03/01/2026
You will have noticed how much breathwork is everywhere at the moment.
You cannot open a magazine, listen to a podcast, or scroll for very long without someone talking about breathing as the answer to everything. And while that is not wrong, it is also where things start to get confusing.
A lot of breathwork is being shared without much structure or explanation. People are picking up ideas from podcasts, YouTube, and books, and trying to make sense of them on their own.
I was talking to someone recently who told me she has anxiety and feels like she has tried everything. I mentioned breathwork, and she said she had been doing it, but it was not helping. She had listened to a few podcasts, watched some videos, read a book, and tried different things she had heard about.
She mentioned breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, saying she was doing so because she had been told it was calming. And this is where it gets tricky.
Some approaches do use that pattern in specific contexts. But for many people, especially those who are already anxious or highly stressed, breathing through the mouth can actually keep the nervous system more alert rather than calmer.
This is often the point at which people assume breathwork is not for them, or that they are doing it wrong.
In reality, it is usually neither.
For some people, slowing the breath feels soothing quite quickly. For others, it can feel uncomfortable or even increase anxiety at first. There is a physiological reason for that, and it does not mean anything has gone wrong.
This is the part that tends to get lost in all the noise.
Breathwork is not about copying someone else’s technique and hoping for the best. It is about understanding what your nervous system is doing and choosing an approach that supports it, rather than overwhelms it.
And that is where guidance and context really matter.
