Learn Breathwork
Key Summary
80% of the signals you interpret come from your body, only 20% from your head
There's a surprisingly large body of science behind breathwork, with wide-ranging effects beyond what you'd expect
Breathwork and meditation aren't the same thing
You don't have to be "into" wellness to benefit from this
The range of things breathwork can help with genuinely surprises me, from anxiety and panic attacks to depression and ADHD
How It Started
This one wasn't on my radar at all.
A few months into a new consulting role, I started experiencing something I hadn't really dealt with before. Pretty intense anxiety and, at times, panic attacks.
I'd had a brush with anxiety once before and found that meditation helped. This time, it barely touched the sides.
The role was high profile. I'd taken over from someone else mid-project, which meant inheriting decisions I hadn't made and processes I didn't fully understand yet. I had a lot of pressure on myself and, if I'm honest, it was imposter syndrome at its finest. On the surface, everything was going well. My team liked me, and the project was running smoothly. But I had this impending sense of dread every time I thought about it. Even though I recognised a lot of that pressure was self-inflicted, that didn't help me rationalise my way out of it.
My mum mentioned that a friend of hers had been through something similar and found that a breathwork coach had really helped. I'd come across breathwork as a passing comment on different podcasts and books and had always been loosely interested, but this was the push I needed to actually commit to booking a session.
It was £80 a session, which at the time felt like a lot, but it was something I was serious about investing in. That felt like part of the process.
The Experience
I found Lyndsey Marriott, a breathwork coach based in Bristol, and booked a 1-to-1 session at her house.
Walking in, I was nervous. I don't particularly like showing emotion with people I don't know, and I was pretty sure this would be difficult to do without crying. (Spoiler: I cried the entire time.)
In fact, at the end of the session, I remember thinking, I've basically just paid £80 to cry at a stranger for an hour. But hear me out.
What I wasn't expecting was how much Lyndsey would teach me about the science behind it all.
It turns out that 80% of the signals you interpret come from your body, and only 20% from your head. So while we spend so much time trying to think our way out of anxiety, to rationalise it and logic it away, the real lever is actually physical.
Things like your blood pressure, your blood pH, your carbon dioxide levels, your heart rate variability, and the rhythm and depth of your breath are all signals interpreted by the brain. They help us to determine whether we are safe or in danger.
By using breathwork, we can actually change these, signalling to the brain to tell our nervous system that we are safe and secure and to dampen that fight or flight response.
Before going in, I kind of assumed it was a bit of a woo-woo thing. And honestly, how can someone be bad at breathing? It's the one thing that every human being does without thinking. But there are so many different ways to breathe and so much more science behind it, and why it matters, I was humbled pretty fast.
Coming from a biomedical background, understanding the reasoning behind why breathwork actually works made a big difference in how I engaged with it.
During the session, we focused on what I was physically feeling. Lyndsey asked me to describe the sensation in my stomach. At the time, I described it as a mango-sized shape of blackness and tension. It was a part of me I disliked the most and had been carrying around, trying to ignore, for most of my life.
Through deep breathing, we worked on reducing the size of that perceived shape until it was no longer there.
I've always been sensitive about people touching my stomach. Weirdly, after that session, I no longer had issues with it. I still find that remarkable.
We didn't even make it to the 2nd part of the session. I think I was too worked up at the start. But by the end, despite an hour of crying, I felt lighter.
On the walk home, I stopped at Waitrose, bought myself an ice cream, and sat in a park. A small celebration for doing a hard thing.
I was so surprised at how tired I was after the session and genuinely needed to take the rest of the afternoon off to recover.
What I Took Away
By the end of the session, I already felt different.
Breathwork was the first thing that genuinely helped me get out of that period of anxiety, and the effects lasted much longer than I expected. If I'm honest, it hasn't come back in the same way since.
I don't consider myself an anxious person. But I have drawn on it during times where I haven't quite felt myself, whether that's feeling a little low, a little nervous, or just a little off. It's become something I reach for rather than something I fear needing.
Lyndsey introduced me to the Breathing Zone app. We calibrated the settings to 4.2 breaths per minute at an equal breath, with the intention that I do it 1 to 3 minutes a day. I haven't always managed to keep that up, but it's the first thing I go back to when I need it.
It's also helped in ways I didn't anticipate. Over the years, I've found myself sharing the techniques I've learnt, particularly in my work with young people. I didn't expect that single session to have such a ripple effect.
The best thing about it is that once you've learned the techniques, that's it. Box breathing, equal breathing, and deep diaphragmatic breathing. They're all free and something anyone can do anywhere at any time without anyone even knowing.
Since that first session, I've gone back to Lyndsey roughly once a year. I imagine going more frequently would be useful, but for me, it's become a good reset. What's surprised me is how much the sessions have evolved. Through deeper breathing techniques, you can access a heightened state of awareness, and I've found myself uncovering memories and feelings I wouldn't have been able to reach otherwise. But if you're curious, I'd highly recommend experiencing it for yourself.
If you want to go deeper into the science, Breath by James Nestor is a fantastic place to start. It covers a huge range of techniques and explores just how wide-ranging the effects of breathing can be, from anxiety and stress all the way through to focus and ADHD. It's a genuinely fascinating read and one that will change how you think about something you do 20,000 times a day without thinking.
Special Thanks
To Lyndsey Marriott, my breathwork coach, for creating a safe space where I felt comfortable enough to explore these emotions. Lyndsey runs Bristol Breathwork in North Bristol, and I couldn't recommend her highly enough.
The Breathing Zone app is a free and accessible tool that anyone can download and start using straight away.
To James Nestor, for writing a book so scientifically grounded and for helping me realise how little I knew about something I've been doing on autopilot my whole life.
