My Friend Breath Picture Book
This beautifully illustrated picture book uses storytelling to introduce mindful breathing as a simple and effective way to manage emotions and build resilience.
Through relatable characters and familiar moments, children learn how to comfort sad, calm mad, soothe scared, and boost happy feelings—using the power of their friend Breath.
My Friend Breath is more than just a book, it’s an interactive experience. With four superhero breathing patterns woven into the story, it turns reading time into a playful and practical way to help children feel the magic of mindful breathing.
Change Your Breath, Change Your Emotion
In My Friend Breath, children are introduced to the simple say-and-do game—our core strategy for managing emotions through mindful breathing. This evidence-based approach helps a child understand when, why, what, and how to use their breath to change the way they feel, anytime, anywhere.
Each emotion in the book is paired with a specific breathing pattern. These patterns are thoughtfully designed, and backed by science, to help children change their emotional state in an effective and supportive way.
Whether it’s restoring calm, finding balance, or encouraging uplifting feelings, My Friend Breath offers a playful, practical approach to emotional-regulation through mindful breathing.
Ideal for ages 3–8+, this story helps adults and children build a shared strategy for navigating feelings. One that builds trust, strengthens relationships, and creates a supportive environment wherever children learn, play, or connect.
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Introducing our Four Foundational Breaths
The four breathing patterns in this book are our foundational breaths, each intentionally paired with a specific emotion to help children change their emotional state in a supportive and effective way.
We recommend watching the demonstration videos together before reading the story and playing say-and-do, so your child feels confident joining in and practicing each breath when prompted throughout the story.
The butterfly breath comforts sad feelings.
This breath uses a slow, steady rhythm and gentle tapping to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, helping children self-soothe and release feelings of sadness.
The kettle breath calms mad feelings.
The long exhale creates a sense of space and calm, helping release tension and anger. It also activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which settles the body’s stress response.
The starfish breath soothes scared feelings.
Slow, steady breathing helps calm the nervous system by shifting the body from "fight or flight" to "rest and digest." The gentle finger-tracing adds a soothing sensory element, reducing stress hormones and promoting a sense of calm and well-being.
The humming breath boosts happy feelings.
Humming releases feel-good hormones like dopamine and oxytocin, helping to spark feelings of happiness and support overall well-being. The gentle vibrations that flow through a child’s mind and body while humming can lift their mood and enhance their well-being.
Let’s explore the My Friend Breath Picture Book
Learning that their breath can be their friend, is the first step in developing a child's mindful breathing practice.
Our picture book establishes this friendship connection, by helping your child get to know their breath, play with it and call it by its name, my friend Breath.
In this story Ash teaches the skill of breath awareness, by describing how their breath changes when they feel different emotions.
'When I feel sad, I gasp and stutter as I breathe because my friend Breath is sad too.'
By developing their breath awareness your child will learn to make the link between their emotions and their breath.
Superheroes teach children to believe in themselves and to trust their own abilities.
My Friend Breath empowers children with the knowledge and understanding that they too can be a superhero, when they use their superpower - their breath!
Believing in the magical power of their friend Breath gives a child confidence that they can manage their emotions and handle anything that comes their way, like a true superhero!
Our vision is to impact children all around the world, because mindful breathing can help anyone, anytime, anywhere.
This is why we have included a diverse range of characters from across different races inside My Friend Breath.
In addition, the main character Ash, is purposefully not gendered, to allow readers to identify with them however they choose.
Breath awareness is self-awareness. Ash demonstrates this skill in the moments where they notice their breath has changed. With an 'Ah-ha!' they acknowledge their breath sounds or feels different.
With the use of nonsense words we capture children's attention that something is not quite right. Helping them to understand they too can notice when their breathing is interrupted by different emotions.
In MFB your child is introduced to the 'Say-and-Do’ Game, the core strategy we use to teach emotional-regulation and resilience.
Saying the MFB catch-cry “When I change the way I’m breathing, I change the way I’m feeling” gives a child the language they need to set the intention to change their emotional state.
While the four mindful breathing patterns empower a child with what to do to calm their sad, mad, and scared feelings, and help happy feelings to come their way.
