It's true that Navy SEALs use box breathing (the technique was named and popularized by Mark Divine, a retired SEAL commander, around 2006) — but 'reduces stress exponentially' is sellable phrasing with no measurement behind it.

noli's read

The military origin isn't invented: Mark Divine named and spread 'box breathing' during SEAL candidate training, even though the breathing pattern itself (equal-count inhale, hold, exhale, hold) is ancient pranayama, not a military invention. The problem is the word 'exponentially': no study measures an 'exponential' stress reduction, and the direct comparisons available (a 2023 Stanford trial in Cell Reports Medicine, and a 2025 comparison of box, 4-7-8, and plain slow breathing) show box breathing isn't superior to ordinary slow breathing — it's the slowed rate that matters, not the specific box pattern, and no tested group showed a significant change in heart-rate variability. The 'used by a military elite under pressure' framing works as an appeal to authority more than as evidence: that doesn't make the technique useless, but it also doesn't make it superior to the other slow-breathing techniques already covered in this batch. Verdict: exaggerated — the technique itself is sound, but the promise of an 'exponential' effect and the implication of superiority from its military use go beyond what the direct comparisons show.

the sources

1. 1Zaccaro A et al. 2018