5 FAQs about Breathwork

You’ve probably heard the word breathwork tossed around, but what does it really mean? Can something as simple as breathing help calm the body, manage trauma, and build resilience in high-pressure professions? And how does it actually stack up against practices like meditation or yoga?

In this episode of 5 FAQs by EHN Canada, we sit down with Emily Day from EHN Guardians Gateway to explore how intentional breathing techniques can become a powerful tool for military members, first responders, and anyone living under constant stress. From daily routines to common myths, Emily helps us separate fact from fiction and shows how breathwork can play a key role in mental wellness.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL ANSWER:

• What exactly is breathwork?
• How does breathwork help in managing stress and trauma experienced in high-pressure professions?
• How does breathwork compare to other stress-reduction techniques like meditation or yoga?
• How can breathwork be integrated into the daily routines of those in high-stress professions?
• What are some common misconceptions about breathwork among military and first responder communities?

Learn more about EHN Canada and starting your own mental health treatment journey at ehncanada.com.

To learn about how EHN Guardians supports Military, Veterans and First Responder communities, click here: ehnguardians.ca.

Transcript

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (00:07)
Hello there, my name is Jonathan Friedman and you are listening to Five FAQs by EHN Canada. This is the show where we scour the internet for the most frequently asked questions about mental health and addiction and ask an expert for their answers to them. Today it is my honour and my pleasure to introduce my special guest, Emily Day. Emily is a dedicated wellness counselor at EHN Guardian's Gateway, where she specializes in trauma-informed, bottom-up approaches to healing.

Emily (00:23)
Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (00:31)
With over a decade of experience, Emily integrates a holistic framework in our practice, combining movement, mindfulness, and therapeutic techniques to help individuals reconnect with their bodies and process emotions trapped by traumatic experiences.

Through her compassionate approach, Emily strives to empower individuals to reconnect with their bodies, release stored emotions, and rediscover a sense of wholeness and balance. Emily, how are doing today?

Emily (00:55)
I'm really good, Jonathan. It's so great to be back.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (00:59)
We're so, glad to have you. We have lots and lots of stuff to cover today. We'll have first pancakes, second pancakes, all of the pancakes.

Emily (01:10)
The third

serving, all of it, I welcome it.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (01:12)
Amazing. We're glad to have you as a return guest, but for those who haven't listened to your previous episode, I'd love if you could just share with the listeners how you got into, how did you get into this space? How did you get into the field of mental health care?

Emily (01:29)
Yeah, so I mean, I was really introduced. It was by happenstance. The first yoga class I ever took, I was 19-ish years old and I fell into it. was searching for healing. I was searching for something to kind of help put myself back together after a traumatic experience and I fell into this practice of yoga and in that class, I found something that I...

I didn't even know I was missing slash I found myself probably for the first time in my entire life. And it triggered something internally within me where I was like, there's something to this. There's something to this space, this practice, this place, this breath. And I haven't stopped ever since. And I'm gonna be celebrating my 35th birthday this weekend. And it was the gateway.

modality that just sent me down this pathway of holistic healthcare and ⁓ one thing led to another and another training, another modality, another intervention and I just have built over the last decade plus and it all started with just one yoga class that quite frankly it saved my life and also completely changed the trajectory of my life.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (02:52)
So go to yoga is what you're saying.

Emily (02:54)
Basically, everything's better with yoga.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (02:58)
everything

is better with yoga. What type of yoga do you like to practice?

Emily (03:03)
I like a bit of a blend. So I'm a very active person. I'm very go, go, go. I manage ⁓ multiple hats as a parent as well. I have a beautiful nine-year-old. I work full-time ⁓ for Gateway and I run my own business on the side. I teach yoga on the side. I do all of these hats. So I like an active style of practice. So typically it would be a style that's called the vinyasa, which is a state of flow.

