Free Regulation Tool · Week 1
Slow the body.
Clear the signal.
Breathe along with a simple timer. Five seconds in, five seconds out, with no breath holds.
Paced Breathing
Choose 3–5 rounds. Notice how you feel before and after. The goal is regulation, not perfect breathing.
Private, browser-only. Refreshing or leaving erases your practice and observations. Copy or print/save to keep them.
01 · Breathe Along
A steady rhythm.
Room to notice.
Get comfortable. Breathe gently without forcing a deep breath. Follow the rhythm only while it feels comfortable. Stop and breathe normally if you feel dizzy, lightheaded, or uncomfortable.
Use this while safely at rest. If you have a condition that affects breathing, follow your clinician’s guidance.
Your felt emotional intensity: 0 = none, 10 = very intense. This is a personal observation, not a clinical scale.
Ready
Breathe normally.
Ready. Start when you are ready to inhale.
Start when you are ready to inhale. Inhale as the circle expands; exhale as it contracts.
TH3NEXT24 · Paced Breathing
5 seconds in · 5 seconds out · no holds
02 · Notice the Shift
What did you notice?
Notice what is present, even if it feels unchanged or unclear. A lower rating is not required for a valid observation.
Practice: Not started · 0 / 3 rounds completed · Guided progress: 0 / 30 seconds
Resuming after a pause starts the unfinished round again with an inhale.
Before intensity
Not recorded.
Record after stopping or finishing. Use the same 0–10 intensity scale as before.
After intensity
Not recorded.
I haven’t added an observation yet.
What This Means
The goal is regulation, not perfect breathing. Your ratings are personal observations, not a diagnosis or a test of whether the exercise worked.
One useful next step
Name the Emotion: /free-help/name-the-emotion
The Next 24 Reset: /free-help/next-24
Source: TH3NEXT24 Paced Breathing participant worksheet, Week 1.
Breathe gently without forcing it. Stop and breathe normally if dizzy, lightheaded, or uncomfortable.
03 · What This Means
Start with a rhythm you can follow.
The Week 1 worksheet uses continuous paced breathing to begin with the body when emotional intensity rises. It asks you to notice before and after. You are observing your experience; this timer does not measure your breathing, nervous system, or health.
Consistency over performance
Follow gently while comfortable. You can stop early. You do not need a perfect count or a particular change in feeling.
One useful next step
When you are ready, name the feeling more precisely or identify one useful move for the situation in front of you.
Copy or print/save first if you want to keep your observations. They do not transfer to the next tool.
04 · The Foundations
Where the exercise comes from.
Established breathing research
Research on slow breathing has examined changes in breathing-related physiology and subjective feelings in healthy participants. Techniques and study lengths vary. Those findings do not guarantee a particular result from this short practice or validate its ratings as a clinical assessment.
TH3NEXT24’s educational implementation
Paced breathing is an established technique. The TH3NEXT24 Week 1 participant worksheet uses five seconds in and five seconds out, without holds, for 3–5 rounds, with before and after intensity observations. This timer follows that worksheet; it does not claim TH3NEXT24 invented breathing.
Sources and further reading
- TH3NEXT24 Paced Breathing participant worksheet, Week 1. The Box Breathing Tool analysis supplies broader curriculum context; its inhale–hold–exhale–hold pattern is a different version.
- Zaccaro et al. (2018). How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12, 353 ↗
- NHS: Gentle breathing without forcing or holding ↗
- NHS: Comfortable pacing and stopping if lightheaded ↗