Your breath is your most accessible business tool - here's how to use it

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How often do you hold your breath during stressful moments?

Nearly twenty years ago I started to learn (the hard way) about the importance of the breath… I arrived excited for my new Head of Department role - a promotion just one year into a teaching career. I'd gone from managing three people and five qualifications to leading a much larger team with multiple specialist areas and complex technical needs. From the outside, the school looked brilliant. But once inside, I discovered a toxic culture and an actively hostile team who at best treated me as an outsider, and at worst enjoyed undermining me.

I knew I was stressed but tried to be kind to myself, hoping I'd feel better as I settled in. Then I started noticing I was regularly feeling dizzy and light-headed. I'd find myself holding onto furniture to feel steady when standing up. Something was clearly wrong.

My GP ran tests but found nothing physically amiss. Then she asked about work, and I burst into tears. She immediately signed me off for a week, and that's when I made the connection - I'd been holding my breath for who knows how long during every stressful moment (of which there were plenty!). Not exactly the resourceful, clear-thinking leader I was aiming to be.

Some validation came later: when I left that role ten months afterwards, they assessed it and split my impossible workload into three separate leadership positions. But by then, I'd already discovered that my breath could be my most powerful business tool.

The hidden cost of shallow breathing

When we're stressed, our breathing becomes shallow, activating our fight-or-flight response and limiting our cognitive capacity exactly when we need it most. This isn't just about feeling anxious - it's about actual biological changes that affect our decision-making, creativity, and leadership presence.

Research shows that intentional breathing activates your parasympathetic nervous system, shifting you from reactive to responsive. For purpose-driven entrepreneurs, this shift is everything. It's the difference between making decisions from fear and making them from wisdom. It's the difference between snapping at your team and responding with clarity.

Yet breathing remains the most underutilised business skill I know.

When everything fizzes over

Kay (not her real name) arrived at our first coaching session like a freshly opened bottle of very fizzy water - talking at high speed with tense, anxious energy. There was no stopping the flow as she told me about how unhappy she was with herself about being reactive with her partner, bringing work stress home, and repeating patterns she'd seen her mum use when she was growing up.

'I don't want to be like my mum,' she said. 'When I’m with her, we're explosive - arguing and combative. But real Kay is calm and thoughtful and kind. This snappy version isn't even me, and then I feel worse for failing to control my emotions.'

Her goal was clear: be less reactive because she cared about her partner and wider relationships.

So I asked: 'What do you think would help?'

Kay paused properly for the first time in the session. She took a deep breath and said, 'I just need to pause more.'

'How will you manage to do this?' I asked.

'I need to remember to breathe deeply more!'

That was her homework. Simple as that - pause and breathe deeply much, much more often.

She returned the following week transformed - a whole lot less fizzy! The difference this simple tool had made was remarkable. She was managing to be much less reactive with her partner, who had noticed and appreciated the work she was doing. Of course, there was deeper work to explore around growing up in a household where shouting felt like the only way to be heard. But breathing gave her the space to access her real self - the calm, thoughtful Kay who was always there underneath the stress.

Four breathing tools for founder challenges

I'm sharing four essential techniques specifically designed for the challenges purpose-driven entrepreneurs face:

Wisdom Breath (4-7-8) activates your prefrontal cortex for clearer thinking before crucial decisions or difficult conversations. Inhale through your nose for 4 counts, hold for 7, exhale through your mouth for 8. Perfect for those moments when you need to respond wisely rather than react impulsively.

Tension Release Breath gives you a quick stress reset between meetings. Inhale deeply while tensing every muscle, hold for 5 seconds, then exhale forcefully while releasing all tension. The slight silliness of tensing everything helps break mental loops and creates space for fresh thinking. This one always makes me smile.

Energising Breath (Breath of Fire) provides natural energy without caffeine. Sit tall with passive inhales through your nose and sharp exhales by pulling your belly button to your spine. Ten to twenty pumps create heat and vitality that translates into confidence and presence.

Grounding Breath (Feet-to-Earth) reconnects you with your centre when feeling scattered. Breathe slowly while imagining roots growing from your feet, inhaling stability up from the earth for 4 counts, exhaling stress down through your roots for 6.

Each technique takes just minutes to learn and a few rounds can be used anywhere, anytime you need to shift your state. But for some leaders, the real breakthrough comes when they realise breathing isn't just about managing stress - it's about fundamentally changing how they show up in high-stakes situations.

The moment of revelation

I was working with a busy tech founder in our final session of a six-session package. We'd been exploring his question: 'How do I feel the anger, but not react?'

This was someone already quite emotionally aware. He could observe his body tensing, his heart rate increasing, his throat feeling tight during challenging conversations with team members. He knew logically that these situations didn't require a fight-or-flight response, but that knowledge didn't stop it happening.

Then we talked about how breathing could actually change how he felt physically - from 'not safe' to 'safe' - and therefore how he responded. It was a revelation.

'I never thought there was a way I could physically control that,' he said. 'That by doing a thing like intentional breathing, I could actually change how I felt and then change how I responded.'

He discovered that breath work wasn't just about the physiological shift - it also bought him crucial thinking time. The space between stimulus and response where choices live.

His session feedback was 'incredibly insightful' because he'd finally understood that his wise, resourceful leadership self was available when he felt safe. And breathing was the key to accessing that state.

Each breath as a micro-iteration

Think of each breath as a micro-iteration - a chance to reset and begin again with more intention and clarity. When we stop seeing everything as permanent and start seeing it as a prototype, we remove the fear of getting it wrong.

There's no perfect breathing technique, only the one that serves you in this moment. Whether you need wisdom, energy, grounding, or release, your breath is always available as your most accessible business tool.

Ready to discover how breathing can transform your leadership effectiveness? Download 'The Founder's Breath Toolkit' - sharing those four essential techniques with step-by-step guidance for purpose-driven entrepreneurs.

Each breath is an iteration. Each moment, a chance to begin again.