A picture of health

I’m sitting in a chair with a clip attached to my ear, breathing deeply.

I’m sitting in a chair with a clip attached to my ear, breathing deeply. Breathe in for five seconds, breathe out for five seconds. Imagine the air filling your upper chest, then slowly exhaling. After a couple of minutes, I am struggling to stay awake. Could this be the ultimate stress reliever?

“This is very interesting,” says Stefan Wisbauer, unclipping the earpiece, which was attached to a small laptop computer. The clip was used to monitor my heart rate, with the results displayed as a zigzag line on the PC. “See, this is when you were breathing normally.” The line is ragged and all over the place. “This is when you’re relaxed.” The graph is almost flatlining.

Wisbauer used the technique on a senior executive at McKinsey, the management consulting firm, who was seeking a way to combat jetlag. He wanted advice on how to maintain top cognitive performance in meetings that kick-off as soon as the plane lands.

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