One Minute Breath Meditation Practice
- Anna-Karina Schmitt
- Feb 20
- 14 min read
From Inhalation to
Peace on Earth.
Before getting into a very specific form of breathwork, that is one of my favorite meditations, I want to ask you something simple: Do you know how to perform a full inhale?
This question may sound silly. We breathe all day. But when we start practicing meditation regularly, doing it properly becomes a game changer. Every time we practice, it becomes more efficient, more beneficial, more beautiful and intentional.
I teach the full inhale by distributing the breath step by step: First into the belly, then into the ribs, then into the chest and filling up the lungs completely and even higher — almost as if you are filling the shoulder area and upper back with air. The goal is to distribute the inhalation seamlessly, with a constant and steady flow. Not taking in a lot of air at the beginning and then less and less toward the end. The breath rises evenly, like a quiet wave filling you from within.
“No matter what we eat, how much we exercise, how resilient our genes are, none of it will matter unless we’re breathing correctly.” From Breath – James Nestor
If we translate this to the breathwork of the One Minute Breath, that I will explain in more detail further below, it means that the quality your inhalation and exhalation reveals how ready you truly are for the interval you have chosen. It shows how close you really are to your breath in that moment. For example, if you pick a 13-second inhale and after your exhalation you feel like you urgently need to breathe in very fast and without control — maybe even feeling a little urge to breathe, this is a very clear sign to go back to a shorter interval. Choose an interval that makes you comfortable breathing. This is so important. I cannot say it often enough.
The ego overtakes far too often, and this is exactly not what helps. It never does. The process here is literally the result. The calmer you can be with it, almost feeling like you are not using effort to breathe and like you could continue forever, this is where we want to be.
Coming Close to the Breath
The key is to come very close to the breath. So close that there is nothing in between.
But what stands between you and your breath?
Everything that steals your focus.
Everything that prevents flow.
Everything that makes you want to jump up and do something else.
All the things that make you overhear your own breathing.
The most obvious layer here is thought.
Thinking about the future. The past.
Running through endless to-do lists.
Reducing this mental noise brings you closer.
The next layer is tension. If the chest is tight, the breath cannot move freely. A full breath expands in all directions — and empties completely again.
In modern life, our physiology often loses this natural capacity. Over time, metabolism, immunity, and overall balance can suffer. Tension can also come from deeper within — from the digestive system, from an organ, from past surgeries, from scar tissue occupying space in the body.
I sometimes notice this in myself. It changes from day to day. As a baby, I had a hypertrophic pylorus stenosis, and the surgery left a scar in my abdominal area. Meditation has helped me soften and release tension in this region over the years. But even now, during practice, I sometimes feel it more, sometimes less.
And then there is resistance. The subtle mental resistance when things are not going the way we want them to. That, too, creates distance from the breath.
Some days we simply feel more out of breath than on others. There can be many reasons for this — mental stress, physical fatigue, hormonal shifts, or even a virus the body is quietly dealing with before we consciously notice it. Often, before I get sick, I can already feel a change in my breathing rhythm.
It is complex. But the more we practice, the clearer we feel what is actually separating us from the breath — and that awareness gives us the chance to address it. Some layers soften quickly. Others take a lot of time of practice.
Moving Through Layers of Resistance
When thoughts soften and unnecessary effort dissolves, something changes.
The breath becomes quieter.
More intimate.
More subtle.
And something deeper begins to unfold. As we come closer to the breath, the protective layers we have built — from stress, from illness, from trauma — begin to soften. They once served us. They protected us. But in this moment of awareness, they are no longer required.
What remains is something very precious. A simple softening. Almost a purification.
This softening goes beyond the physical body. It influences the way we think. It settles into the heart center and reconnects us with love — the love that has always been there beneath. Sometimes it gets overshadowed by pressure, productivity, and force. When doing becomes louder than being. But it is never gone. Only covered.
As the body softens, we rediscover our capacity for self-love and compassion. From there, love extends naturally — toward ourselves, toward others, toward nature, toward the animals who share this earth with us.
We begin to see with eyes closed.
This is the quiet magic of meditation. This is the real superpower. It softens us so we can recognize our true strength. And once we recognize it within, we begin to see it everywhere. It is simple. Completely natural. And at the same time, surprisingly challenging to access.
