Anxiety isn’t just in your mind, it’s deeply rooted in your body’s physiology. When you experience stress or anxiety, your breath is often the first thing to change: it becomes shallow, rapid, and disconnected. Over time, this pattern reinforces the body’s stress response, trapping you in a cycle of tension and overwhelm. But here’s the good news, by learning to work with your breath instead of against it, you can directly influence your nervous system and restore calm from the inside out.

The Breath–Brain Connection
Every breath you take sends powerful signals to your brain through the vagus nerve, the body’s main “rest and digest” pathway.
Slow, diaphragmatic breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, lowering heart rate and blood pressure.
Overbreathing or mouth breathing, on the other hand, reduces carbon dioxide levels, making the body more alert and anxious. In simple terms: the slower and deeper you breathe, the safer your body feels.
Research from institutions like Stanford University and Harvard Medical School has shown that controlled breathing can reduce anxiety by up to 44% and improve emotional regulation, focus, and sleep.

How Breathwork Helps Regulate Anxiety
Unlike traditional mindfulness practices that focus purely on thoughts, breathwork uses your physiology as the gateway to peace. Through specific techniques, such as coherence breathing (5 in / 5 out), cyclic sighing, or connected breathwork, you’re training your nervous system to return to balance faster after stress.

During guided breathwork sessions, you might experience: A calm, meditative state as oxygen and CO₂ rebalance. A release of stored tension or emotion through gentle activation of the body. Increased clarity, presence, and groundedness. These shifts aren’t mystical, they’re measurable. Breathwork impacts heart rate variability (HRV), blood chemistry, and brainwave patterns associated with calm and focus.

The Sydney Approach
Grounded in Science, Rooted in Safety At And Breathe, sessions are designed to blend science-backed breath training with deep nervous system regulation. Each experience begins with understanding your body’s unique breathing pattern, then introducing techniques tailored to your goals, whether that’s easing chronic anxiety, improving sleep, or enhancing focus. Sessions often take place outdoors in Sydney’s Centennial Park, where the combination of fresh air, grounded movement, and conscious breathing amplifies the body’s natural relaxation response.

How to Begin If anxiety has been running the show, learning how to breathe consciously is one of the most powerful tools you can reclaim. You don’t need to meditate for hours, you just need to start with one intentional breath.

🧘‍♀️ Try this now:
Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds. Exhale gently through your mouth for 6 seconds. Repeat 5 times and notice how your body begins to soften.

About the Author:
Lauren Wainer is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, NLP Practitioner, and Breathwork Facilitator based in Sydney. Through her practice, And Breathe, she helps individuals reconnect with their bodies, release emotional tension, and regulate their nervous systems through restorative and breakthrough breathwork sessions.

📍 Join a session in Sydney or online: www.andbreathe.au