And it's very challenging because you have to figure out how to manage your body, your breath, and create this kind of fluid movement while remaining really grounded. And typically I like hot yoga over non-heated. So add, you know, 104 degrees into a really powerful movement and you're really gonna be challenged and needing to focus on your body. And I also pair it with restorative. So I love active, active practices.

as well as a blend of more passive, so restorative and yin, where you're doing slower, deeper stretches, longer holds, and really breathing into tightness throughout your body. So it's kind of a bit of a blend. I like active practices and I also like to be able to slow down, which is ⁓ something I really have to work at is slowing down, so.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (04:22)
have the crunchy and the smooth.

Emily (04:24)
I'd say a bit of both.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (04:26)
think that's a perfect segue into our questions today, which is we're going to tackle the internet's biggest questions about breathwork. This is a big part of the stuff that you do. And why don't we start off with what is it? What is breathwork?

Emily (04:35)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ So breath work really refers to kind of an overarching term where we are utilizing the body's voluntary and involuntary practice, which is breathing. essentially to manipulate breath and use breath as a way to connect to body. So breathing itself is the only vessel that actually links both mind and body together.

for us as humans, as I just mentioned, it is the only voluntary and involuntary action. So we can actually control breath. And if we forget about it, it still happens for us. So it is breath work, a practice of literally working the breath itself. So we're creating in the moment awareness, we're creating mindfulness, we're creating attention to body. And it really is that kind of.

technique, tool, intervention that just links these two pieces cognitively and somatically together. So breath work is the practice of working the breath.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (05:41)
And when you say it's voluntary and involuntary, guess when, you're running really fast at some point, like if you're not breathing properly during that run, at some point, the natural instinct to just like really breathe really loudly and is going to kick in. But then there's also, I guess, probably also when you do this a lot in yoga where you're controlling the breath through certain parts of the flow and you might want to speed it up or slow it down or practice

Emily (06:01)
Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (06:12)
types of breathing that's a lot more voluntary.

Emily (06:14)
Yeah, exactly. I mean, what can also happen too is, you know, let's say in terms of when people struggle with, let's say negative thoughts, for example, or like rumination, you kind of get in your head. Oftentimes, you're actually not paying attention to the breath itself. So it's happening for you. But there's something that can happen within, you know, negative thought patterns where people forget to breathe.

A lot of people end up like holding their breath, not even realizing that they're not breathing properly. And so the breath will then kick in for you as a way to kind of say, hey, like, you know, breathe or slow down. And in the same part as well, when let's say in a state of anxiety, right, the breath will increase in speed and you're not paying attention to it. It's happening. It's all happening as a byproduct. We're being voluntary with breath.

actually dialing in and paying attention to it, slows things down like your heart rate. It drops your blood pressure. It reduces tension in the body. So it can be something that we actually use to instill the relaxation response for us. And oftentimes if we're not paying attention to it, it can create a stress response within the body as well.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (07:30)
Really, really interesting. This is something that I've been really trying to implement since our last conversation, because I am such an anxious dude and ⁓ very socially anxious. And a big part of my work is presenting all the time and hosting Five Facts, of course. And one of the things that I notice is, especially like when I have a higher baseline in the morning, higher baseline anxiety, I will rapid fire my speech.

Emily (07:49)
Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (08:00)
And that actually doesn't leave room to even think about breathing. I'm just going, going, going, and eventually I'm just like, gotta try again. But now I find I am like really trying to slow down my speech and actually intentionally think about breathing because that helps to regulate me during all of these, for me, fight or flight situations.

Emily (08:16)
Yeah.

Yes.

Yes, that's what it's designed to do. That's exactly what it's designed to do. And it's beautiful that you just mentioned when you employ, you know, some of these techniques that you're noticing that down regulation and the anxiety, whether it's just being able to slow your speech down or, you know, pause and be more kind of responsive rather than reactive.

versus when you get in your head space and you're just firing off all the to-do's and then your body kind of responds to it, right? So actually slowing down, it's really simple and it almost seems too simple to be true, but it is, it is that simple, just intentionally drawing attention to your breath.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (09:05)
So simple.

Emily (09:06)
It really is.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (09:07)
⁓

So let's talk about how breath work can help manage stress, but specifically in high pressure professions. You do a lot of work with military veterans, first responders. These are individuals who, yes, of course, high pressure professions, but also sometimes really traumatizing events happen to them as well. So how do you bring breath work into that and work with that community or those communities rather?