Like relaxation itself — the moment you believe you have mastered it can feel like a breakthrough. Stillness. Surrender. And yet, if you continue, you realize:
That was only the beginning. There is always more peace available.
More softness.
More strength.
Often far beyond what we can imagine.
It is up to us to explore how close we are willing to come to our own breath — and how much we are ready to let go in order to truly meet it.
And the most important part: This is not reserved for yoga teachers or Zen masters. It lives in every one of us.
This capacity for softness.
This depth of peace.
This quiet strength from within.
It has always been there — waiting for you to become quiet enough to notice.
The Practice - One Minute Breath
There are countless meditation practices out there, and the One Minute Breath is just one of them. I personally alternate between different practices, but this one has become my backbone. It is always there to support my training, my nervous system, and my focus — a practice I check in with regularly.
With so many options — yoga, gym strength training, swimming, freediving — it can be tempting to jump between different things. But over time, I’ve realized: the real power lies in intelligent repetition, in consistently doing something. Without that, you cannot measure progress, you cannot truly observe yourself, and you cannot develop the level of awareness that reaches through layers of the conscious and unconscious mind — the part that shapes your actions, your inner truth.
This meditation is especially beneficial because it allows you to measure your progress, not in numbers alone, but in your ability to feel softness, presence, and calm — the subtle signs that show you are truly in the moment.
Example Rhythm
Inhale (nose): 8 seconds
Hold: 8 seconds
Exhale (nose): 8 seconds
Keep the inhale and exhale steady. Avoid rushing the first third of the inhale — if you feel you need to, the interval is likely too long.
Check in with your body:
Is your forehead soft and relaxed?
Are your shoulders free of tension?
Is your belly soft and open?
Start with a comfortable breath length — usually 6–11 seconds per interval. Adjust to what feels natural, without any urge to breathe.
Over time — sometimes this may take a year or more, and for some, it may never fully feel accessible — we can work toward 20–20–20: one complete breath per minute, a One Minute Breath.
Warm Up for Flow State
To arrive in this flow state, I usually begin with a 5-minute warm-up using a very easy interval.
This gently brings me into the zone where flow can happen. It allows the nervous system to shift toward calm and peace, without pressure.
When we practice regularly, this method becomes incredibly effective — especially on days when we feel tension, stress, or inner restlessness. It is exactly this kind of exercise that helps us refocus, relax, and return to ourselves. It gives us back understanding and patience.
And it is completely normal that we are not ready every moment of the day for long or demanding breathing intervals. Some days the system is open. Some days it is tired. That is okay.
We must give ourselves the chance to tune in first — to create quality before intensity.
If we do that, magic happens. There is always a natural back and forth in this process. One day it feels super easy. The next day it feels heavy or even exhausting.
Use all of it as information — not as something to criticize. Your body is always communicating with you.
A Small but Important Detail about Nasal Breathing
For the nervous system to truly come into balance, correct breathing technique is not the only factor. It is equally important that the air can enter both nostrils evenly.
For example, I have a narrow nasal septum. When I inhale, there is naturally less air entering the right side. Over the past few years this has improved because I started using small devices that help open the nostrils more equally.
They may look a bit funny — but they work. There are simple one time use nasal strips available at the pharmacy. There are also devices on the market, like one from an ETH spin-off called Noson, which I have had good experiences with. Noson is reusable, which I personally prefer, but it requires a bit more care when using it.
Some ENT doctors (HNO) also provide similar devices and can help you adjust and shape them properly in the beginning. I can recommend Dr. Sörensen in Meilen if you are in the area.
Balanced nasal airflow makes a noticeable difference. When the breath can enter evenly, the nervous system settles much more easily. Sometimes small adjustments create big shifts.
How We Practice Matters
One more important detail is how we practice. I usually choose between a seated position and lying on my back. It depends on my focus that day and how I feel in my body.
From experience, I can say: if someone is not used to seated meditation, the breathing intervals will often be shorter when sitting compared to lying down. Simply because the body has to work more. Lying on the floor naturally invites deeper physical relaxation.
At the same time, seated meditation has its own power. When sitting upright, the breath activate the upper body more precisely. The spine lengthens. The chest opens. The flow of air is more vertical, more aligned. Engaging mula bandha — the pelvic floor — and guiding the breath in one line along the spine is often easier to access in a seated posture.
There is also a strengthening component. The body learns to hold itself. The breathing muscles work against gravity. Over time, posture improves naturally.
