Five breaths that work at your desk
You do not need a mat to use the most portable thing yoga teaches. Five breath practices, each under two minutes, each deployable mid-meeting without anyone noticing.
The long exhale. Breathe in for four counts, out for six. The extended exhale nudges your nervous system toward its calm setting. Three rounds before a hard conversation changes the conversation.
The box. In for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four. Four rounds. Borrowed by everyone from surgeons to snipers because it works. Use it when the inbox wins.
The physiological sigh. Two quick inhales through the nose, one long sigh out through the mouth. The fastest reset we know for a spike of stress, and you only need one or two.
The shoulder drop. Inhale, lift your shoulders to your ears, hold for two, exhale and let them fall. Desk shoulders live two inches higher than they should. Three rounds relocates them.
The one-minute count. Set a timer for sixty seconds and simply count your breaths. Most people get six to nine. The counting is the practice; the number does not matter.
Want the full toolkit with a teacher walking you through it? That is the Breath workshop, run quarterly in Santa Cruz and online, and Desk Undone in the online library is ten-minute versions of exactly this, made for working days.