Emily (09:18)
I'm sorry.

Yeah, and I think there's oftentimes similar to like mindfulness or meditation, there's this stigma around these more holistic interventions that, know, to practice breath work, I have to be like super calm and like Buddhist in, you know, position and kind of, you know, energy and that's just not the case. ⁓ How I kind of utilize breath is in a very functional based perspective. Oftentimes I have to...

help folks unlearn some of the breathing tactics that they have been introduced to through their careers. Tactical breathing is phenomenal, similar to box breathing. But oftentimes I'll have folks, especially military or policing, that are using these breathing techniques to prep them for something. So for example, within the military, they're taught a breathing technique that steadies their gun. So in a firefight that they can remain calm and grounded.

And so I'm teaching them how to now use that breath to then calm and ground yourself to, let's say, go to the grocery store or, you know, be really present at the dinner table with your family or maybe just enjoy going for a walk in the woods. So using these techniques are not just a tool to stay grounded, but they're actually a lifeline. So these are the types of practices that can help pull people out of their heads.

they can cut through something like rumination or even implicit memories from the body. We can actually use the breath to facilitate what's called the relaxation response. And clinically, it is the number one tool for activating vagal stimulation and kind of inducing a parasympathetic response and getting back to that kind of rest and restore for the nervous system. It is the number one tool that actually grounds folks back into the present moment.

into the here, back into the now, and that is a very powerful place to be in recovery from something like PTSD where you're constantly pulled in a bunch of different directions and you're stuck in the past from these traumatic experiences. Breath brings you right back into the here, right back into the now, and I use it as a tool that really empowers people to recognize, you're not powerless, you're actually quite powerful, and this is something that you have access to.

It's something that can bring you down from anxiety. It is something that can, you know, drop the suds, so to speak. We do a lot of talk around the subjective units of distress, kind of the thermometer scale for gauging how you're feeling. it is this incredible tool that drops people into their bodies, drops people into the present moment. That's what we're aiming for is just present moment awareness.

and breath does that. And so I teach a very, various rather variety. That's the word I was looking for, a variety of techniques that kind of help reframe the relationship with breath and teach these functional patterns on how to properly utilize breath for these particular professions. And on a kind of side note with this, even being able to pause between emergency calls or...

⁓ post call and debriefing, breath plays such a vital role for even just regulating the nervous system operating, know, fight flight majority of the time or being exposed to a lot of traumatic experiences in careers, it just diminishes that window of tolerance for the nervous system. So breath then expands that. It just makes it possible for people to thrive despite having these experiences.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (13:30)
So, not one of the official questions, but you have somebody who hasn't explored breath work in the past. They're now sitting down with you. You're like, this is something I'm gonna teach them. Where do you even start?

Emily (13:44)
So I start with the acknowledgement of what the breath is and I teach people ⁓ how to properly breathe. So the first thing I start with is I have folks recognize where are you breathing into, right? How are you breathing? So literally in the intro to breathing that I use for my clients is they sit down, I'll get them to tune into their body and they notice, okay, where are they breathing into? What does the breath feel like in the body?

And how does the body respond to that breath? So is it short and shallow? you, know, clavicularly breathing just in the top part of the chest? Or if you go a little deeper into that intercostal area, is there something that stops you from finding the diaphragm? When you're breathing, does it feel uncomfortable or foreign? Or is there an emotion that's there? Does it feel unsafe? Does it feel, you know, off?

Are you clenching? Is your jaw clenching? Are you squeezing your hands or are your shoulders drawn forward? We check posture, we check the space and then the rapidness. So I actually will time clients and just see how many breaths they're taking per minute. And we're monitoring, you know, habitual hyperventilation. So a lot of people ⁓ actually hyperventilate and hyperventilation isn't always super grander and expressive.

but it can be very subtle and often difficult to detect, especially if somebody has chronically been an over-breather for majority of their life. So the first thing I do is I have people notice because you can't change what you're unaware of. So if you notice where you're breathing, what it feels like, that's where we have to start is just the acknowledgement of the breath itself.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (15:29)
I'm definitely an over-breather. It's a good one. ⁓ It's very, very interesting. And ⁓ can you speak a little bit more to, you mentioned SUDs or Subjective Units of Distress Scale. ⁓ For those people who are listening who may not have experienced what that is or that way of measuring your emotional state, can you share a little bit about what that is?

