Serenity and Fire with Krista

My Favorite Breathing Practices for Calm and Clarity

• Krista Guagenti

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Breathing is something we all do 20,000 times a day without even thinking about it. But when I finally learned how to do it with intention—everything shifted.

In this episode of Serenity and Fire, I’m sharing the breathing practices that have become my personal go-tos for managing stress, finding focus, and resetting when life feels overwhelming. You’ll hear why I turn to quick breathing meditations over long sits (because honestly, my brain can’t handle an hour of silence!)—and how just a few minutes a day can change everything from your sleep to your stress response.

✨ What you’ll learn in this episode:

  • The science behind how breathwork calms your nervous system
  • Four simple techniques you can try right away (box breathing, 4-7-8, coherent breathing, and alternate nostril breathing)
  • How these practices connect to your vagus nerve and heart rate variability
  • When I personally use each one—whether I’m walking into a stressful meeting, trying to fall back asleep, or sitting in the cold plunge

Your breath is your most accessible wellness tool—and it’s free. By the end of this episode, you’ll have simple techniques you can start using today to feel calmer, clearer, and more in control.

🎧 Tune in now wherever you get your podcasts, and let me know which breathing practice resonates with you most!

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Serenity and Fire, the podcast where wellness meets grit. I'm your host, Krista Guidenti, founder of Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique. Join me as we dive into the intriguing world of biohacking, clean living, cutting-edge spa trends, and the hustle, grind, and grit of entrepreneurship. From my personal battles with weight management, infertility, and a 30-year journey to create and launch my dream business, to building a sanctuary for those who have been touched by cancer. I'm here to share real talk, inspire big dreams, and spark a passion for holistic living inside each and every one of you. So let's dive in. Welcome back to Serenity and Fire. Today we're talking about something that is so simple, so accessible, totally free, and super powerful. It literally has the ability to shift your mind, your body, and even your heart rhythms. I'm talking about breathing meditations. Breathing is something we all do, like 20,000 times a day, yet we rarely ever do it with intention, which can make all the difference in the world between feeling stuck in stress or feeling grounded, calm, and in control. Like many of you, I lead a very stressful life. So finding ways to manage that stress so I can continue to perform optimally and always be firing on all cylinders is very critical. Unfortunately, as an entrepreneur, even one who owns a spa where everything we do is all about minimizing stress, increasing relaxation, and finding ways to decompress from the outside world. Believe it or not, I don't actually get to just hang out in the spa 24-7 and bask in rest and relaxation. In fact, I rarely get to use most of the amenities and services we offer at Panacea just because my schedule is so crazy. And I actually find it really hard to meditate, especially for 60 minutes, like some of the health enthusiasts recommend. My brain just can't find the calm for something like that and for that long of a period of time. So quick breathing meditations are one of the things that I do to help bring balance into my life. And they're something you can also bring into your life to make a big difference. And it only requires a commitment of a few minutes each day. So let's explore the science, the benefits, and the practical applications behind this incredible wellness practice and how it all connects to something called heart rate variability as well as our vagus nerve. If you have no idea what the vagus nerve is, then you'll definitely want to stay tuned because this nerve is the key to your body's ability to rest, recover, and regulate digestion. And you can activate it just by breathing intentionally. Before we finish up this episode, I'm also going to share some simple breathing meditation techniques that you can start implementing immediately into your daily life. Every breath you take is connected to your autonomic nervous system. That's the system that runs in the background, regulating things like your heart rate, your digestion, and your stress response. When you breathe shallow and fast, your body thinks you're in danger. It kicks up stress hormones, specifically cortisol and adrenaline. That's the sympathetic side of our autonomic nervous system, the one that activates your fight or flight responses. But when you breathe slow, deep, and rhythmically, you actually stimulate your vagus nerve, which tells your body, hey, you're safe. It's okay to rest, recover, and heal. That's the parasympathetic side of our nervous system. And that's the one that tells us and our bodies to rest and digest. Your breath literally communicates with your brain and your emotions. Basically, fast breathing tells your body that you're in danger. Slow breathing tells your body you're safe. And studies actually show that certain breathing patterns can calm the limbic system. That's the emotional center of your brain. And these patterns can even synchronize your brain waves, sharpening focus and mental clarity. And breathing even affects digestion by calming the enteric nervous system, which is the third division of our autonomic nervous system. And if you remember from my probiotic episodes, this system controls your digestive functions, such as