Breathwork is the practice of consciously controlling breathing patterns to influence the autonomic nervous system, which controls heart rate, digestion, stress response, and recovery. It combines ancient pranayama techniques with modern neuroscience.

Functional breathing (nasal, diaphragmatic, slow-paced) is generally safe for most people. Intensive practices (rhythmic breathing, retention, hyperventilation-based techniques) have contraindications and should not be practiced if you are pregnant, have uncontrolled high blood pressure, history of seizures, severe cardiovascular disease, or serious mental health conditions without professional support.

How does breathwork affect the nervous system?

Controlled breathing patterns directly influence the autonomic nervous system by shifting between sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) states. This can lower cortisol, improve heart rate variability (HRV), activate the vagus nerve, and create measurable changes in stress response and recovery.

What is Breathwork?

Ancient practice.

Modern neuroscience.

Your most accessible tool for nervous system regulation.

Breathwork isn't new.

Pranayama has existed for thousands of years.

What's changed is our understanding of why it works.

We now know that conscious breathing directly influences your autonomic nervous system—the system controlling heart rate, digestion, stress response, and recovery.

This is physiology without the mysticism.

And it's the foundation of everything I teach.

How Breathwork Actually Works

Your autonomic nervous system has two modes:

Sympathetic (fight or flight): High alert, stress response, survival mode.

Parasympathetic (rest and digest): Recovery, repair, calm.

Most people spend most of their time in sympathetic activation—running on adrenaline, shallow breathing, always "on."

Breathwork gives you direct access to shift states.

Controlled breathing patterns:

Lower cortisol and blood pressure - Increase oxygen to the brain
Trigger endorphin release
Activate the vagus nerve (your primary regulation pathway)
Create measurable changes in heart rate variability (HRV)

Recent research from Cambridge University confirmed what ancient practitioners knew: specific breathing techniques measurably shift your nervous system toward parasympathetic dominance—the state where deep relaxation, emotional regulation, and recovery happen.

This isn't about relaxation apps or five minutes of calm. It's about training your system to regulate on command.

What Actually Happens in a Session

Breathwork sessions vary depending on what you need.

Sometimes we're correcting basic mechanics—teaching your body to breathe through your nose instead of your mouth, or training your diaphragm to do the work your shoulders have been doing.

Other times we go deeper—using rhythm and retention to shift your nervous system into states it hasn't accessed in years.

Here's what the different approaches do:

Techniques/Schools I draw from:

Functional Breathing

Correcting dysfunctional patterns

Nasal breathing

CO2 tolerance

Intermittent Hypoxia Training

Rhythmic breathing
Breath retention
Euphoric states
Emotional release

Coherence & Resilience Training

Correcting dysfunctional patterns

Nasal breathing

CO2 tolerance

Depending on what you need—regulation for performance, deep emotional work, or foundational mechanics—we use different combinations.

Here's what the techniques actually do (hover for more information):

Functional Breathing (Mechanics)

Most people breathe wrong.

Mouth breathing, shallow chest breathing, chronic over-breathing.

This creates a baseline of low-grade stress—your body thinks you're escaping a threat when you're just sitting at a desk.

We start by correcting the fundamentals:

Nasal breathing (filters, warms, regulates air intake)
Diaphragmatic breathing (engages your primary breathing muscle)
Slower breathing rate (signals safety to your nervous system)

This is the foundation everything else builds on.

Vagus Nerve Activation (Regulation)

The vagus nerve is your body's main regulation pathway—it connects your brain to your heart, lungs, and gut.

When you do extended exhales, vocal toning, or specific breathing patterns, you stimulate the vagus nerve.

This shifts you out of fight-or-flight and into rest-and-digest.

You can feel this in real time: heart rate slows, jaw unclenches, shoulders drop.

This isn't relaxation. It's regulation. You're training your nervous system to shift on command.