Emily (15:32)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, subjective units of distress. Essentially, I reference a thermometer, how, know, temperature can go up and temperature can go down. And essentially, it's like a measurement scale that, as you said, it gauges, you know, your emotional landscape or your inner emotional landscape. And oftentimes, it's easier to kind of identify with either a color or a number rather than articulate that, you know what, I'm really depressed today or I'm really sad or I'm feeling

you know, really angry or anxious. So oftentimes we'll check in with clients when we're, you know, facilitating groups that, hey, where are you at today? How are you feeling today? And, you know, the feedback is, you know, sometimes, you know, I'm at a 40 red right now, but I'm also at a ⁓ 40 blue where, you know, somebody could check in that I'm like, I'm at a 70 today, like, you know, signifying a little higher anxiety, a little more irritability and frustrations, depending on what's going on.

So think of it as like a thermometer that just gauges the temperature of your internal landscapes and how you're kind of feeling within that moment.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (16:57)
And for, that's great, Emily. And for listeners at home, like something I do to practice this is literally every single morning I'll just do like a little check in with myself. Where am I? It doesn't need to be specifically in a clinical environment. Like how do you feel before you're going to work? Maybe something happened yesterday that you're still going through, still processing.

first step acknowledging that that's still going through your brain. Then engaging in things like breath work and lowering the rapidness of your breathing and being more intentional about it can probably help a lot.

Emily (17:35)
Absolutely. As I said to you, can't change what you're unaware of and to kind of ignore what's going on internally. It's resistance in some level. as Carl Jung is noted for saying, to resist it is to keep it persisting.

So it's such a beautiful practice to accept what's going on and then we can employ some of the tools, the techniques to slowly help move us process, integrate and move through the experience.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (18:01)
Fantastic. Thanks, Emily. So let's talk about some of those other techniques. How does breath work compared to other stress reduction techniques like meditation or yoga? Where does it fit into that toolbox?

Emily (18:15)
I think that in techniques like yoga, meditation, mindfulness, there's a lot of crossovers. mean, yoga is the blending of breath because you need it. That's where it's really different is it uses and utilizes breath as a way to connect both mind and body. So there is mindfulness in your movement. There's mindfulness in the breath that you're taking. So that really kind of encompasses everything. Breath itself.

is a very powerful practice because when you are just solely focusing on your breathing, you're not paying attention to anything else. So if you're doing, you know, a breathing technique like let's say box breathing, a lot of people are familiar with the 4-4-4 kind of model. When you're paying attention to that, you're not worried about anything else. Typically, you're not, you know, somewhere else in your head because you're focused on the count for four and then the hold and then the exhale.

And then the hold, right? So you're really paying attention to that. And it is such a powerful tool that just generates presence. And when you're present and you're in the moment, you're connected. And that is such a powerful place to be. You're not worried about the to-do list. You're not worried about the thing that you said yesterday that you wish you could unsay, but you're in the here and the now. And I think that's one of the best byproducts with breathing is that it can be kind of like a nice

primer on for say a deeper practice like meditation where you know, you're you're finding stillness in the body, but that's really only achieved when the nervous system feels safe and is grounded and you can't really practice meditation when you're in a fight flight. It's really impossible. It's not that people are unwilling. They're actually unable to so utilizing breath that is the number one tool that brings the nervous system back into that place of restore and rest or rest and digest.

And that's where we can then achieve some of those other tools. Like maybe we got into the yoga class. Maybe we sit and we practice meditation. Maybe we go for a walk in nature, but it all needs to start with the breath. If you don't have the ability to find breath, that is a really, really hard place to be because always being ungrounded or always being anxious and overwhelmed and there's just no space for anything else. So breath.

creates that space that people are so desperately looking for.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (20:43)
Great, Emily. ⁓ How can breath work be integrated into daily routine? So ⁓ we're talking about breath work right now. What are some things that people can do throughout their day to, ⁓ especially in those high stress professions?