The most important thing is ease in the position. Sit on a stable cushion or block, with the knees lower than the hips. Change the crossing of the legs from time to time. Close the eyes. Let the face soften.
I also love practicing like this outdoors — sitting in a forest, by the sea, or near a quiet lake. The breath feels different in nature. Wider. More connected.
Lying Down
When I practice lying on my back, I like to place a large pillow under my upper legs so the lower back can fully relax. I also like to cover my eyes to fully submerge inside and let go of all the tension from the eyes and forehead area.
Here the focus is clearly restorative. I often choose this variation early in the morning before a training session in the pool, before a competition when I want to conserve energy, or after a difficult night of sleep, to get back a quality of healing energy. In this position, the nervous system can soften deeply.
The breath becomes quiet without effort.
Combining Both
When transitioning from lying to seated practice, I recommend a gradual mix. For example, begin with a five-minute warm-up in a very easy interval while seated. Then, as you lengthen the interval, move into lying position. Over time, you can slowly increase the duration of seated meditation until the same interval feels accessible in both positions.
Both variations have their strengths. In the end, what matters most is your intention:
How do you feel?
What are you working towards to?
Do you need strength and activation — or restoration and conservation?
Why We Practice
We practice breathwork not just because it feels good — but because it changes us on multiple levels: physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual.
By working with the breath over time, we begin to melt away the layers we carry — tension, habitual holding patterns, subtle resistance that lives beneath awareness. These often hidden layers are not weaknesses, but adaptations our system learned for protection. When we soften into the breath and let those patterns gently release, something precious emerges: a quality of inner ease that goes beyond muscles and lungs (read more about it above). This isn’t just poetic — it aligns with measurable physiology.
Breathwork activates the parasympathetic nervous system — the body’s rest-and-digest response — through slow, intentional breathing that stimulates the vagus nerve, the primary pathway for calming the nervous system. Controlled breathing patterns have been shown to reduce stress hormones like cortisol, lower heart rate, and increase heart-rate variability, a key marker of resilience and nervous system balance. 🔗
Core Benefits
Improves lung capacity — deep, controlled breathing strengthens the respiratory system and enhances oxygen exchange. 🔗
Strengthens breath control — practicing intentional breathing develops efficiency, awareness, and ease with each inhale and exhale. 🔗
Lowers heart rate and stress hormones — slow, mindful breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, shifting the body from tension and panic to calm and balance. 🔗
Builds CO₂ tolerance — gradually increasing tolerance supports respiratory resilience and allows more effortless breath regulation.
Supports nervous system balance — trains the body to shift automatically into rest-and-digest mode, rather than staying stuck in fight-or-flight. This is a profound and subtle power of the practice.
Supports Recovery — promotes faster nervous system recovery from stress, tension, and fatigue. 🔗
Mental clarity and focus — steady, rhythmic breathing improves nervous system stability and cognitive balance. 🔗
Cultivates inner wellbeing and happiness — nurtures a deep sense of contentment and presence from within, rather than relying on external stimulants like sugar or other consumption-based pleasures.
Ego, Expectation, and the Subtle Feeling of Not Being Enough
There is something very subtle that meditation reveals. The ego. Comparison. The quiet feeling of not being enough. The more we want the meditation to feel calm, the less accessible it becomes. The more we expect, the less we get what we want.
This is one of the reasons meditation can feel so frustrating — for all of us. Really everyone!! And that is exactly why it is so powerful too to practice. To overcome this moments of frustration because that will have its effect on all areas of your life.
I started practicing in 2019. And still today, in my daily life, there are moments when I want to quit a 10-minute meditation after just a few minutes.
It is not truly me who wants to stop. It is my ego — not getting what it expected. Or it may be the conditioning of my system for quick, convenient rewards. The kind we receive instantly from consumption, from social media, from coffee, from sugar — from constant stimulation.
Meditation offers none of that. No immediate hit. No fast result.
Let me share a simple example. After a gentle warm-up with 10-second intervals, I plan to sit for 15 minutes with a 20-second breath rhythm. The last time I practiced 20 seconds, it felt amazing — soft, quiet, almost zen-like. So naturally, I or my ego is expecting something similar (even though I know this is not how it works!). But three minutes in, I feel tension. I feel restless. The meditation does not feel supportive — it feels uncomfortable. My mind starts searching for an exit.
