Mindfulness

4,4,4 – a simple calming exercise for mind and body

21/06/2023

The 3-part exercise

In this short extract from my event on happiness in December 2021, I take you through the popular 444 breathing exercise with an imagined flow of calm. Paying attention to your breathing can be almost immediately calming for the nervous system and I explain more about this below. It’s an excellent and quick mindfulness exercise also.

  • Count to 4 while breathing in
  • Hold the breath for a count of 4
  • Count to 4 while breathing out and imagining calm flowing to your heart and stomach areas

Not all in the mind

Neurons, the cells that make everything work, are found in three parts of your nervous system: brain (500 million cells or neurons), stomach (100 million neurons) and heart (40,000 neurons)

The neurons in your stomach and heart carry information through and from your brain and enable gut and heart to function as best they can. These are in communication with each other all the time and influence each other, including emotionally. For instance, something you are nervous about (a job interview that’s starting in a few minutes, say) affects the emotional part of your brain, your stomach (‘butterflies in your tummy’) and your heart which beats faster.

So calming your body helps to calm your mind. That’s why in this exercise you imagine the sense of calm flowing to your heart and stomach.

This is also a simple and effective mindfulness exercise that brings you into the moment while you are doing it. Mindfulness makes it easier to spot those random moments of happiness and well being that often go unnoticed in the rush of the day.

My 15-lesson course Easy Mindfulness can help you learn many mindfulness techniques to bring more calm to your life.

Image by Bella Huang on Unsplash


Padraig O'Morain

I have practised mindfulness since the late 1980s, have taught mindfulness throughout Ireland and in London, have demonstrated mindfulness on ITV, RTE and TV3 and have had books on mindfulness published in several countries and languages. I provide public and corporate courses. My latest book is "Daily Calm - 100 daily reminders to help you build the mindfulness habit." My aim is to make mindfulness easily accessible to people in their everyday lives.