motility, secretion, and blood flow within the gut. So the science is clear. Your breath is not just oxygen in and carbon dioxide out. It's a direct remote control to your nervous system. And breathing meditations are universal tools that can help literally anyone. If you struggle with stress or anxiety, they can slow racing thoughts, reduce cortisol levels, and bring your body out of that fight or flight mode. For athletes, entrepreneurs, or anyone who's high performing, breath work boosts oxygen efficiency, sharpens mental clarity, and enhances recovery. For those living with chronic pain or illnesses, controlled breathing can lower the perception of pain and create space for healing. And for busy parents, leaders, or anyone who feels completely overwhelmed, like a lot of us, sometimes a single minute of breathing can instantly reset your entire day. Okay, let's walk through four techniques you can actually try with me. Each one serves a different purpose. The first one is called box breathing and is also known as four by four by four by four. It's four counts in, four counts hold, four counts out, four counts hold. It's equal on all sides like a box. And it's used by Navy SEALs and first responders because it creates calm under pressure. It balances your nervous system and gives you a sense of control and grounding. So let's try around. Okay, you ready? Inhale, two, three, four, hold, two, three, four, exhale, two, three, four, hold, two, three, four. This breathing technique is one that's great to use before public speaking, before a stressful meeting, or when you need to stop a stress spiral. Okay, the next one is called the four, seven, eight breath. And this is one that I just learned about for stress and relaxation. So I'm pretty excited about it because this one's like a natural sedative for your nervous system. With this one, you're gonna inhale for four seconds, hold for seven, exhale for eight. The long exhale actually activates your parasympathetic nervous system to directly lower your heart rate and signals your vagus nerve to calm everything down. If you're driving, don't close your eyes. But let's go ahead and try this together. So just breathe with me. Inhale through your nose for one, two, three, four, hold. Two, three, four, five, six, seven. Now exhale. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Great. So this one is wonderful just before going to bed, during nighttime anxiety, or anytime you feel restless. And if you feel yourself waking up in the middle of the night, this is a great one to help you get back to sleep as well. Okay, our third technique is called coherent breathing. This one is about breathing at a slow, steady rhythm of five to six breaths per minute. Usually that means inhaling for five seconds and then exhaling for five seconds. What makes this one so special is that it directly improves that heart rate variability, which we're gonna talk about more here in a moment. But basically, this technique syncs your breath with your heart rhythm. So let's try it now. Inhale, two, three, four, five, then exhale. Two, three, four, five. Good. Now this one is perfect for a midday reset, for meditation, or after workouts, sauna, or even cold plunging sessions to help your body recover. And the last one I want to talk about is called alternate nostril breathing. This one is one that a lot of yogis do and it balances the two hemispheres of the brain and helps calm scattered energy. Here's how it works: you're gonna first begin by exhaling completely through both nostrils, and then you're gonna close the right nostril with your right thumb. Inhale slowly and deeply through your left nostril, hold your breath for a few seconds, then you're gonna open your right nostril and close your left nostril with your ring and pinky fingers. Exhale slowly and deeply through the right nostril, and then you're gonna repeat this process, starting with an inhalation through the right nostril, and then you keep alternating this pattern for at least four cycles. This technique's incredible when you feel overwhelmed, overstimulated, anxious, or just creatively blocked. It's also excellent before you have to make any kind of big decisions. At this point, you're probably wondering when should I be using these breathing meditations and how often should I be using them? Well, the beauty of this practice is its flexibility. In the morning, energizing techniques like box breathing can help you focus and start the day clear. Midday, when stress or chaos is high, coherent breathing can bring you back into balance in just a few minutes. In the evening, long exhale practices like the 478 method help prepare the body for rest and deeper sleep. You can also use breath work on the spot, like before tough conversations, workouts, or big decisions to regulate those emotions and show up clear and grounded. At Panacea, we also weave breath work into our spa rituals. Pairing breath with massage, facials, body wraps, sauna, or cold plunge enhances both the physical and the emotional benefits of those services. For example, during deep tissue massage, intentional breathing helps release tension. In the cold plunge, breathing is critical to staying in long enough to experience its therapeutic benefits, which we typically tell people needs to be at least three minutes. I always encourage clients to plunge right into the cold water rather than trying to inch into it and to really focus on their breathing, especially during that first 60 seconds, because it takes about that long for your brain to calm itself and to get you out of that fight or flight mode. I even count slowly in my head taking those deep breaths. Before I know it, my mind is no longer focusing