There’s something quietly happening across boardrooms, kitchen tables, and back-to-back Zoom calls.
It’s not just stress or burnout or even anxiety. It’s something that happens before that and it’s even more subtle, more primal and potent.
We’re holding our breath.
And we don’t even realise we’re doing it.
The Hidden Habit of High Performers
Scan any high-functioning leader, especially those juggling competing priorities and you’ll often find:
- Raised, tense shoulders
- Tight jaws
- Shallow chest breathing
- Long pauses between breaths
- Or no exhale at all
This is not random, nor is it a conscious decision. Weakness or poor posture cannot be blamed. It is the body whispering: “I’m bracing for something my brain and nervous system are really scared about.”
This unconscious breath-holding is a nervous system response. It is a physiological signal that we’re under threat, even if the “threat” is just a flood of emails, a pitch meeting, or the pressure of being everything to everyone.
In my book about How The Brain Blocks Business and What We Can Do About It, I share this Brain Fact:
Your brain is perfectly formed and finely tuned to the human operating environment. BUT….And it is a big BUT… it is the operating environment of 250,000 years ago.
Yes, your brain is perfectly designed to operate in the Savannah where we would be hunting for food, evading beasts with big teeth and sharp claws who could eat us, fighting off or attacking other rival tribes, looking for someone of the same species to mate with and once we had off-spring, nurturing and protecting them so our tribe could sustain its presence in this harsh environment.
We have the hardware (your brain) and the software (thinking and behaviour patterns) to survive and indeed thrive out in the Savannah.
Of course, back then there was no internet, no e-mails, no business plans, no marketing strategies, no customer acquisition… nothing… just a harsh, unforgiving environment where life expectancy was short with potential threats behind every boulder and under every bush.
Now whilst our environment has changed dramatically with the rapid growth of civilisation and the emergence of significant technologies (eg fire, the wheel, money as a form of value exchange, the printing press, electricity, the telephone and the internet to name just a few of the big ones), we as a species have not evolved at all in the last 250,000 years to keep pace with these changes. We have adapted.
So, you are living in a modern, technologically driven 21st Century world with an internal human operating system designed for a very different environment. And if you are in business, you are trying to achieve… Commercial Development Like a Cave Dweller!!
When Did We Stop Breathing Properly?
Breath awareness isn’t new. It’s ancient.
For centuries, communities lived in rhythm with their breath. Walking, farming, singing, praying, birthing, grieving. Breathing was conscious. Our ancestors know breath was coherent and connected them to the essence of life.
But by the 1950s, we industrialised our work and unintentionally began to industrialise our nervous systems.
We swapped open air for fluorescent light. Our nurturing deep exhalation swapped for breath holding deadline pressure. Our embodied rhythm swapped for cognitive overload.
And conscious breath awareness? It became background noise.
Why This Affects Women More Than Men
In my work with impact driven leaders, founders and executives I’ve noticed that women are especially prone to breath-holding and often they are completely unaware of it.
Why?
Because women generally have been taught to hold it all together. To pull tummies in, to stay calm, stay competent and most of all, stay in control.
And somewhere in remembering to do all that, women learned to self-contain, which means self containing energy, emotions and fundamentally breath.
But men are not immune. More and more men are consulting me as they unconsciously succumb to slouching from hours hunched over a desk working under pressure. In many leadership cultures the underlying message is to push through, to suppress feeling, to “be strong” at all costs.
So women typically holds breath in and men hold it back.
Either way, for our species our nervous systems are bracing for the next fight for survival.
We have business goals, hopes, dreams and desires and we wonder why everything is so hard to achieve. Breath holds the key.
Breath-Holding Is Not Just A Habit. It’s A Signal.
When you reconnect with your breath you’ll discover holding your breath is a neurological cue. You’ll instantly recognise you’ve stepped into a survival strategy and that your breath influences everyone around you. Internally, your sympathetic nervous system is activated putting you in a low-grade fight, flight, or freeze.
And you don’t need a tiger in the room for this response.
All it takes is an overloaded action list (oh btw, it’s never a “to-do” list because psychologically it’s always to do!), perhaps a big meeting with a client, a tense email from a co-director, of the very real but invisible pressure of being everything to everyone.
Over time, this chronic micro-bracing leads to symptoms affecting your health including:
- Sleep disruption
- Focus fatigue
- Emotional volatility
- Reduced immune response
- Creative collapse
- And ultimately… burnout masked as “just being busy”
Breath Is Your Portal. Nervous System Is Your Powerful Strategy.
Breath is not just a wellness trend. It’s not a box to tick on your morning routine.
It’s the fastest, most precise portal to nervous system regulation and sustainable, impactful leadership.
When you breathe well, you:
- Increase oxygen to the brain, so your decision making is sharper
- Activate your parasympathetic nervous system which dissolves stress at the source
- Influence the tone of your voice, presence, and energy which improves how others connect with you
- Signal safety, which deepens trust, both internally and across your team
This is where my work lives.
Clients often call me The Barefoot Strategist – I like that! I don’t just teach breathwork or nervous system regulation or business strategies. I share what’s worked (and what hasn’t) throughout my life, personal businesses as well as consulting and mentoring for 25 or more years!
I see the pathway breath creates as I guide founders and leaders to recalibrate their entire internal system to restore nervous system intelligence, decision-making clarity, and emotional resilience purposefully creating the pathway to higher profits and beyond.
Conscious breath awareness has been with me all my life. I was taught breathwork by my father, long before it was trendy. Since then, I’ve trained in advanced pranayama, yoga, and somatic strategies, and for now lets keep the business psychology and accelerated business growth strategies out of this. What I’m most known for is helping leaders use their breath not to relax… but to lead.
I’ve never shouted about it, but breath isn’t new age fluff, it’s a strong, powerful strategy. It’s how you:
- Influence a room
- Stay sharp under pressure
- Recover after intensity
- Lead without force
- Connect without collapse
A New Era of Leadership Starts with One Breath
I am definitely not saying breath awareness is another things to be scheduled into your day. Far from it.
But, I am saying conscious breath awareness is about bringing you and your system back online to remember what your body already knows.
Breath enables you to lead and achieve, or lead and succeed. Breath gives you the edge. Your breath is your key to improving productivity of your team. You become the leader in essence not just title. The transformation in business results are fast and remarkable when the leader steps in to the breath and physiology of being the leader.
If You’re Holding Your Breath Right Now…
Exhale.
Not as an act of self-care, but as a strategic reset. Because every breath you reclaim is a step toward:
- Leading without burnout
- Creating without collapse
- Performing without pressure
- Living without losing yourself
- Achieving your hearts desire
Ready to Breathe and Lead Differently?
Let this be your invitation back to leadership that doesn’t cost you your health, your joy or your future.
Book a confidential 1:1 with me and we’ll begin with breath and I’ll show you how it unlocks everything else you’re striving for in your life and business.
Breath is free, but ignoring it is expensive.
Contact me to discover how to breathe and lead.
Always
Gail