Breathwork: Easy Stress Relief for Type-A Gals
Everyone always talks about meditation as the cornerstone of stress management. And while it can be very impactful, for some women, trying to meditate brings on even more stress.
I find this is often the case for women who fit into the category of type-A, high-achieving, and deal with a high degree of anxiety every day. You might even feel addicted to stress. When your nervous system is constantly in fight-or-flight mode, sitting down just to be quiet and observe your thoughts can feel jarring.
Enter: breathwork 🫁
Breathwork is a stress-management tool that can feel more accessible than meditation, but produces many of the same results. In fact, with simple breathwork practices you can cut down on your overall feelings of stress in just five minutes a day- and sometimes in as few as 30 seconds!
In this post you’ll learn what breathwork is, why it works to lower your stress level, and how to get started doing it.
A few notes on my personal experience with breathwork…
Honestly, I struggled with meditation for years. I desperately wanted to be that person who was cool, calm, and collected, like a zen yoga teacher. I tried a couple 40-day meditation challenges, and usually couldn’t get past day seven. Meditation felt physically uncomfortable. My body would twitch and I’d even start feeling short of breath, like I was suffocating.
Ever experienced something similar?
Eventually I learned a couple simple breathwork practices, and it was transformative- one of the most important things that’s helped me get stress and anxiety under control. I started doing it in place of meditation because it felt ‘easier’ to focus on breathing and not worry about if my thoughts were wandering.
—> Similarly, I’ve found many of my clients in THRIVE who struggle with stress also find meditation challenging, and so breathwork is one of the top tools I share to help them lower stress. In fact, I’ve completed two breathwork certification programs to deepen my skills.
What is breathwork? (and what is it not?)
Lately, breathwork seems to be everywhere- social media, your local yoga studio. And the kind of breathwork you’ve probably seen in these places in not what I’m going to focus on in this blog post (we’ll save it for another day).
Essentially, we can split breathwork into two camps:
a) Cathartic breathwork: these breathwork practices tend to be longer (from 45 minutes up to 3 hours), done lying down, led by a facilitator, and usually involve activating your nervous system’s stress response (i.e. purposefully sending yourself into ‘fight-or-flight). These kinds of practices are helpful for training your nervous system to oscillate more freely between fight-or-flight and rest-and-digest, and they often help people overcome mindsets and habits keeping them stuck.
b) Everyday breathwork: these are simple practices that most people can do on their own. They’re usually short (30 seconds to 5-10 minutes) and easy to fit into your day for managing stress, helping you sleep, and even improving the quality of your breathing.
I am trained to facilitate both types (through the Whole Health Project and Soma + IQ) but what I’ll be focusing on below is the second kind- everyday breathwork- because it’s a tool you can start using on your own, today.
What Everyday breathwork does and why it works
In a nutshell, everyday breathwork helps regulate your nervous system. If you’re feeling burnt out and have a lot of stress in your life, your sympathetic nervous system (aka fight-or-flight response) is probably in the “on” position a lot of the time.
This can produce even more anxiety and lead to all sorts of health problems.
(See this blog post to learn more about how stress wrecks your health.)
Everyday breathwork, however, is a tool that helps you shift your nervous system back into the parasympathetic state, also known as ‘rest and digest’. Specifically, the act of breathing more slowly and extending your exhale (i.e. exhaling more slowly and for a longer time than you inhale) sends a message to your nervous system that you’re safe, and it triggers your fight-or-flight response to turn off.
It’s actually quite brilliant, when you think about it!
When you regularly practice this kind of everyday breathwork, you’ll find that over time, you’ll feel you’ll feel less anxious, more calm and in control, and better able to respond to stress. You may even see improved sleep, focus, and digestion.
WHEN CAN BREATHWORK help you DE-STRESS?
I’m a big advocate of establishing daily routines for managing stress, and making breathwork a part of that routine. For most busy women, this means inserting breathwork into your morning routine.
If you’re just starting out, commit to a small amount of time, maybe 2-3 minutes. I suggest this short amount of time because ultimately you want to build a daily habit and you’ll be more successful at doing that if you set yourself an achievable goal. When you’re ready, you can increase the time.
You can also use breathwork as a tool for remaining calm or regaining your calm in stressful situations. For example, there are simple breath practices you can use before a big meeting, or when you receive a dreaded email. In these situations, breath can improve your mood, your focus, and even your productivity.
In your non-work life, breath can be a great help, too! You can use your breath to remain calm (or calmer) during nearly any challenging situation. For example, when I’m out surfing and the waves are big, I’ll often use box breathing (described below) to calm down so I can surf better and avoid panicking.
Finally, just as breathwork can be an important part of your morning routine, it can also help you at the end of the day, to sleep better. Some breath practices, like belly breathing, can help you calm your body and mind so you can get to sleep.
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH everyday BREATHWORK
Ready to start experimenting with breathwork? Awesome. Here are a couple practices to try.
1️⃣ For a DAILY practice, try BELLY BREATHING for 2-5 minutes each morning or before you go to bed. Most of us don’t do this naturally- we breathe using just our chest. And when you breathe shallow like that, it actually adds to your feelings of stress and anxiety.
Belly breathing- also called diaphragmatic breathing- can be done standing or sitting, but it’s easiest to learn while lying down. So lie down in a comfortable place on your bed or the floor. Place a hand on your belly, below your ribs, and take a deep inhale through your nose. Focus on drawing your breath deep into your belly, so that your inhale actually pushes your hand outwards. Exhale through your nose and notice your belly contract. Repeat at a pace that feels comfortable.
*Note- the more you practice this, the more you’ll breath this way throughout the day.
2️⃣ When you’re in a moment of high stress or anxiety, try BOX BREATHING. Visualize a box or square in your mind. You’re going to breathe ‘around’ the box.
Inhale through your nose for a count of 4 and imagine moving along the top of the box, clockwise from left to right.
Hold your breath for 4 counts and visualize moving down the right side of the box.
Exhale through your nose for 4 and visualize moving along the bottom of the box, from right to left.
Then hold your lungs empty for a count of 4 and visualize moving up the side of the box, to where you started.
Repeat this as many times as feels comfortable or until you feel like you’ve returned to a state of calm.
I love teaching these kinds of breathing exercises to my coaching clients because they’re easy to do and can have such an incredible impact. You can also find countless breathwork practices on the Insight Timer app (it’s free).
and If you’re ready to leave chronic stress and burnout behind for good…
THRIVE may be your best next step.
THRIVE is my 1-1 burnout recovery coaching program for high-achieving women leaders. My clients learn how to use breathwork to deal with stress- and so much more.
You can learn more about THRIVE by clicking through below:
Or just grab a free Burnout Breakthrough Assessment: in ~45 minutes I’ll help you pinpoint the root causes of your burnout and craft a plan to move you forward.
