Breathwork for Emotional Healing: A Path Back to Feeling

I see you.

I see the version of you navigating the daily grind—the tasks, the emails, the constant motion. And I also see the deeper you, the one wondering if there’s more, if the heaviness will ever lift. The part of you asking:

“Is this all there is?”

If you’re experiencing emotional numbness, let me be clear: it’s not a flaw.

It’s your body’s way of protecting you when life feels overwhelming. This disconnection from sensation isn’t failure—it’s survival. Trauma specialists like Bessel van der Kolk remind us that trauma lives in the body, not just the mind. Reconnecting with your body is not optional—it’s essential to healing.

Realising What Was Running the Show

I recently started reading The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk. I expected a how-to guide on using the body’s intelligence and breath to work with internal heaviness. What I received was something else entirely.

This book shook me—brilliant, eye-opening, and brutally illuminating. It revealed just how much early life experiences were still running the show in my present. And not in ways I was proud of.

I’d long taken quiet pride in being “resilient,” but now I see that what I called resilience was often just well-disguised survival. And yet, I’m grateful for the book—it brought me back to something I already knew deep down: my story is one of unprocessed trauma, and my healing came through breathwork.

Breathing: A Path Back to Feeling

As a Breathwork Instructor, I’ve experienced firsthand how powerful breathwork is in reconnecting us with our bodies. I’ve walked the path of emotional shutdown and survival mode. Yoga, cognitive work, even plant medicine—I tried them all. But breathwork? That’s when everything clicked.

Conscious breathing became my bridge from numbness to feeling. It trained my nervous system to remember aliveness. It gently unlocked parts of me that had gone quiet.

Breathwork isn’t just inhale–exhale—it’s a conversation with the nervous system, a reconnection with sensation. Research confirms that controlled breathing lowers stress hormones, reduces heart rate, and supports a shift from sympathetic activation (fight or flight) to parasympathetic calm (Jerath et al., 2006). It awakens those quiet places within you.

Three Breath Practices to Gently Reconnect

Choose one that resonates. Let your breath be an invitation, not a demand. And please—check the breathwork precautions linked in the full Calm Kit before going beyond gentle techniques.

Coherence Breathing

(Balanced Nervous System Reset)

Inhale for 5 counts, exhale for 5. Repeat for five minutes.

This practice reorders a dysregulated nervous system and enhances heart rate variability, a marker of emotional resilience (Zaccaro et al., 2018).

Physiological Sigh

(Releasing Emotional Constriction)

Take a double inhale through the nose (short + deep), then exhale fully through the mouth.

Repeat 3–5 times.

This pattern helps clear emotional tension stored in the body. It’s a go-to for resetting your emotional baseline (Huberman, 2021).

Breathe and Touch

(Grounding Back into the Body)

Place one hand on your heart, one on your belly.

Breathe low, slow, and deep—no force. Let the exhale be slightly longer than the inhale.

This is presence.

This is safety.

This gentle touch and breath co-activate the vagus nerve, inviting in calm and connection (Porges, 2011).

You’re Healing—Even If It Doesn’t Feel Like It Yet

Numbness. Disconnection. Shutdown. These aren’t failures. They’re proof that your body knows how to protect you. Your nervous system did its job.

Healing isn’t about erasing your past. It’s about creating space for new experiences—for feeling again. Every breath, every pause, is a step back toward yourself.

You don’t need to force this. Go at your pace. Whether it’s therapy, reflection, or a 5-minute breathing practice, you’re doing it.

You’re alive.

You’re here.

And that’s more than enough.

Begin with the Free Calm Kit: Breathwork for Emotional Healing

To support your journey, I’ve created a Free Calm Kit—a gentle entry into breathwork and reconnection. It includes:

Three guided audios for grounding and nervous system regulation
A bonus audio explaining the science behind each technique
A downloadable PDF with simple breathing techniques for emotional resilience

You can download the Calm Kit today and start (or continue) your journey back to feeling fully alive—one breath at a time.

If you want support exploring breathwork for emotional healing, personal growth and wellness, I’d love to guide you. If you’re navigating deeper trauma, please seek support from a qualified therapist or trauma practitioner.