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Leadership Practices

Breathwork

Regulate emotions, reduce stress and calm your nervous system to improve well-being

Table of Contents

Introduction

Breathwork has emerged as a potent technique for managing and processing difficult emotions. By harnessing the power of our breath, we can influence our nervous system, alter our brain chemistry, and ultimately transform our emotional state. This practice explores how various scientifically-backed breathwork methods can help us navigate challenging feelings.

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‍When to use this practice

Our breath is intimately connected to our emotional state. When we're stressed or anxious, our breathing becomes shallow and rapid. Conversely, slow, deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation and emotional regulation.

Breathwork can support you when you need to:

Calm your nervous system: Use breathing techniques to bring your nervous system back into a relaxed state. This can be useful if you’ve been experiencing a stressful period at work, or even after a tense meeting or conversation with a colleague.
Regulate your emotions: If you find yourself experiencing intense emotions, whether related to your work or a personal situation, breathwork can help you regulate your emotional state and find a sense of equilibrium.
Regain presence: When we are busy, stressed, or emotionally dysregulated, we often move into our heads and out of our bodies. Breathwork is a highly effective way to regain presence in stressful situations.
Slow down: Stress tends to make us speed up, not just mentally but also physiologically. Even just a few deep breaths can slow our heart rate and help us return to a more reasonable pace.

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How to develop this practice

If you search for breathwork practices online, you’ll be bombarded with myriad breathing techniques that promise to be the “most effective.” We’ve selected a few examples of scientifically-proven techniques that can help you regulate your emotions. Different techniques offer slightly different benefits, although all of the examples below are useful to achieve the outcomes listed above.

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Buteyko Breathing Technique

The Buteyko method, developed by Dr. Konstantin Buteyko, focuses on nasal breathing and reducing overall breathing volume. While primarily known for its benefits in treating respiratory conditions, it can also help manage anxiety and stress-related emotions.

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How to practice

‍Begin by sitting upright on the floor or on a chair with your spine elongated. Allow yourself to breathe normally for a few moments and relax your muscles.

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Part 1: Breathe and pause momentarily

Take a normal breath in, then exhale calmly and hold your breath.
Hold your nose until you feel the urge to breathe.
Release your nose and breathe in.
Return to your normal breathing for 10-15 seconds.
Repeat these steps a few times.

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Part 2: Breathe and pause for as long as you can

Breathe out slowly and hold your breath.
Hold your nose for as long as you can. Ideally, you’ll hold it for twice as long as you did in the previous exercise.
When you start feeling moderately uncomfortable, release your nose and inhale.
Return to your normal breathing for 10-15 seconds.
Repeat this sequence several times.

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Benefits

Nasal breathing encourages a balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood, promoting calm.
Limiting the intake of oxygen by holding the breath helps reset the body's tolerance to carbon dioxide, potentially reducing anxiety symptoms.
Breath holds can increase CO₂ levels, leading to a calming effect on the nervous system.

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Coherent Breathing

This technique involves slowing the breath to about 5-6 breaths per minute, which has been shown to have significant effects on emotional regulation.

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How to practice‍

The ‘ideal’ form of coherent breathing involves inhaling for 5.5 seconds and exhaling for 5.5 seconds without any breath holds in between. It’s helpful to use a timer for this purpose, although it also means you need to be looking at a stopwatch while you do this.

Breathwork timers and apps, such as ‘My Cardiac Coherence,’ can support you to do this without having to keep your eyes on a stopwatch. Some apps use a bell sound to indicate your next in or out breath, while others use colors or images that you can follow on the screen.

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Benefits

‍Coherent breathing has been scientifically shown to bring the body back into its ideal functional state, in which all bodily systems are working at peak efficiency. Some specific benefits include:

Increasing heart rate variability, a marker of emotional resilience;
Activating the vagus nerve, promoting a sense of calm;
Balancing the autonomic nervous system.

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Box Breathing

Used by Navy SEALs for stress management, box breathing is a simple yet effective technique for emotional regulation.

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How to practice

Inhale for 4 seconds
Hold for 4 seconds
Exhale for 4 seconds
Hold for 4 seconds
Repeat

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Benefits

‍The pattern of box breathing helps focus the mind and calm the nervous system, making it easier to process difficult emotions. Another great benefit is that it is easily achieved without any additional tools–you can simply count to 4 and practice this technique at any time.

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Diaphragmatic Breathing

‍Also known as belly breathing, this technique engages the diaphragm fully, promoting relaxation and emotional balance. Stress, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation often lead to shallow breathing and breathing high up in our chest. Bringing our breath back down into our diaphragm is an incredibly effective technique to calm our nervous system.

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How to practice‍

This exercise can be done sitting upright, but laying down is a great way to start if you’re new to the practice.

Lie on your back on a flat surface (e.g. yoga mat) with your knees bent and your head supported.
Place one hand on your upper chest and one hand on your belly, just below your rib cage.
Breathe in slowly so that your stomach moves outwards. Aim to keep the hand on your chest as still as possible.
Exhale through pursed lips, tightening your stomach muscles so that your stomach moves down as you exhale. Continue to keep your chest as still as possible.

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Benefits‍

While it often requires conscious practice to bring our breath back down into our diaphragm, a great benefit of this form of breathing is that, over time, it becomes our ‘new normal.’ Some long-term benefits of diaphragmatic breathing include:

Reducing cortisol levels, the stress hormone;
Increasing oxygenation, potentially improving mood;
Activating the relaxation response.

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‍Benefits of this practice

Incorporate breathwork into your personal or professional routine to:

Improve emotional resilience: A primary benefit of breathwork is emotional regulation. By practicing regularly, you become more effective at dealing with intense, difficult, or stressful situations.
Enhance leadership: Breathwork supports nervous system regulation, which in turn helps you to show up as a more stable and resilient leader for your team. This can help strengthen the bonds within your team as your colleagues feel more supported.
Increase presence: Breathwork brings you back into your body, which results in increased mindfulness and awareness in complex situations.

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‍How to take this further

To effectively use breathwork for processing difficult emotions:

Recognize the emotion: Acknowledge what you're feeling without judgment.
Choose a technique: Select a breathwork method that resonates with you.
Practice regularly: Consistency is key to reaping the full benefits.
Combine with mindfulness: Pay attention to how your emotions shift as you breathe.
Seek professional guidance: For persistent emotional challenges, consider working with a therapist trained in breathwork techniques.

Breathwork offers a powerful, accessible tool for managing and processing difficult emotions. By incorporating these scientifically-backed techniques into our daily lives, we can develop greater emotional resilience and well-being.

Remember, while breathwork can be incredibly beneficial, it should complement, not replace, professional mental health support when needed.

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