps are there to make the slow end easy to reach, not because research says they work better.
Breathwork is not a treatment. If you have a heart or lung condition, ask your doctor before you start.
Practice it in Pulmonaut
Touch Grass is a breathscape in the Restore collection, with a membership. There is nothing to set: the voice and the bell move you up a step every 8 breaths, and the session ends after the last breath at 8 seconds.
Questions
Why slow down in steps?
Starting at 5 seconds feels easy for most people. By the time the breath reaches 8, you have had six minutes to settle into it. The steps are our design, not a method from a study.
What if 8 seconds is too long?
Stay at the step that feels easy and keep that pace, or stop there. A slow breath should never feel like a struggle.
Is it the same as coherent or resonance breathing?
It is coherent breathing, in and out the same length, that gets slower as it goes. Resonance breathing holds one pace, usually about 5 to 6 breaths a minute.
Nose or mouth?
Breathe through your nose if you can. If your nose is blocked, breathe gently through your mouth.