The Vegan Breathing Coaches

15/01/2026

Can you spot it?
Clue: you're seeing this on The Vegan Breathing Coaches page ... 🤔😄

13/01/2026

Have you read Breath by James Nestor? What did you learn? One of us discovered that there was a lot of scope for improving breathing patterns (in other words, dysfunctional breathing was present!)

The results of correcting the sub-optimal breathing patterns were noteworthy. Teaching others to restore supportive breathing then became imperative which ultimately led to both of us training with Patrick McKeown to become breathing coaches. It feels incredibly valuable and we hope that more and more people will reap the benefits of breathing as nature intended.

It is the most essential thing we do - yet many of us arguably breathe badly. The author of Breath explains how that can be changed

05/01/2026

If you wake up with a dry mouth in the morning, there's a strong chance you've been sleeping with your mouth open at least some of the time. 😴

Other signs:
* Snoring - mouth snoring is more likely.
* Bad breath in the morning - an open mouth becomes a dry mouth, and with limited saliva, there's nothing to combat the build-up of bacteria. This is an oral microbiome problem (and the oral microbiome doesn't exist in isolation; it's linked to the gut microbiome).
* ...this can also cause or worsen gum disease as less 'cleaning' can happen when saliva is low.
* Poor sleep and subsequent daytime fatigue.

Getting the mouth closed during sleep can be done, and not necessarily by taping your mouth shut, in fact we don't recommend it. There's a blog post on this very subject on our website: https://www.henryandhenryeu.com/post/to-tape-or-not-to-tape-that-is-the-question

30/12/2025

Our 'Breathing for Health' program is your invitation to rediscover the power of your own breath and restore balance from within.

Guided by Annette, this program gently helps you unlearn unhealthy breathing habits and replace them with calm, restorative patterns that support deep sleep, resilience, and renewed energy.

Through simple yet transformative practices from the Buteyko and Oxygen Advantage methods, you’ll relieve anxiety, fatigue, and tension while awakening a profound sense of wellbeing. Each session offers space to slow down, reconnect, and breathe your way back to lasting health and vitality.

For more information go to: https://www.henryandhenryeu.com/buteykobreathing

29/12/2025

It's definitely cold outside in Berlin .. the coldest Christmas here for 15 years, apparently, and by her own admission, it's led to one of our students wanting to breathe more through her mouth! 😯

Considering the downsides: cold, dry, unfiltered air going straight into the lungs, it seems to make no sense to see more people breathing through an open mouth in this weather, but that does seem to be the case. So why might it be?

1) nasal congestion (not at all unusual at this time of year). We have a 'nose unblocking exercise' for this. It's demonstrated on the breathing space on our website.
2) moving more quickly to keep warm may well lead to breathlessness. For this, we have a breathing retraining program so that simple walking, even if a little more briskly than usual, doesn't mean resorting to emergency breaths through the mouth.

There's much more on the breathing space on our website. And we're always happy to answer questions.

13/12/2025

10/12/2025

A whole plant food diet is optimal for helping to maintain a naturally slow and gentle breathing rate. 💙

04/12/2025

If you've ever suffered a panic attack, then you'll know just how destabilising and scary it can feel.

When we are feeling anxious, our breathing quickens and becomes more forceful. This is a natural response to danger, our body gearing up either to fight and face the threat head-on, or to run away.

But when the perceived danger is constant, a result of the stress many of us experience daily in our modern world, our body stores this up and doesn't let go. This can lead to chronic overbreathing, or hyperventilation.

If you begin to feel breathless and your lips and hands and feet begin to tingle, you begin to feel dizzy or light-headed, and you feel a sense of otherworldliness, these can be just some of the warning signs of an impending panic attack. It's a result of breathing off too much carbon dioxide, a state known as respiratory alkalosis.

Being told to take a deep breath is well-meant, but most of us understand this as a 'big' breath, and this will only make things worse, as it will result in breathing off more CO2.
Instead, slow and soften your breathing to the point it's so subtle you can barely perceive it and you even feel the urge to breathe more, but you can just about tolerate it. This is the equivalent to breathing in and out of a paper bag, it allows the carbon dioxide in your blood to increase again, bringing things back into balance. It may require practice but it's worth doing it.

This is an example of the breathing retraining we offer in our programs. For more information, go to our Breathing Space at https://www.henryandhenryeu.com/breathingspace

30/11/2025

That massive muscle at the base of your rib cage .. how well do you use it? Many of us underuse it to our detriment.

Among the many positives linked to using the diaphragm: good oxygenation of the body, airway stabilisation, postural support, massaging of the heart, and supporting digestion did you know it's also involved in lymphatic drainage? The lymphatic system has no pump (unlike the blood, which is pumped through blood vessels by the heart), so it needs movement from muscles to work effectively, and your diaphragm is one big muscle! The lymphatic system drains away waste and excess fluid, so your moment by moment breathing can help with the body's detoxification .... or not if your diaphragm is barely activated.

A true deep breath engages the diaphragm, front, sides and back by going down deep into the lower lobes of the lungs, rather than expanding the upper chest which has none of the benefits listed above and is associated with over-breathing.

Give your diaphragm some love ❤️ and attention and enjoy its slow, gentle expansions and contractions.

18/11/2025

In the context of breathing, the figure in the image below is significant.

This is the average amount of breaths we take every day. Just think about that for a moment.

That equates to more than 7 million breaths a year and over 5 billion breaths in an average lifetime.

Isn't it a little odd, then, that most of us rarely focus on our breathing unless we are feeling out of breath?

That's because breathing is controlled by our autonomic nervous system and we do it without needing to consciously enable it.

But what if our default breathing is a little too fast or if we are breathing in more than our body requires? Overbreathing is becoming ever more common because of the way we are living today, and it's making us feel more anxious and agitated, it's affecting our sleep, and preventing us from performing at our best.

So next time you're feeling stressed and as if life is getting on top of you, tune in to your breathing and take softer and slower breaths. It could make a world of difference.

17/11/2025

Do you often struggle to sleep, spend most of the night tossing and turning, ruminating and feeling anxious about the day to come and how you may not be able to perform at your best?

If this is you, then you're certainly not alone. Numerous studies point to the fact that a hefty proportion of the population struggle to get enough sleep. But it's not all about sleep quantity, we also need to consider the quality of our sleep. Are we getting enough deep sleep?

There are countless recommendations as to how to improve sleep and sleep hygiene is regularly discussed whenever poor sleep is mentioned.

One issue that is rarely considered, though, is how we are breathing at night. Yet sleep-disordered breathing is a common cause of insomnia. Breathing through the mouth at night rather than through the nose can cause us to breathe harder and faster, which not only puts the body into stress mode but can also cause collapse of the airway, rousing us from sleep.

Modifying our daytime and night time breathing habits can be life-changing. We can help you get there.

10/11/2025

In an interview situation, a meeting, or delivering a presentation, what does your breathing convey? If it has a tendency to be a little bit fast and shallow, those listening to you are likely to subconsciously interpret what they see as nervousness. 😳

But that's not all! The faster breathing has a direct impact on you by communicating to your brain that you're facing something threatening. 😱

By training yourself to breathe gently, slowly and deeply through your nose in low intensity situations, you'll be better able to do the same when the pressure is higher, thus conveying confidence and calm to those around you, and of course, to your own brain! 🙂