How Your Nervous System Affects Your Health
Because breathing is wired directly into the nervous system, a few deliberate breathing techniques can shift you out of fight-or-flight and into calm.
In today’s fast-paced world, the nervous system is constantly bombarded with stressors, often leaving the sympathetic nervous system — the body’s “fight-or-flight” response — overactive. Finding balance requires nervous system regulation, and one of the most effective ways to do that is through breathwork. By practicing specific breathing techniques, we can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation, reducing stress, and enhancing overall well-being.
How breathwork influences the nervous system
Breathing is directly connected to the autonomic nervous system, which means the way we breathe helps determine whether the body stays in a state of stress or shifts into relaxation. Shallow, rapid breathing often signals tension, while deep, controlled breathing stimulates the vagus nerve and encourages a calmer state.
Breathwork techniques for nervous system regulation
- Lateral thoracic breathing (the Pilates breath) — expands the lower lobes of the lungs while keeping the core engaged, promoting both stability and relaxation. Commonly used in Pilates, it builds breath awareness and control.
- Box breathing — a structured method of inhaling, holding, exhaling, and holding for equal counts. It helps balance the nervous system and sharpen focus.
- Extended-exhale breathing — lengthening the exhale stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, easing stress and encouraging calm.
The Settle Breath
One physiological sigh — two breaths in, one long breath out — is the fastest way to tell your nervous system it’s safe. Press play and take a minute with me.
This is the free one. Inside SOVA you’ll find the full set — Settle, Steady, Slow and Release, in longer sessions — free to start.
Weaving breathwork into daily life
Breathwork is most powerful when it becomes part of how you move and how you meet stress. A few mindful breaths before a workout, in a tense moment, or at the end of the day can steady the nervous system and bring you back to yourself — no special setting required, just your own breath.
When the mind needs somewhere to land
Everything in this wing points, in the end, to the same place — the breath, and the nervous system beneath it. It is why I built SOVA: a quiet companion for the moments in between.
- Today — a daily practice that aligns you before the day pulls you a dozen directions.
- Companion — a place to process any feeling, even the happy ones.
- Pages — a soft place to set your thoughts down and out of your head.
- The House — rooms of calm to step into, whenever you need one.