Using Your Breathe to Reset: Regulate Your Nervous System Using Breathwork

You know that feeling of being 'wired', but also drained? Like your body’s buzzing, mind racing and no amount of rest seems to help?

That's a dysregulated nervous system. And it’s more common than you think.

Whether it shows up as anxiety, brain fog, chronic fatigue, digestive issues or emotional overwhelm, at the root is often one thing: your body has forgotten how to feel safe.

The good news? Your breath can be used as a direct way to reset your nervous system and retrain your body’s response to stress.

Your Breath: A Built-In Reset Button

Your breath is one of the few bodily functions you can consciously control - giving access to influence your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The ANS runs quietly in the background; regulating your heart rate, blood pressure, immune system, hormones and energy.

When you perceive a threat, your sympathetic nervous system revs up: fight, flight, go. Great for short bursts. But if constantly active, your body stays flooded with stress chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol, depleting your energy and disrupting everything from your sleep to your gut.

This is where breathwork steps in as a powerful reset button.

Slow, conscious breathing activates your parasympathetic system - signalling to your body, "You're safe now." It stimulates your vagus nerve, lowers your heart rate and activates your brain to reduce the production of stress hormones.

In return, you get a dose of feel-good neurochemistry:

• GABA (calms the nervous system)

• Serotonin (mood stabiliser)

• Endorphins (natural pain and stress relief)

• Dopamine (motivation and energy)

  
  

This isn’t passive relaxation - it’s active restoration, deep from within.

Physiological Shifts After Just a Few Minutes of Breathwork

Here’s what starts to change when you practise even two to three minutes of daily breathwork:

• Heart rate variability (HRV) improves - a marker of resilience and flexibility

• Blood pressure drops

• Cortisol lowers, giving your adrenals a break

• Immune function strengthens

• Mental clarity returns

• Energy stabilises and replenishes

  
  

You’re not just relaxing. You’re rebuilding.

Breathwork: Your Built-In Recovery System

These practices are gentle and easily accessible - right now, wherever you are:

• Extended Exhale: Inhale for 4 seconds, exhale for 6 - 8 seconds. Longer exhales activate the vagus nerve and regulates heart rate. Repeat for 10 or more cycles. Perfect for winding down or resetting during the day.

• Coherent Breathing: Inhale for 5 seconds, exhale for 5 seconds. Repeat this for 2 to 5 minutes. This balances the nervous system and boosts HRV.Think: calm, grounded focus.

• Box Breathing: Inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds. Exhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds. Repeat this for 2 to 5 minutes. Calms the mind, sharpens focus.

• Sighing or Humming: These naturally activate parasympathetic pathways, shifting neurochemistry toward rest and digest. A subtle & powerful practice for emotional reset.

Breathe First. Then Begin Again.

When your system is dysregulated, you can’t think clearly, rest deeply or access your full energy. Breathwork helps your body remember how to come home to itself.

It’s not just a way to calm down - it’s a way to re-energise, reconnect and begin again with clarity and strength.

Start small. Start today. And begin bringing your parasympathetic system back online; gently and powerfully.