Box Breathing for the Chronically Online
Four counts in, four held, four out, four empty. A square to stand on when the feed won't stop moving. Taught by an ex-line cook who understands rush hours.
Soma · A breathwork & rest studio · Echo Park, Los Angeles
Do less, better.
Fifty-minute classes in breathing, resting, and being a person again. No mirrors, no metrics, no burn. Just warm floors, wool blankets, and the one exercise you were born knowing.
Inhale
4 in · 4 hold · 6 out
Philosophy
The body keeps the schedule.
Every studio in this city wants to optimize you. We would like to unsubscribe you. SOMA was built on a suspicion that most of us don't need another practice to master — we need permission to stop mastering things.
So our rooms are warm and dim. Phones sleep in a wool basket by the door. Nobody counts your streak, because there is no streak. There is only the next breath, which — good news — your body has already started without you.
"You've been breathing your whole life. Come do it on purpose for fifty minutes."
We teach slow physiology, not performance. Down-regulation, long exhales, real rest. The kind of work that looks, from the outside, like nothing at all. Doing less, better — that's the whole method.
Classes
Six ways to come down.
Every class ends in silence and starts with tea. Mats, blankets, and bolsters live here so you don't have to carry anything but yourself.
The Long Exhale
An evening class built around one idea: the exhale is where the day lets go of you. Candlelit, slow, and over before you're ready for it to be.
Lying Down Club
Guided rest under weighted wool. Not a nap, but nobody will check. Forty-five minutes of doing the thing your calendar has been protecting you from.
Coherence, Slowly
Five and a half breaths a minute — the rhythm your heart has been requesting for years. Gentle pacing work with a physiologist who adores your vagus nerve.
First Breath
Fundamentals, for people who suspect they've been breathing wrong since 2009. You haven't. Mostly. Come find out what your ribs are for.
The Sunday Sit
Seventy-five unhurried minutes: breath, rest, tea, and nowhere to be. The week can wait in the car. It always does.
Teachers
The people who will tell you to slow down.
June Okafor
Founder
Fifteen years of teaching people to stop trying so hard. Voice like a dimmer switch.
Sam Reyes
Box breathing
Former line cook. Teaches breath like mise en place — everything in its place, including you.
Marguerite Boone
Rest & NSDR
Runs Lying Down Club. Believes rest is a skill, not a reward for finishing everything.
Theo Lindqvist
Coherence
Physiologist. Will explain your nervous system until you're on speaking terms with it.
Schedule
This week at SOMA.
| Day | 7:30 AM | 12:15 PM | 6:30 PM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | First Breath | Box Breathing | The Long Exhale |
| Tuesday | Coherence, Slowly | Lying Down Club | Box Breathing |
| Wednesday | First Breath | Box Breathing | The Long Exhale |
| Thursday | Coherence, Slowly | Lying Down Club | The Long Exhale |
| Friday | First Breath | Box Breathing | Lying Down Club |
| Saturday | Coherence, Slowly | The Long Exhale | rest |
| Sunday | rest | The Sunday Sit | rest |
Doors open fifteen minutes early, and there's tea after every class. Drop in, or hold a mat with any membership — classes cap at fourteen people. The room prefers it that way.
Membership
Pay for less. Get more of it.
The Visit
$28 / class
- Any single class, no strings
- Mat, blanket & bolster included
- Tea. Obviously.
Most loved
The Practice
$110 / month
- Eight classes a month
- One guest pass — bring a tense friend
- Sunday rest room access
- Pause anytime. We mean it.
The Resident
$185 / month
- Unlimited classes
- Rest room, any day it's open
- The good tea cabinet
- First mat at The Sunday Sit
Overheard at the tea table
People, exhaling.
"I fell asleep in Lying Down Club and nobody made it weird."Dana R."My watch thought I died. Five stars."Priya M."The first place that ever told me to try less."Marcus T."I came for the breathing. I stayed for the wool blankets."Elise K."Fifty minutes without my phone and I remembered my own opinions."Jordan W."I exhaled a meeting from March."Sofia L.