on the cold water, but instead on the healing benefits I know I'm receiving from the cold plunge. And then bam, four minutes has gone by like nothing. So the next time you're at panacea, give this a try in the cold plunge and see how you do. Most of the experts I follow recommend doing breathing meditations at least twice a day and completing four full breathing cycles each time. Think of it like brushing your teeth. A little every day helps keep things in balance. And the sweet spot is usually about five to ten minutes daily, with longer sessions when you want deeper results. And here's the good news: the benefits come even faster than most people would think. One to five minutes of intentional breathing can calm the mind, lower heart rate, and ease anxiety. And even one round of the four, seven, eight breathing method that I talked about has been shown to lower perceived anxiety almost instantly. Many people can feel the shift after their very first practice, and they're usually experiencing less tension in the chest and a calmer mood. With daily practice, even just a couple times a day, many people can experience better sleep, sharper focus, and less reactivity to stress. Studies show that within two to four weeks, cortisol levels and baseline anxiety often begin to drop. And over four to eight weeks and beyond, consistent breath work has been shown to raise baseline HRV, improve emotional resilience, and create measurable improvements in blood pressure and stress resilience. The key is consistency. Small daily habits build resilience and in-the-moment practices provide instant relief. So I mentioned HRV or heart rate variability. If you have an aura ring or some other type of wearable, you've probably seen this metric, but do you actually know what it means? I know I definitely didn't until recently, so let's go a little deeper into this since it ties so beautifully into breath work. HRV is the tiny variation between our heartbeats. Your heart doesn't actually beat like a metronome. For example, if your heart rate is 60 beats per minute, it's not exactly one beat every second. It might be 0.9 seconds, then 1.1 seconds, and then 0.95. That variation is HRV. A higher HRV means your nervous system is flexible and resilient and you can move between stress and calm with ease. A lower HRV means your system is stuck in stress mode. It's less adaptable and more prone to burnout, illness, and fatigue. Slow, deep rhythmic breathing increases HRV by synchronizing your heart rhythms with your breath. This creates what's called respiratory sinus arrhythmia, which directly raises HRV. Long exhales are especially powerful for boosting HRV since they stimulate the vagus nerve. On the flip side, shallow, chaotic, or rapid breathing lowers your HRV, telling the body that you're in stress mode. So breath work isn't just about calm, it's measurable, trackable improvement in the flexibility of your nervous system. And breathing practices are among the fastest, most natural ways to raise your HRV. So what should your HRV value be? HRV isn't a single good or bad number. What's normal really depends on age, sex, fitness level, and even the time of day. So instead of comparing to others, the best metric is tracking your own trends over time. But that said, here are the evidence-based ranges. Young healthy adults, which would be 18 to 35 years old, often see HRV values in the 60 to 100 millisecond range and sometimes higher. Middle-aged adults, which would be around 36 to 59 years old, might average 40 to 80 milliseconds. And older adults, which would be 60 and older, may range from 20 to 60 milliseconds. Elite athletes can have HRV values above 100 to 200 milliseconds, while many wearable device users average 20 to 70 milliseconds. Some other influencing factors can include gender. So men often show higher HRV than women in early adulthood, but the gap narrows with age. Fitness and recovery is another influencing factor. Athletes can see HRVs above 100 milliseconds regularly, and overtraining or poor recovery can actually lower their HRV. And when we look at lifestyle and stress, alcohol, poor sleep, dehydration, and chronic stress can all drop your HRV values. And then the time of day can actually affect your HRV value as well. It's usually highest overnight, especially during deep sleep, and then lowest during stress or physical exertion. One interesting nuance is that biological age matters more than chronological age. For example, a 50-year-old marathon runner may have the heart rate value of a 30-year-old, while a sedentary 30-year-old under chronic stress may show HRV values closer to someone in their 60s. The most important thing is to make sure that you're not comparing yourself to others. You want to track your own trends, which is why the wearables come in so handy. And you'll see that rising HRV values mean resilience, and dropping HRV values can be a warning sign of stress overload, overtraining, or lack of recovery. For example, I just looked at my aura ring this morning and my HRV value was 45 milliseconds, which is in range for my demographic, but it's been trending down over the last eight weeks, and my aura ring told me that. And even though I feel fine, clearly I'm showing signs of physiological stress. The good news is I can reverse this trend by making changes in my rest, staying more hydrated, and practicing these breathing meditations more often. Okay, so now let's talk more about the vagus nerve and how it's linked to heart rate variability and breathing meditations. I know there's been a lot of hype on social about the vagus nerve, and for good reason, because it's literally the body's superhighway for calm. It's the tenth cranial nerve running