How To Get Started With Breathwork In 2026
- Kym Burls
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
If you’re reading this, it’s safe to assume you’ve heard about breathwork. Perhaps you’ve practiced pranayama at your local yoga studio, maybe your therapist introduced you to Box Breathing, your favourite podcaster shared a recent “healing” experience, or your social media algorithm decided you needed to relax.
What was once considered an alternative, spiritually rooted practice is now used everywhere from boardrooms to classrooms. Interest in breathwork has increased rapidly in recent years.
With that growth comes an explosion of styles, names, claims… and confusion.
Traditionally, breathwork referred to practices that used the breath as a therapeutic tool, including Rebirthing, Holotropic Breathwork, and Conscious Connected Breathing.
More recently, the term expanded to include forms of conscious breathing for respiratory health, athletic performance, trauma release, meditation, and nervous system regulation. These include the Buteyko Method, Oxygen Advantage, Wim Hof Method, Biodynamic Breathwork, Vivation, and others.
Today, breathwork functions a bit like the word Google — not as an evil multinational monopoly, but as a generic term. In this case, it refers to any practice of conscious, controlled breathing used for relaxation, meditation, therapy, performance, or personal exploration.
So with all these different styles, for different purposes, all making different claims, two questions usually come up:
Which one is best?
And what’s the best way to get started?
The answer to the first question is simple: there is no one magic technique.
There is, however, a right way to breathe for what you need — and even then, there’s some wiggle room.
For example, you might’ve heard that you should only breathe through your nose. I disagree. There’s a time and place for mouth breathing.
Is it when you’re sitting on the couch reading a book? No.
Is it when you’re 25 minutes into a 30-minute hard workout? Potentially.
The second question — how to actually get started — is more nuanced. What follows is how I’d approach it, based on teaching breathwork since 2019.
This article is for people who want to use breathwork safely, sustainably, and in a way that supports their nervous system — not for those chasing peak experiences or shortcuts.
TL;DR
Become aware
Find your baseline
Align to your goal
Keep it simple
Get guidance to start
Note: I’ve used anxiety, stress, meditation, performance, and personal transformation as examples, but the applications are much broader.
1. Become aware
The first step to conscious breathing is… becoming more conscious of your breathing.
One of the earliest signals of disruption to the body’s balance is a change in how we breathe.
Has your breath become shallower?
Are your inhales longer than your exhales?
Do you catch yourself holding your breath unexpectedly?
Being able to notice these subtle shifts is foundational, regardless of why you’re practicing breathwork.
Anxiety: downregulating earlier can help prevent spirals
Stress: noticing sympathetic breathing patterns can help you stay regulated for longer
Meditation: using the breath trains internal attention
Performance: recognising when breath and effort are misaligned helps conserve energy
Transformation: awareness of excessive activation helps you stay within your window of tolerance
How do you build awareness?
Check in with your breathing. Aim for 5–10 times throughout the day.
Observe:
Are you breathing through your nose?
If no → take 5 slow nasal breaths
Are you breathing into your lower ribs?
If no → take 5 slow, low breaths, engaging the rib cage
If yes → take 5 nose, low, slow breaths
That’s it. Simple, frequent reps.
2. Find your baseline
To get where you want to go, you need to know where you’re starting from.
Understanding your current capability helps determine which practices are appropriate — and which might be too much, too soon. This applies to all breathwork goals, not just performance.
Anxiety: if you’re easily activated, start calmly and build gradually
Stress: look at sleep, caffeine, breathing rate, and external triggers
Meditation: “doing nothing” can be challenging — walking meditation may be the entry point
Performance: testing your breathing helps guide training intensity
Transformation: healing takes capacity; if you’re burnt out, intensity may not be supportive
This is where a lot of people get stuck — jumping into practices their nervous system doesn’t yet have the capacity to handle.
A quick way to assess your baseline
Below is a test developed by Dr. Justin Ternes, that I use to get a snapshot of my current mental, emotional, physical, and nervous system state.
