It’s easy to lose yourself in a world of pressure and performance.

There have been times in my life when I did all the “right” things – I showed up, delivered, kept the plates spinning. From the outside, everything looked fine. But inside, I couldn’t feel myself anymore. I’d lost touch with simply being and had become stuck in the relentless rhythm of doing. I knew I needed to reconnect with myself – and maybe you’ve felt that too.

And because the responsibilities I carried were mine alone, I couldn’t see a way out. I was too full, too tired, too mentally overloaded to find clarity. I craved a breakthrough… but my system couldn’t access it.

When we’re constantly switched on, pushing through, and chasing the next task, stress disconnects you from your inner voice so it becomes almost impossible to hear yourself. Your nervous system gets flooded with stress hormones that flip you into fight/flight/freeze, and it keeps you stuck in survival mode.

No wonder I struggled with burnout!

And the thing is, you can’t think your way out of this state.
You have to feel your way back.
It’s not about solving a problem.
It’s about softening.

The breath as a bridge: A somatic way to reconnect with myself, release tension and heal.

Breathwork helped me shift this pattern in ways that mindset work never could.

When I began a regular practice, everything changed. My external life didn’t become easier overnight – the lists, the deadlines, the juggling act were still there. But I became more resourced to meet them. I began to reconnect with myself, tension left my body and opportunities opened up that allowed me to be more me – so life felt easier.

Here’s what’s shifted in my personal and professional life:

  • I have more resilience. I can handle more responsibility without tipping into burnout.

  • My boundaries are stronger. I don’t say yes to everything anymore.

  • I feel less anxious when speaking to groups — I’m more regulated and grounded.

  • I know how to reset when overwhelm hits, so I can keep going without pushing through.

  • I’ve become kinder to myself when things go wrong. That inner critic is quieter now.

  • I feel more present with others and more settled in myself — not endlessly striving.

  • I’m clearer about my purpose. I feel more on-track, more trusting of life.

  • I’ve reconnected with the part of me that just knows I’m exactly where I need to be.

  • I’ve found a deeper sense of safety and inner confidence that I can come home to again and again.

Breathwork helps you reconnect with yourself

Breathwork is so much more than just learning to relax. Your breath is your life-force, and it taps into a greater intelligence than your mind which exists all around you and within you – and you access it through the innate wisdom of your body. And this makes conscious breathing powerful.

  • It helps your body shift out of fight-flight-freeze.

  • It clears stuck emotions that traditional talk therapy might not reach.

  • It strengthens self-trust and emotional resilience.

  • It reconnects you with the felt sense of safety, clarity and inner knowing. 

But in spite of all the powerful shifts breathwork brings, sometimes it’s difficult to do – and I hear this a lot from the clients I support:

“Even though I know I need to slow down, breathe and reconnect with myself… I struggle to give myself permission.”

Why? Because when the part of us that runs on duty, performance and pressure is in charge, it hijacks every spare moment.

It whispers, “Just get this one last thing done, and then you can rest,” but the list never ends. So we keep going, longing for clarity but moving too fast to access it.

I know that pattern well. I’ve lived it.

That’s why I keep up my own breathwork practice. I do daily self-led sessions – sometimes short, sometimes longer – to create space in my day, regulate my nervous system, and reconnect with myself.

But there are times when it doesn’t cut through, like when I’m overwhelmed, stuck in a repeating pattern, or emotions are bubbling under the surface that I can’t quite reach. That’s when I turn to another trusted breathwork facilitator.

Because I know how much deeper I can go when I feel safely held, with no pressure to hold it together or make sense of anything. In that kind of space, I can drop beneath the mental noise and access what’s really going on.

This is where the deep work happens. Insights land that shift my perspective. Emotions that have been stuck for years begin to release. I can reframe difficult situations, meet parts of myself with compassion, and let go of what’s no longer mine to carry.

And I come out of it feeling clearer, stronger, more myself. With a sense of trust in life, and the confidence to move forward from a place of wholeness, not striving.

The word heal comes from the Old English hælan, meaning “to make whole.” That’s what breathwork supports: the integration of the parts of you that may have been silenced, rejected, or overwhelmed.

It doesn’t require you to figure everything out.
It invites you to feel, release, and realign – safely, gently, deeply.

Because in the stillness that breathwork creates, something shifts. You stop running. You soften. You meet yourself exactly as you are – not as a project to fix, but as a person who’s worthy of care. And from that place, change doesn’t have to be forced. It unfolds.

 

If this resonates and you’d like to explore more, feel free to look around my website. or check out some breathing practices I’ve shared on my Youtube channel. But most of all, I hope this has reminded you of something important: you’re allowed to pause. You’re allowed to feel. You’re allowed to come home to yourself.