from the brainstem all the way down to your heart, lungs, and your gut. It's also the main communicator for the parasympathetic rest and digest system. When you breathe slowly and deeply, especially with long exhales, you stimulate this nerve. It carries signals from your organs to your brain and then from your brain back to your body. This stimulation tells your body it's safe. It can actually lower heart rate, drop blood pressure, stop pumping out those stress hormones that we talked about earlier, it can support digestion and it can shift you into recovery mode. It's also the vagus nerve that links your breath to heart rate variability. The vagus nerve is what creates that pattern known as the respiratory sinus arrhythmia that I mentioned earlier. That's the rise and fall of your heart rate with each inhale and exhale. So if HRV is the scoreboard of your nervous system, the vagus nerve is the coach, and breath work is the training program that makes it stronger. And when you practice the breathing techniques I mentioned earlier, it's like pressing the calm button on your vagus nerve. Strong vagal tone, meaning your vagus nerve is responsive and flexible, shows up as a higher HRV. Weak vagal tone is linked to lower HRV, more stress, and less adaptability. Every breath you take is either strengthening or weakening your vagal tone. Other practices like cold plunging, sauna contrast, chanting, humming, and even laughter can also stimulate the vagus nerve. But breathing is the fastest, most accessible way to influence it in real time. Let's go back to cold plunging for a moment. If you've ever done a cold plunge, you know that when you first step into that freezing cold water, your body interprets it as a threat, of course. And in those first 30 seconds, the cold receptors in your skin start to light up and your sympathetic nervous system explodes into action. Again, remember that's your fight or flight response. Your heart rate spikes, you may gasp or feel like you're starting to hyperventilate, and your stress hormones like norepinephrine start to surge. This is your brain and your body trying to get you to escape that cold water. But here's the magic: if you can stay with it and control your breathing, something shifts. By about 60 to 90 seconds in, your brain begins to adapt. Your vagus nerve helps calm the panic response, even though adrenaline and norepinephrine remain elevated. And you start to realize, hey, I can handle this. That's one of the reasons most of the cold plunge protocols recommend staying in for at least three minutes. The first minute is the hardest, but by that 90-second mark, your body transitions from panic into resilience training. And the entire time your stress hormones remain high, which is why you feel that incredible afterglow of focus and mood elevation for hours afterwards. So just like with breathing, cold plunging teaches your nervous system flexibility. You're training your body not to eliminate stress signals, but to respond to them with control and calm. So as we wrap up for today, here's what I want you to take away from this episode. Although wearables and gadgets can be very useful, you don't need them to influence your heart rate variability, your stress, your energy, or your health. You already have the best tool within you and it's free. That's your breath. So use it. You can use box breathing before a tough conversation or before a big meeting. Use the 478 method when you can't fall asleep. Use that coherent breathing in the sauna or after you work out. And use alternate nostril breathing when your brain feels scattered and you're seeking mental clarity. And if you're plunging, remember the first minute is panic, but the second minute is power. Pick one of these techniques today and practice it for just a few minutes. Notice how it resets your entire system and continue to do this at least twice a day and begin to take note of what changes in you. Here on Serenity and Fire, I'm all about helping you feel your best. So if you have more questions, please message into the show on social at Serenity and Fire, and I'll do my best to get you the answers you need. But try incorporating these tips into your routine and let us know how it goes. Before we wrap up today, please remember that everything on Serenity and Fire is meant for general information and inspiration purposes only. The topics we discuss are not intended to diagnose, treat, or replace personalized medical care. So please always consult with your healthcare provider before trying anything we talk about. Your health is unique and your care should be too. Okay, that's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for listening to Serenity and Fire. If today's episode inspired you, the best way to support the show is to follow, leave a review, or share it with someone who might need this message. Until next time, keep balancing Serenity with Fire. I'm Krista Guigeny and I'll talk with you in our next episode. At Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique, we don't just offer traditional spa treatments. We create rituals that relax your mind, restore your health, and rejuvenate your spirit. From biohacking technologies to advanced oncology trained care, everything we do is designed to help you heal on the deepest level with clean, holistic therapies, products, and amenities that are second to none. And right now you can experience two of my favorites our whole body LED light bed or hyperbaric oxygen therapies. And as a thank you for listening, you'll get 10% off your first session when you use the code Serenity10 at booking. What is your panacea? Let us help you find it because true wellness isn't a quick fix, it's a ritual.