The superhero badge appears throughout the story and prompts your child to practice each of the superhero breathing patterns.
Descriptions for each of the breathing patterns are provided at the back of the book, so as not to interrupt the flow of the story.
This includes written descriptions and video demonstration links. In the audio flipbook format children are guided to practice the breaths along with Ash.
After playing the say-and-do game each character in the book becomes a superhero, because they used their superpower to change the way they were feeling, by changing the way they were breathing.
This teaches your child how they too can be a superhero, by using their superpower, their friend Breath, to play say-and-do.
The book ends showing the characters in a range of life experiences where uncomfortable feelings may arise.
The coloured superhero suits reflect each child's awareness of their emotional state. The breathing icon empowers them to use the skill of mindful breathing to change how they feel. This helps your child to understand they too can self-regulate and manage difficult emotions, anytime, anywhere.
Created by a mother and daughter team with a combined 45 years of experience teaching emotional-regulation.
G'day, I'm Meg Gillespie 👋🏼
I'm a teacher, published author, Breathwork & EFT enthusiast, and a passionate advocate for social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools. I was inspired to pass on my knowledge of the breath to my grandchildren through storytelling. This led to the creation of the My Friend Breath books and resources.
Hi there, I'm Kelsey Corey 👋🏼
I'm an Emotional Fitness Coach and EFT Practitioner at Energy For Impact and I live by the motto 'health is wealth'. For me, it is pure joy to be working alongside my beloved mother Meg, and bringing the My Friend Breath series to life. Knowing that by doing so we are helping children around the world to strengthen their emotional fitness!
Frequently Asked Questions
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This book empowers your child with the words and actions they need to navigate their emotions, anytime, anywhere, by introducing them to the say-and-do game. This simple game is the core strategy we use to teach emotional-regulation and resilience skills.
The beautiful illustrations in our picture book create an engaging experience for your child to explore and learn about their emotions. While the detailed images help your child to empathize and identify with the real life experiences of the characters.
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Children who need a simple strategy to regulate their emotions and build their resilience.
Parents, carers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, and other adults who are invested in nurturing a child’s emotional well-being.
Schools and Early Childhood Education Services - places that are committed to teaching children self-regulation skills.
Health professionals, such as therapists and councillors, who are supporting children through managing uncomfortable emotions.
Health services such as hospitals, medical practices, or dental clinics. Places that understand the importance of helping children navigate emotional experiences.
Libraries and community centres. Places where sharing this self-calming strategy can positively impact many children and their families.
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Our recommended age for the My Friend Breath Picture Book is 3 - 8+ years old.
How your child receives the information will depend on their age and maturity. However, we suggest the earlier you teach your child mindful breathing the sooner they will learn how to use their breath to regulate their emotions.
This book is a timeless lesson in self-regulation and resilience that you can read throughout childhood.
We find that adults also enjoy and benefit from the breathing strategies offered.
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My Friend Breath is designed to empower children with our core strategy for self-regulation and resilience, the say-and-do game.
At the base of this strategy are our four breathing patterns.
The instructions and links to video demonstrations of these patterns has been included at the end of the book.
This is because, once a breathing pattern is learned, there isn’t a need to revisit the instructional text often.
So moving it to the back of the book ensures that a read-along is a smooth flow between the story and practicing the breathing patterns.
We suggest you learn and practice the superhero breathing patterns for yourself, prior to sharing the book with your child. So you can teach each pattern easily without needing to refer to the instructions.
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In the superhero breathing pattern descriptions we suggest that your child does each breathing pattern five times and then pauses to notice how they feel.
If they need to, they can continue doing the breathing pattern until they feel calm, and their friend Breath feels calm too.
The time it takes to change how they feel can vary from day to day, experience to experience.
So it is important to encourage your child to continue to use their superhero breathing if, after pausing to check in, they are still experiencing the uncomfortable emotion.
We love our amazing community of superheroes!
It is a joy to share the magic of the breath with children, families, and communities around the world.
We are grateful to do so through our My Friend Breath resources, as well as in-person, and virtual author visits.
Join us as we celebrate our amazing superhero community!