Breathing Exercise Timer

What this is

A shape that grows while you breathe in, holds while you hold, and shrinks while you breathe out, with the phase named and the seconds counted. That is the whole tool. It is silent: nothing beeps, so you can use it beside someone else or with your eyes half closed.

The patterns are the common ones. Box breathing — four in, four hold, four out, four hold — is the one taught for steadying yourself before something demanding. A longer exhale than inhale is the other common shape. 4-7-8 has a long hold, which some people find calming and others find unpleasant.

What it is not

It is a pacer, not therapy. This page makes no claim about anxiety, stress, blood pressure, sleep, panic or any medical condition, and nothing here is medical advice. Breathing exercises are widely taught, they help some people, and a web page counting seconds is not in a position to tell you what they will do for you.

If you feel dizzy, light-headed or uncomfortable, stop and breathe normally. Holding your breath is not for everyone — particularly if you are pregnant, have a respiratory or heart condition, or have been told to avoid breath-holding. Ask someone qualified rather than a tool page.

Motion, and turning it off

The movement is slow and continuous by nature: it takes several seconds to grow and several to shrink, so there is no flashing anywhere in it.

If your system asks for reduced motion, the shape does not move at all — the phase name and the count do the pacing instead. That is set in your operating system's accessibility settings, and this page follows it without needing a control of its own.

Nothing is stored: rounds are counted while you are here and forgotten when you leave. For a blank screen to work against, there is Focus Mode; for work intervals, the Pomodoro Timer.