Box Breathing is a stress-reduction tool for helping with the skill of Emotional Regulation. I use it most often when driving, when I'm in a hurry to get somewhere or perseverating about some issue that I can't take my mind off of. It's called Box Breathing after the 4 sides of a box...this tool has 4 parts:
Breathe in for 4 seconds
Hold your breath in for 4 seconds
Breathe out for 4 seconds
Hold your breath out for 4 seconds
Only 4 seconds? Yes! And of course you can do it for 6 or 8 seconds for each part, whatever is right for you. We recommend doing 3 or more cycles of box breathing at a time, keeping the length the same for each side of the 'box'. And we recommend sitting down when doing this.
A story about Box Breathing--I remember sitting in a staff retreat at a former school I was teaching at, and a staff member was frustrated to the point of no solutions...this person felt stuck about being so busy raising their kids and working full-time while their spouse was able to routinely go on hour-long bike rides and take breaks from child rearing to hike in the mountains. The facilitator of the retreat heard the person's complaints and asked the person if they could carve out 30 minutes each week to get away? No... The facilitator asked could the person carve out 10 minutes each week? No... The facilitator asked if the person had 30 seconds? Yes... So we took time to do some box breathing. Eight-second intervals for each side of the box, and we did 4 rounds of them. The facilitator said, Thanks for doing that with me and reiterated that sometimes it's finding 30 seconds of calm and quiet or making 30 seconds of solitude to take a breather.
Find your own way to use this tool (location, time, situation) that works for you and your family. Below are breathing videos aimed at teaching breathing strategies for kids. Good luck!
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wom7EUpbc0
Gracie's corner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O9ArFO-3ig
The Mindfulness Teacher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIbBI-BT9c4