An Introduction to
BREATHWORK
By changing how you breathe, you can influence how your body feels, responds, and recovers.
Breathwork is the conscious use of your breath to influence your physical, mental and emotional state. Your breathing is directly linked to your nervous system. The way you breathe can either signal stress (fight, flight or freeze) or safety (rest and digest). When we’re overwhelmed, our breath often becomes fast, shallow and irregular. This keeps the body in a constant state of alert.
Through breathwork, you learn how to change that. By slowing down your breath, improving your breathing patterns and working with longer exhales, you activate the parasympathetic nervous system — the part responsible for rest, recovery and digestion. This also stimulates the vagus nerve, which plays a key role in helping your body return to a calm and balanced state.
Breathing well is not about taking in more air. It’s about how your body uses oxygen. A more efficient breathing pattern can improve oxygen delivery to your tissues, support better circulation and increase your tolerance to carbon dioxide — which helps your system stay calm and stable, even under stress.
Rooted in ancient Eastern practices, breathwork has been used for centuries to support physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
Today, it is increasingly recognised as a simple and powerful tool for nervous system regulation.
Functional breathwork
Many of us no longer breathe in a supportive way. Stress, habits and the fast pace of daily life often lead to shallow or irregular breathing, which can influence how we feel, sleep, focus and recover.
Breathing is a skill that can be relearned. With regular and gentle exercises, healthier breathing patterns can be supported again. Slow and conscious breathing helps the nervous system find balance and gives the body a sense of safety. Over time, this makes it easier to return to a calm baseline, even when life becomes demanding.
This approach offers practical tools you can use independently in everyday situations, such as before important moments, during stress, to support sleep, or in movement and sports.
Benefits
- Lowering stress and anxiety levels in real-time
- Improving concentration and mental clarity
- Optimising sleep and physical recovery
- enhance focus, endurance and recovery in physical activity
- Developing awareness of your breathing patterns
- Creating a sense of safety, calm, and grounding
- Shift the body out of stress and survival mode
Working with the breath
Breathwork is not one single practice.
There are different ways to work with the breath, depending on what you need in a given moment. In my work, I distinguish between two complementary approaches.
Transformative breathwork
There is a deeper way of working with the breath that focuses on shifting your internal state rather than everyday regulation. This approach uses more intensive breathing patterns and longer guided sessions.
During these practices, many people notice that the thinking and controlling part of the mind becomes quieter. Attention shifts out of constant analysing and more into feeling. This can support a deeper connection to the body, emotions and inner perception.
Transformative breathwork is not about forcing release. It is about creating space for what is ready to move. For some, this supports emotional processing or the release of stored tension and stress held in the body. For others, it brings clarity, insight or a sense of reset.
Because this form of breathwork can strongly influence the nervous system, it is always approached with care, guidance and respect for individual capacity.
Benefits
- calming mental overactivity and overthinking
- reconnecting with your body and inner experience
- releasing stored tension and stress patterns
- supporting emotional processing and trauma release in a safe and guided setting
- accessing presence, clarity or a sense of flow
- experiencing a physical and emotional reset
Both approaches are complementary. While functional breathing builds a stable foundation for the nervous system, guided sessions offer space for deep exploration and internal shifts. Together, they form a holistic way to work with your energy, focus and wellbeing.
Interested in exploring how breathwork can support you? Join a session to dive deeper into your own practice.
Trial exercise
Curious to experience the power of your breath?
Give the following functional breathwork exercises a try and feel the difference
Calm Down & Reset
Use this practice when you feel stressed or overwhelmed. It quickly signals safety to your nervous system.
- Pause and sit comfortably
- Take 5 deep breaths: in through the nose & out through the mouth
- Inhale slowly through your nose for 4
- Exhale softly through your nose for 6 or 8
- Repeat for 2 minutes and feel your system settling
Energy & Focus Boost
Try this when you need an alert state. It activates your body and clears your mind.
- Sit or stand tall and alert
- Take 5 deep breaths: in through the nose & out through the mouth
- inhale quick and powerful through the nose and exhale relaxed through the nose
- Continue for 30–60 seconds for a clear boost