Why Learn Breathing Exercises?

Do you struggle with stress and anxiety? Poor sleep, bad digestion, mood and energy swings? If so, breathing exercises are a fast, safe way to balance your nervous system in minutes. Our modern lives are overwhelming and most of us are looking for ways to self-soothe, and to find peace and balance.

There are dozens of amazing meditation and mind-body techniques, but most take months or even years to learn. Breathing exercise are booming in popularity right now because they are both powerful and accessible. You can learn the Science of Breathing at home in just seven days, and you’ll then have a self-care toolkit you can use for life.

Breathing is Fast and Powerful

There are so many amazing practices to manage stress – meditation, yoga, and Qigong to name just a few – but the reason breathwork is so popular is because you can learn it quickly and experience measurable results from day one.

In our modern world, most of us are constantly bombarded with stress stimuli from work, family, and non-stop crisis news. This inevitably leads to nervous system imbalances where we spend far too much time in our fight-or-flight response and not enough time in rest and digest mode.

The first thing you’ll learn in the course is that balance is the ultimate goal, and we’ll encourage nervous system equilibrium through simple, yet powerful practices you do first thing in the morning, midday, and right before bed. 

Science-Based Practices Used For 1000+ Years

Breathing exercises have been practiced for thousands of years, predating modern science. Today, we’re fortunate to have reams of published papers to verify and confirm what ancient pranayama (breathing) practitioners learned through experience. Yes, our breathing patterns reflect our current nervous system state; and yes, we can reverse that and breathe in a way that will have an immediate impact on our autonomic nervous system and how we feel.

No other mind-body practice can reduce heart rate, lower blood pressure, and even alter the pH of the blood in minutes like breathing. Once you learn how it works, you’ll have a powerful tool that you can use as part of your self-care and self-soothing toolkit available to you anytime, anywhere. 

Amazing Facts About Breathing

Breathing has such an immediate impact on your mind and body that even the act of inhaling vs. exhaling affects your nervous system differently. It’s common to train in diet, exercise, and even hydration, but almost no one trains their breath. This is a huge missed opportunity for health seekers.

Breathing vs. Meditation?

In traditional yoga, breathing is traditionally taught as a steppingstone practice that eventually leads students toward seated meditation, so many of us try to skip ahead and simply sit in silence.

Meditation is amazing, and I’ve trained and spent time with amazing teachers in retreat centers in five different countries. However, what you might not know is that silent meditation can create anxiety, frustration, and even obsessive rumination for beginners.

And the biggest problem with meditation is that frustration causes most people to quit meditating altogether. Breathing is different.

With breathing practice, it puts you into a meditative state automatically. Think of breathing as an active form of meditation with all the same benefits. As a career yoga teacher, I can assure you that clients want results, not meditation awards, so the more I teach breathing, the happier my clients are with the results.

My Story

When I began studying yoga in my early twenties, I wanted to learn everything. Breathing came up in every yoga class, so I started asking the obvious questions: Why is breathing important? You say we should breathe deeply, but how deeply? You say breathe slowly, but how slowly? And why not breathe fast?

I practiced with some of the most esteemed yoga teachers in the world, including some modern masters, and I was disappointed to discover that most had only a superficial understanding of breathing. They all kept telling me to breathe deeply and breathe slowly, that was it.

I practiced with some of the most esteemed yoga teachers in the world, including some modern masters, and I was disappointed to discover that most had only a superficial understanding of breathing. They all kept telling me to breathe deeply and breathe slowly, that was it.

Medical doctor, Patricia Gerbarg, has dedicated her career to breathing and her work and our conversations have been hugely influential for me. I also worked closely with a senior Buteyko Breathing instructor Jac Vidgen, who taught me about the vital role of CO2. I also interviewed several record-setting free divers and daredevils like Wim Hof, who push breathing to the limit (not something I advocate).

I came to learn that there is no mystery to breathing at all. The science of breath has been well-researched for over 100 years, but very few people have applied the actual science to the classic practices of pranayama.

After nine months of research, here’s what I learned:

7-Day Course Overview

My teaching style is simple, direct, and practical. During the course, you’ll follow along with three daily guided practices: first thing in the morning, midday, and right before bed. These are guided video tutorials with complete instructions that build on each other day after day. And remember, each practice is under five minutes long, so it won’t interrupt your daily schedule.

Each day, there is also a learning module to help you understand your respiratory anatomy, your nervous system, and the science behind these techniques. You’ll also learn how to self-test and monitor your progress as a student.

NOTE: you’ll have lifetime access to the program online via download, so you can refer back to your guided breathing practices and learning modules at any time. 

Science of Breathing

A 7-Day At-Home Course

This course is designed for busy people with a keen interest in learning breathing correctly and comprehensively. With that in mind, plan for one hour (total) per day during the course. You’ll be given three daily breathing practices (videos) to follow.

Sit down and hit play first thing in the morning, midday, and right before bed. The breathing practices take less than five minutes, and you can do them on your phone if you like.

Next, you’ll have one module per day that you can consume all at once or break it up into pieces throughout the day. It’s a video class with simple visuals and models, so it’s a fun and practical way to learn.