What is Formula.life?

A conscious breathing method for a mind that won’t switch off. You breathe in seven groups of seven — forty-nine breaths — while counting and carrying a quiet syllable, so your attention has a job to do and racing thoughts have no room to run. It’s free to learn and practise.

People whose minds won’t switch off — overthinkers, high performers, and many people with ADHD or an OCD-type mind who can’t stop the loops or the mental noise. Feodor built it living with his own ADHD and OCD, so it’s shaped for exactly that kind of mind. It isn’t a treatment and doesn’t replace care — if you’re doing therapy such as ERP for OCD, keep it, and let this sit alongside it.

Instead of fighting a thought, it gives your attention a structured task — breath, count, inner sound, body sense and keeping your place — all timed to the breath. Holding several of these at once leaves little capacity for a worry to build into a story. You can’t think your way out of a loop, so you change the task instead.

Is it the same as meditation?

No. Most meditation asks you to sit quietly and watch your thoughts. For a busy mind that open space often gets louder, not calmer. Formula does the opposite — it hands the mind an active, structured job. That’s why it often works for people who say they can’t meditate.

Yes. The practice is free to learn and do, and always will be. The paid options are live one-to-one sessions with Feodor, for people who want to go further.

Can it help with anxiety, ADHD or overthinking?

Many people with ADHD, an OCD-type mind, anxiety or relentless overthinking find it genuinely helps — Feodor created it living with his own ADHD and OCD. That’s lived and reported experience, not a medical claim: it’s a breathing and attention practice, not a treatment or cure. If you’re in treatment, keep it — this sits alongside care, it doesn’t replace it.

How long does it take, and do I need anything?

A few minutes. The full practice is forty-nine breaths, and you need nothing but yourself — you can learn it free here and eventually do it anywhere, with just your own breath.

Buteyko method · practice tool

Buteyko

control pause · breathe light · measure again

Buteyko is simple to explain and hard to practise alone.

Here you get the clock, the cues and a daily log: measure your control pause, breathe light for 3 minutes, measure again — and watch the number grow over weeks.

Measure your control pause The daily plan

Buteyko Breathing Method — Certified Instructor badge Guided by Feodor Kouznetsov, certified Buteyko Method instructor

Practice

Control pause → breathe light → measure again

Sit upright and breathe through your nose. Press play, follow one calm breath, pinch your nose and tap when you feel the first urge to breathe.

Sit, don’t stand. Not after a meal. Stop at the first clear urge — this is not a max hold.

The method

Three habits, one number

Dr Konstantin Buteyko noticed that many people breathe more than they need. The method retrains the breath to be smaller, slower and through the nose — and uses one number to track it.

Nose, always

Day and night, at rest and on walks. The nose filters, warms and slows the air.

Breathe less

Softer, quieter breathing with a light air hunger raises your tolerance to CO₂ over time.

Measure

The control pause — seconds from a normal exhale to the first urge — shows how you breathe at rest.

What your number means

Measure in the morning, before coffee and exercise. The trend over weeks matters more than any single day.

under 10 s

Very low

Often heavy, fast breathing at rest. Practise gently and often.

10–20 s

Low

Very common. Nose breathing and breathe-light sessions help most here.

20–40 s

Good

Calmer breathing, better sleep for many. Keep the daily routine.

40 s +

Excellent

Buteyko’s goal for a healthy adult. Maintain it with light practice.

Guidance ranges used by Buteyko teachers, not a medical test.

Daily plan

Twenty minutes a day

Most people who stall with Buteyko skip the measuring or stop after a week. Keep it small and daily.

Morning: measure your control pause and note it (the tool keeps a log).
Breathe light for 3–5 minutes, rest 1 minute. Repeat 2–3 times.
Measure again — a few seconds higher is normal after a good session.
During the day: nose only, including slow walks. Notice when you sigh or yawn and swallow instead.
Evening: one more short set, well before sleep or at least 2 hours after a meal.

Rule of thumb: when the control pause rises, symptoms tend to ease. Give it 3–6 weeks.

How to breathe light

This is the heart of the method and the part people get wrong.

Sit upright, relaxed. One hand on the chest, one on the belly.
Breathe through the nose. Let each breath get a little smaller and slower.
Aim for a light, tolerable air hunger — the feeling that you’d like a bit more air.
Keep it calm. If your breath becomes jerky or you tense up, take a short rest.

Signs you’re doing it right: warm hands, more saliva, a calm mind.

Breathe light · 3 min

Two classic extras

Unblock the nose

After a normal exhale, pinch your nose and gently nod or walk until you feel a moderate air hunger. Release and breathe calmly through the nose. Repeat a few times with rests.

Nose breathing at night

Many Buteyko teachers use a light paper tape over the lips at night. Only if you breathe easily through your nose — skip it with sleep apnoea, nausea or after alcohol, and ask your doctor if unsure.

Why practise with this tool

An honest clock

No counting in your head, no guessing. One tap at the first urge.

Guided breathing light

Cues keep you soft and steady for 3 minutes — the part most people rush.

A log that stays with you

Your last measurements live in this browser, so you see the trend.

Buteyko Breathing Method — Certified Instructor badge

From a Buteyko instructor

I have practised the Formula for about an hour a day since 2016 — it gave me focus, a clear head and a way out of thought loops. In 2020 I trained as a Buteyko instructor, and my instructor told me: you’re breathing wrong, fix this first. Outside my practice I was hyperventilating all day — in meetings, on the phone — a terrible mouth breather. Buteyko fixed my everyday breathing and gave me the physiology behind what I had felt in the Formula for years. The control pause is still the best way I know to measure how you breathe at rest. This tool is how I wish I had practised back then.

Feodor Kouznetsov · certified Buteyko instructor · creator of Formula.life · author of “Let’s Get Some Air”

Next step, when your control pause is steady: Holdfire — the counted breath hold →

Questions

What is the control pause?

The number of seconds you can comfortably hold your breath after a normal exhale, until the first clear urge to breathe. It is not a maximum hold — the next breath should be calm.

Why should I breathe out normally, not fully?

The test measures your resting state. A big exhale or a big breath before it changes the result.

How fast does the control pause grow?

It varies. With daily practice many people see a few seconds’ gain within weeks. Bad sleep, stress, heavy meals and mouth breathing push it down.

Can I practise Buteyko with asthma?

UK asthma guidelines recommend breathing-exercise programmes as an add-on to medication. Keep taking your medication and talk to your doctor before changing anything.

Is it the same as a breath-hold challenge?

No. Buteyko is about gentle, reduced breathing at rest. Long holds belong to a separate practice such as Holdfire, and only once your control pause is steady.

Do I need a teacher?

You can start alone with this tool. A teacher helps if you have a medical condition, a very low control pause, or stall for weeks.

Safety

Buteyko is gentle, but please read this.

Do not practise in water, while driving, or standing where you could fall.
Avoid strong air hunger if you are pregnant or have heart disease, high blood pressure, epilepsy, kidney disease or diabetes type 1 — ask your doctor first.
Never stop or reduce medication without your doctor.
Stop if you feel dizzy, anxious or unwell. Breathe normally.

This page is educational. It is not medical advice.

New · Holdfire, the breath-hold practice →

Support

Keep it free — and unlock the Advanced Formulas + Holdfire

Formula.life is free, and it stays free. If it has helped you, a small gift keeps it alive — and as a thank-you I’ll send you the six Advanced Formulas: for deep sleep, for paradoxical thinking, and four I’ve never written down anywhere else — plus Holdfire Part II, the advanced breath-hold programme.

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