Controlling your breathing is the most effective way to instantly bring about a shift in your physical and mental state. It does this by activating your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), the antidote to the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The PNS triggers rest and restoration, lowers blood pressure and boosts the immune system, while the ANS triggers the release of stress hormones and the fight or flight response.

4-7-8 breathing is like ‘first-aid’ for stress and anxiety.

Here’s how to do it:

1 Sit comfortably, closing your eyes if it’s appropriate to do so

2 Take a deep breath in through the nose while counting to 4 in your head

3 Hold the breath while count to 7

4 Slowly release your breath through the mouth, making a soft ‘whoosh sound’ while counting to 8

5 Repeat x 10

When the outbreath is longer than the inbreath, you release excess levels of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream, which can build up when you feel anxious, due to shallow, fast breathing.

Breathing techniques have an accumulative effect, which means that the more often you do them, the more powerful the effect when you really need them. Try an experiment – for a week, instead of scrolling through your phone when you have a spare moment, close your eyes and practise 4-7-8 instead. Then check in with how you’re feeling at the end of the week – do you feel calmer, and generally more content? Just 20 minutes of mindful breathing exercises done throughout the day can reduce anxiety and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in just five days, according to one study.