Learn Breathwork
Key Summary
80% of the signals you interpret come from your body, only 20% from your head
There's a surprisingly large body of science behind breathwork, with wide-ranging effects beyond what you'd expect
Breathwork and meditation aren't the same thing
You don't have to be "into" wellness to benefit from this
The range of things breathwork can help with genuinely surprises me, from anxiety and panic attacks to depression and ADHD
How It Started
This one wasn't on my radar at all.
A few months into a new consulting role, I started experiencing something I hadn't really dealt with before. Pretty intense anxiety and, at times, panic attacks.
I'd had a brush with anxiety once before and found that meditation helped. This time, it barely touched the sides.
The role was high profile. I'd taken over from someone else mid-project, which meant inheriting decisions I hadn't made and processes I didn't fully understand yet. I had a lot of pressure on myself and, if I'm honest, it was imposter syndrome at its finest. On the surface, everything was going well. My team liked me, and the project was running smoothly. But I had this impending sense of dread every time I thought about it. Even though I recognised a lot of that pressure was self-inflicted, that didn't help me rationalise my way out of it.
My mum mentioned that a friend of hers had been through something similar and found that a breathwork coach had really helped. I'd come across breathwork as a passing comment on different podcasts and books and had always been loosely interested, but this was the push I needed to actually commit to booking a session.
It was £80 a session, which at the time felt like a lot, but it was something I was serious about investing in. That felt like part of the process.
The Experience
I found Lyndsey Marriott, a breathwork coach based in Bristol, and booked a 1-to-1 session at her house.
Walking in, I was nervous. I don't particularly like showing emotion with people I don't know, and I was pretty sure this would be difficult to do without crying. (Spoiler: I cried the entire time.)
In fact, at the end of the session, I remember thinking, I've basically just paid £80 to cry at a stranger for an hour. But hear me out.
What I wasn't expecting was how much Lyndsey would teach me about the science behind it all.
It turns out that 80% of the signals you interpret come from your body, and only 20% from your head. So while we spend so much time trying to think our way out of anxiety, to rationalise it and logic it away, the real lever is actually physical.
Things like your blood pressure, your blood pH, your carbon dioxide levels, your heart rate variability, and the rhythm and depth of your breath are all signals interpreted by the brain. They help us to determine whether we are safe or in danger.
By using breathwork, we can actually change these, signalling to the brain to tell our nervous system that we are safe and secure and to dampen that fight or flight response.
Before going in, I kind of assumed it was a bit of a woo-woo thing. And honestly, how can someone be bad at breathing? It's the one thing that every human being does without thinking. But there are so many different ways to breathe and so much more science behind it, and why it matters, I was humbled pretty fast.
Coming from a biomedical background, understanding the reasoning behind why breathwork actually works made a big difference in how I engaged with it.
During the session, we focused on what I was physically feeling. Lyndsey asked me to describe the sensation in my stomach. At the time, I described it as a mango-sized shape of blackness and tension. It was a part of me I disliked the most and had been carrying around, trying to ignore, for most of my life.
Through deep breathing, we worked on reducing the size of that perceived shape until it was no longer there.
I've always been sensitive about people touching my stomach. Weirdly, after that session, I no longer had issues with it. I still find that remarkable.
We didn't even make it to the 2nd part of the session. I think I was too worked up at the start. But by the end, despite an hour of crying, I felt lighter.
On the walk home, I stopped at Waitrose, bought myself an ice cream, and sat in a park. A small celebration for doing a hard thing.
I was so surprised at how tired I was after the session and genuinely needed to take the rest of the afternoon off to recover.
What I Took Away
By the end of the session, I already felt different.
Breathwork was the first thing that genuinely helped me get out of that period of anxiety, and the effects lasted much longer than I expected. If I'm honest, it hasn't come back in the same way since.
I don't consider myself an anxious person. But I have drawn on it during times where I haven't quite felt myself, whether that's feeling a little low, a little nervous, or just a little off. It's become something I reach for rather than something I fear needing.
Lyndsey introduced me to the Breathing Zone app. We calibrated the settings to 4.2 breaths per minute at an equal breath, with the intention that I do it 1 to 3 minutes a day. I haven't always managed to keep that up, but it's the first thing I go back to when I need it.
It's also helped in ways I didn't anticipate. Over the years, I've found myself sharing the techniques I've learnt, particularly in my work with young people. I didn't expect that single session to have such a ripple effect.
The best thing about it is that once you've learned the techniques, that's it. Box breathing, equal breathing, and deep diaphragmatic breathing. They're all free and something anyone can do anywhere at any time without anyone even knowing.
Since that first session, I've gone back to Lyndsey roughly once a year. I imagine going more frequently would be useful, but for me, it's become a good reset. What's surprised me is how much the sessions have evolved. Through deeper breathing techniques, you can access a heightened state of awareness, and I've found myself uncovering memories and feelings I wouldn't have been able to reach otherwise. But if you're curious, I'd highly recommend experiencing it for yourself.
If you want to go deeper into the science, Breath by James Nestor is a fantastic place to start. It covers a huge range of techniques and explores just how wide-ranging the effects of breathing can be, from anxiety and stress all the way through to focus and ADHD. It's a genuinely fascinating read and one that will change how you think about something you do 20,000 times a day without thinking.
Special Thanks
To Lyndsey Marriott, my breathwork coach, for creating a safe space where I felt comfortable enough to explore these emotions. Lyndsey runs Bristol Breathwork in North Bristol, and I couldn't recommend her highly enough.
The Breathing Zone app is a free and accessible tool that anyone can download and start using straight away.
To James Nestor, for writing a book so scientifically grounded and for helping me realise how little I knew about something I've been doing on autopilot my whole life.