Modified Max Exhale Test
Take 3 full nasal breaths
Take a 4th nasal inhale
Start your timer
Exhale through the mouth as long and slow as possible through pursed lips
At the end of the exhale, press “lap”
Hold your breath as long as possible
Stop the timer when you need to breathe
Record your time
Total = Exhale Time + Hold Time
Repeat x2 and take the average
Interpreting your results:
Over 1:30 — Elite
1:15–1:30 — Very advanced
1:00–1:15 — Advanced
0:45–1:00 — Intermediate
0:30–0:45 — Average
Under 30 sec — Below average
Notes:
Consistently scoring under 30 seconds may come from exhaling too forcefully
Average or below → focus on functional breathing first
Intermediate → explore lower-intensity breathwork while building your base
3. Align to your goal
This is where you choose a practice that actually fits you.
A simple formula I use with clients is:
Goal + Capability + Capacity = Your Practice
Goal: why you’re practicing
Capability: your current baseline and skill level
Capacity: the time and energy you realistically have
For the same goal, a practice will look very different for someone who’s dysregulated with 10 minutes a day versus someone highly regulated with 30 minutes. Neither is better — they’re just different starting points.
Below are examples for someone with an Intermediate baseline.
Anxiety
Regular breathing check-ins, daily
Practicing techniques including the Physiological Sigh and Extended Exhale Breath, that can be used to quickly calm you, for a few minutes each day
5-10 mins of nose, low, slow breathing per day. Don’t worry about a specific tempo. Concentrate on feeling the breath and connecting with your body
Eliminating (or limiting) caffeine intake
Stress
Regular daily breathing check-ins, incorporating posture adjustment (open chest, lower shoulders, relax jaw)
10 mins of nose, low, slow breathing per day, aiming for 6-8 breaths/min; once in the morning, once before bed
Aiming for consistent sleep and wake time each day, and ideally 7-9 hours of sleep
Meditation
Regular daily breathing check-ins, incorporating a body scan to see what else you can feel internally
Practicing sensing your heartbeat in your chest; eyes open, eyes closed, hand on heart, to train your internal awareness
Incorporating nose, low, slow breathing as part of your meditation. If the mind is agitated use the body (use your hands to feel your breath, to connect you to the present)
Performance
Regular daily breathing check-ins, especially pre- and post-training
100% nose breathing and gentle breath holds during your warm-up
Aiming to complete a portion of your session 100% nasal breathing (during conditioning is a good idea)
Transformation
Regular daily breathing check-ins, incorporating a body scan to see what else you can feel internally
Training your internal awareness (via the heartbeat sensing exercise) to understand what state you’re in and your capacity for intensity
Fortnightly guided breathwork sessions with an experienced facilitator, ensuring plenty of time for processing and meditation at the end
Incorporating gentle integration exercises in the days following (e.g. grounding, mindful breathing, journaling, yin yoga)
4. Keep it simple
The power of breathwork comes from understanding and applying the basics — not chasing the latest whiz-bang technique (I’ve been guilty of that).
Taking 27 instead of 30 breaths won’t break anything. Even 5 minutes per day has been shown to support stress reduction and anxiety management.
If in doubt:
Breathe through your nose
Use your diaphragm, lower ribs, and belly
Keep it slow (4 seconds in, 6 seconds out works)
Do it for 5 minutes
Get on with your day
Consistency beats complexity.
5. Get guidance to start
In a large study involving over 5,400 participants and 72 different breathing techniques, researchers found that human guidance during early sessions significantly improved outcomes — especially for people with higher anxiety or when learning more technical or intense practices.
This lines up with what I see repeatedly in practice: the right guidance early on can prevent a lot of confusion, overwhelm, and unnecessary intensity, and correct bad technique before it becomes a pattern!
Summary
Breathwork doesn’t need to be intense or complicated to work. Awareness alone is powerful. When you stop chasing the “perfect” technique and start building a relationship with your breath, your practice tends to grow naturally from there.
If you want help making sense of what will genuinely support you — without guesswork or overwhelm — you’re welcome to work with me 1:1. And if my style isn’t your flavour (or you’re not nearby), this article is packed with practitioners and approaches I genuinely respect.
Start simple. Get some guidance.
Let your breath support you — not “fix” you.
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