“Maybe not today.” or “I can do it later.” or “It’s only 15 minutes.” or “Why is this so hard today?” It goes trying to sabotage me.
Sometimes even worst, when things come up from the direction of thinking of not being good enough, like:
“Why was it easy last time?”
"What is it with me, not being able to do the simplest of all things, just sitting and breathing"?
“Maybe I’m not as strong as I thought, as I should?!.”
It is fascinating how much a simple meditation can reveal. But if we are willing to listen with understanding, creating a distance between the though and our inner truth. At that point, something shifts. Observation begins. I realize: these are thoughts. Patterns, maybe fear, maybe loss of focus. But most important, this is not me! I wont let it define me, I wont let it come between my breath!
When You Think ‘Not Today’ — And Don’t Yet Know Your Best Meditation Is just ahead
Now comes the important part. I stop the meditation — but not to quit. I stop to adjust, to let go of that fight. To release and overcome resistance. Instead of challenging 20 seconds today, I reduce the interval to 15 seconds. And I continue.
Suddenly, there is space again. Lightness. The pressure dissolves because the expectation dissolves. The ego gets quiet. Competition is eliminated. After about 3-5 minutes, I am back in flow. Calm. Present. And then, naturally, I add five more minutes at 20 seconds — and it feels beautiful. Twenty minutes earlier, that felt completely inaccessible. Very often when we think that some things are just not available to us, we are in reality very very close where we want to be. But we are just not focused on the path we made already, instead we are too much focused on the little part that is left, that we did not quite yet manage. If we adjust just the right thing, we are there. If we manage to think rational instead of out of frustration. Imagine, you can be that invisible hand guiding you gently in this direction. With faith. That is the power of adjustment. That is what mindset is all about. Not giving up but make it yours instead.
From a therapeutic or physiological perspective, five seconds more or less do not make a real difference. But what changes health, mindset, quality of practice is consistency.
Doing something is 100% more than doing nothing. Writing this down feels irritating because it is so simple. But it is so true! When we quit we are at zero. Adjusting is growth. So next time meditation feels boring, challenging, frustrating — notice what your mind is doing.
Notice the old patterns — the voices of doubt that try to hold you back.They often appear as protection, trying to shield you from discomfort, or some whispering what others would do instead or what others want you to do.
Remember your truth. Your goal. Your vision. Continue. Adjust when needed. And continue.
The same applies to anything you truly want to pursue. What it may be changes — but the principle doesn’t. Whether it’s playing the piano, freediving, swimming. Your work. Your relationships. The form is replaceable. Your commitment is not.
Success is less about outcome. It is about presence and actively working towards that presence.
The question is only: What is it that YOU need right now in order to be present? To continue. It is up to you to create this environment. Be proactive. Take that responsibility for yourself.
It is not the interval, it is not the temperature or the time of the day. It is you who can adjust to the presence. Every time. Everywhere. When presence is there, the outcome follows naturally.
For high performance and for Life
For high competitive performance, this breathwork builds calm efficiency — preparing the body and mind with less tension and more control. Preparing the body for the flow state, that the unconcious can take over to do what needs to be done, without the interruption of overthinking, pressure or stress.
In everyday life, the practice creates balance and resilience. It trains the nervous system to shift out of fight-or-flight and into recovery and presence.
Breathing is simple. But when practiced with awareness, patience, and consistency, it becomes powerful. It creates space where stillness meets awareness. It relaxes the physiology while it softens the mind. It reveals depths of self-connection that go beyond thinking.
Give yourself time. Stay gentle. Trust the process.
📱 A helpful tool to support your practice is the Breathe+Meditation Timer app. I am using it since 2019, and until today it supported me already with more than 953 meditations.
📚 For deeper understanding: The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown and Breath by James Nestor both explore the science and practice of breath and CO₂ tolerance.
I truly hope you enjoyed this blog.
It is one of my favorite topics — I could talk and write about it for hours. Obviously, ahaha! Even though the meditation itself is very simple, so simple we can do it anywhere!
My intention with this blog is to give you practical guidance — a clear how-to — but also something more important: the encouragement to simply begin.
Find a way that feels natural. Find a rhythm you enjoy you have pleasure with.
Results will follow. Always.
If this blog moved something within you I love to hear from you. Feel free to send me a message or leave a comment. I’m genuinely curious about your experience.
🤍💚💙🤍
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