Emily (21:00)
⁓ I mean, there's so many different techniques. Like there is a lot of different breathing techniques and that can be overwhelming in itself trying to figure out what's the best technique that I should use and when should I use it? So I create a lot of like functional lifestyle plans for clients that I work with. so I had a client and without giving ⁓ too much information but struggling with insane amounts of anxiety.

and really, really high blood pressure. And for a young guy, just really unsafe levels. So we created a functional plan and he started to implement the breathing techniques that were put into his plan. And within one week, he was checking in vitally with normal blood pressure, which is the first time that that has happened for him. And the biggest change for him was the breathing patterns. So I find two, I mean, there's,

so many times that it can be used. But I find right in the morning, first thing in the morning, before you reach for the phone or before you start to get out of bed and do the things, that is a really good time to begin practicing something like coherent breathing or resonant breathing, which is just a simple breath in for a count of five or six, and then the same exhale matching that five or six, preferably done through your nose.

slow and easy and steady. If needed to, you can exhale through your mouth. However, this particular technique is really, really, really powerful for vagal toning, parasympathetic activation. It drops your heart rate, like immediately lowers your heart rate, which that cascading effect on blood pressure, on anxiety, on fight flight sensations. Right in the morning, if you were to practice, I aim for five minutes.

Just a few of those nice, easy, easy connected breaths. That is actually how you start your day grounded, right? From a place of internalized peace rather than internalized chaos. Okay, midday you would repeat that. Take five minutes, that's it, five minutes. Just to slow down, connect to your body, connect to your breath and do it again at nighttime. And I will guarantee, I will put my money on it that if people begin to just take

The total 15 minutes, five in the morning, five midday, five at nighttime, and practice, practice just slowing down and breathing. Not only are you gonna notice a difference in biometrics, so like if you were to track your heart rate variability, you will notice your numbers going up, which is a good thing. You will notice that your anxiety levels would decrease. You would feel cognitively, cognitively rather, more alert. You would feel grounded and...

all of that kind of intensity and chatter in the background that often comes with anxiety, the urgency, that starts to subside, right? And it's just simply slowing down. The ultimate goal with the breathing is to slow down, slow down.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (24:15)
I imagine that if I did that five minutes every morning instead of quickly looking at my calendar every single day, I'd probably see some noticeable results. All right, that's my next takeaway before our next podcast.

Emily (24:25)
I think so.

Maybe what I'll do for you if you're open to it is I'll make you a little functional plan and I'll send it and then I'll check in and just see is there a shift? Is there any kind of change for you?

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (24:41)
It's on, I'm ready. Okay, amazing. ⁓ It's been really, really great to have you on the show again, Emily. If you were to give one small piece of advice for anyone starting their own recovery journey, ⁓ what advice would you give them?

Emily (24:42)
I got your six, I'll do it.

I would encourage them to use their voice. In my experience, there is so much power in your truth. And to open up and be vulnerable and give yourself that permission to say what's going on, what is plaguing your heart or what's weighing heavy on your shoulders, that is how we heal. You can't heal from what you conceal within yourself.

And my encouragement, if you're embarking on this journey of healing, of recovery, of self-development, is to speak that truth, to say it out loud, to allow it to be seen, to be witnessed, and to be heard. And that's where I believe trauma dies, is essentially when it's witnessed, when we can be validated and supported and seen and heard. I believe that, you know...

Trauma doesn't have to be traumatic for the rest of our lives. And if we have the bravery to ask for the help, then go that next step and have the bravery to speak that truth.

Jonathan Friedman (He/Him (26:05)
I love that. Thank you so much, Emily. It's really, really been great having you on the show again. And I didn't say this before, but happy birthday. That's fantastic. ⁓ To learn more about the work Emily does and the work we do here, please go to ehnguardians.ca and ehncanada.com ⁓ To listen to even more episodes of Five Facts, you can check it out on your favorite streaming platform. If you missed Emily's last episode, you should definitely check that one out too. And ⁓ thanks so much, and we'll see you next time.

Emily (26:13)
Thank you. Thank you.