Rhythmic Breathing (State Shifting)

Once the mechanics are solid, we use rhythm to shift states.

Controlled, rhythmic breathing patterns—inhale for a count, exhale for a count, sometimes with retention—create measurable changes in your nervous system.

This can:

Activate your parasympathetic nervous system (calm, recovery mode)
Trigger endorphin release (natural pain relief, mood elevation)
Create altered states of consciousness (not mystical—neurochemical)

You're not "raising your vibration." You're changing your blood chemistry and brainwave patterns in ways that produce specific physiological and psychological effects.

Guided Awareness (Integration)

Breathing techniques create the conditions. Awareness makes it stick.

During sessions, I guide attention to what's happening in your body—where tension lives, how your system responds to different patterns, what changes when you regulate.

This builds interoceptive accuracy: your ability to sense what's happening inside your body and respond appropriately.

Most people are terrible at this. They're numb to their internal state until it's screaming.

Breathwork with guided awareness trains you to notice early—and shift before you're in crisis.

Breath Retention (Building Capacity)

Holding your breath after an inhale or exhale—when done properly—isn't about willpower.

It's about increasing your CO2 tolerance.

Most people think they need more oxygen. What they actually need is to tolerate more carbon dioxide—because CO2 is what triggers oxygen release at the cellular level.

Higher CO2 tolerance means:

Better oxygen delivery to tissues
Increased resilience under stress
Ability to stay calm when pressure hits

This is measurable. We can test it. And we can improve it.

Note: Retention work has contraindications. Done improperly or with certain health conditions, it's unsafe.

Emotional Release (What Happens When You Stop Controlling)

Sometimes during deep breathwork, emotions surface—grief, anger, fear, joy.

This isn't random.

Your body stores unprocessed emotion as tension.

When you regulate deeply, that tension releases. And with it, whatever was held there.

I don't make this happen. I create conditions where it can happen safely if it needs to.

Not every session includes emotional release.

But when it does, it's usually what the person needed most.

Why I Don't Use One Method

SOMA Breath creates deep transformational experiences—accessing altered states, releasing stored emotion, building resilience through rhythmic breathing and retention work.

Oxygen Advantage corrects the mechanics—how you actually breathe day to day. Most people are chronically over-breathing through their mouths. This creates a cascade of issues from poor sleep to anxiety to performance limitations.

HeartMath trains cardiac coherence—the measurable synchronization between heart rhythm and nervous system state. This is how you build sustainable regulation capacity.

I don't separate these. Your nervous system doesn't care about methodology labels. It responds to what works.

Some days you need mechanics (fix your breathing).

Some days you need deep regulation (vagal activation).

Some days you need transformation (rhythm + retention).

I meet you where you are and use what works.

The Research

The science on breathwork is growing rapidly.

Studies show that controlled breathing patterns can:

Shift autonomic nervous system balance toward parasympathetic dominance (Gerritsen & Band, 2018)
Reduce cortisol and improve HRV in as little as 20 days (Zaccaro et al., 2018)
Improve emotional regulation and reduce anxiety symptoms (Ma et al., 2017)
Enhance cognitive performance under stress (Laborde et al., 2022)

Recent work from Cambridge University and other institutions continues to validate what practitioners have observed: intentional breathing creates measurable physiological and psychological changes.

This isn't fringe. It's increasingly mainstream neuroscience and psychophysiology.

SAFETY & CONTRAINDICATIONS

Important: When Not to Do Breathwork

Breathwork is powerful. That means it's not appropriate for everyone in all circumstances.

You should not practice intense breathwork (rhythmic breathing, retention, hyperventilation-based techniques) if you:

Are pregnant
Have uncontrolled high blood pressure
Have a history of seizures or epilepsy
Have severe cardiovascular disease
Have a serious mental health condition without professional support
Are in acute crisis or trauma stateFunctional breathing (nasal, diaphragmatic, slow-paced) is generally safe for most people.