Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, most of us stopped breathing properly. We moved from the full, belly-led breaths of infancy to shallow, chest-led patterns that barely use the lower third of the lungs. It's so common we've normalised it entirely.
The problem is that shallow breathing keeps the nervous system in a low-grade state of activation. When you breathe high in the chest, you're mimicking the physiological pattern of mild anxiety — and the brain, unable to distinguish cause from effect, responds accordingly. The body stays slightly braced. The mind stays slightly on.
"The breath is the only autonomic function you can consciously control. That makes it the most powerful lever you have."
This is why breathwork can feel so dramatic the first time. It's not that something extraordinary is happening — it's that the body is finally getting what it's been quietly starved of. Oxygen reaches the lower lobes. Carbon dioxide levels balance. The vagus nerve activates. The whole system exhales, sometimes for the first time in years.
In our sessions at the Lakes, we start every breathwork journey with a period of just noticing. No instruction, no technique — just observation. Where does your breath go? How far does it travel? What stops it? Most people are surprised by how little they actually feel.
The techniques come after. Connected breathing, box breathing, extended exhale work — each one has a different effect on the nervous system, and we choose based on what the group needs that day. Sometimes people need activating. More often, they need releasing.
What consistently surprises people is the emotional dimension. Breath and emotion are stored together in the body. When you change the breath pattern, you access things that talk therapy can't always reach — not because breathwork is mystical, but because it's physiological. The body keeps the score, and the breath is one of the ways you can change it.
If you're curious, start simply. Spend five minutes breathing into your belly before you sleep tonight. Inhale for four counts, exhale for six. Notice what shifts. That's the beginning.
