The one automatic system you can grab the wheel of.
Your heart, your hormones, your digestion — all automatic, none of them yours to touch. Your breathing is the exception: automatic until you decide otherwise. That makes it the fastest way to tell a stressed-out nervous system it's safe to stand down. This is where you test your breathing, learn to shift it down when you're running too hot, and build the drills that make the calm stick.
Created by Dr. Justus Kauffman · Founder of Auxoma
When the nervous system isn't your main focus this season, this is all it takes to keep it from sliding backward.
Your nervous system runs in two gears. Most people are stuck in the wrong one — and they don't calm down with willpower. The system doesn't respond to logic. It responds to inputs. Breathing is the most powerful input you can control.
And here's the part almost nobody knows: that urge to breathe when you hold your breath isn't your body running out of oxygen — it's carbon dioxide building up. CO₂ is the alarm. Train your tolerance to it and you widen the gap between "uncomfortable" and "panic." You get calmer, and you actually deliver more oxygen where it's needed.
You don't white-knuckle your way to calm. You shift your breathing down — and the nervous system shifts with it.
Equal counts: breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold. Set the count to whatever you can hold a steady, controlled rhythm at — start at 4. The goal isn't to go the longest; it's consistent control. As your control grows, the count grows with it. Conscious practice now so the calm shows up in your unconscious life later.
How to do it: lying down, breathing only through your nose, following the ring. In as it grows, hold as it pauses, out as it shrinks, hold at the bottom. Range: 2 seconds (start) up to 8 (strong control).
You can't manage what you don't measure. These two tell you where your breathing actually stands — do them at rest, before you've worked out or caffeinated.
Sitting or lying at rest, tap once for every full breath (in + out). It'll count for 60 seconds.
~10–14 = your target · <10 = very controlled (fine in practice) · 15+ = elevated, an over-breathing pattern to work on.
Body Oxygen Level Test — a breath-hold measure of your CO₂ tolerance and breathing control.
20s = the goal · 30s+ = elite · 10–19s = below target, keep practicing · <10s = well below target, big opportunity.
Breathing shifts you in both directions, and knowing which way to go is the whole skill. Most people, most of the time, need to come down — that's your daily maintenance. Only reach for the rev-up lane when your energy is genuinely low — never when you're already anxious or wired.
Equal in–hold–out–hold, lying down, nose only. The steadier and longer you can hold the rhythm, the more control you've built. Your nightly minimum.
Almost everyone walks around too inhaled — over-inflated and stuck up in the chest. This resets that. Start by blowing out all the birthday candles — twice.
Train the full range so your system keeps its options. Same position — lying on your back — practice one of two ways:
Concept from Andreo Spina, founder of Functional Range Conditioning.
A fast alertness spike when you're flat and need to switch on — before a task or a workout.
The classic energizer — a clean lift for the afternoon slump without reaching for caffeine.
The gentlest of the five — the activating mirror of a calming sigh. Good anytime you want a small hit of alertness.
Brief, deliberate over-breathing that ramps you up and sets up a breath-hold — the Wim Hof–style ramp from Chapter 6. This is a full session, not a quick pick-me-up, and it's the one most worth learning on video with a voice guiding the pace.
Empty-lung holds that build the CO₂ tolerance we covered in Chapter 6 — the direct way to widen the gap between "uncomfortable" and "panic."
Maintenance holds this pillar steady while you work another. Make it your plot and the breath work gets loud.
Run the BOLT and breaths-per-minute tests. Honest baseline.
Stuck in stray-dog mode? Make this your plot.
Expansile by day, box breathing at night. The floor.
Every calm rep is a vote for a regulated system.
Re-test in 4–6 weeks — watch your BOLT climb.
Full video walkthroughs of max expansile breathing and safe breath-hold / Wim Hof practice live in the Auxoma community — the pieces that are hard to learn from text alone. Here's where to keep going:
Join the free Auxoma community for the breathing videos and coaching — with a low-cost membership when you want the full follow-along. Local to Wichita and stuck in a gear you can't shift out of? Come see our team.
You've got your hand on the gear shift — now use it.
This guide is educational and not a substitute for medical care. Breathing drills — especially breath holds and fast breathing — carry risk; do them safely as described, stop if you feel unwell, and check with a qualified professional if any of the cautions above apply to you.