My offering to the Del Ray wellness community comes not as a breathworker, but as a breath coach, shaped by more than 1,000 coaching clients across the last decade.
That distinction may seem small, but it’s foundational.
A breathworker provides a moment: a curated, guided experience. These sessions can be spectacular—deep, emotional, even life-changing. They can open doors. They can reveal something true. And that is wonderful.
But a breath coach trains your breathing. For the other 99% of your life. Tuesday afternoon, when the email arrives charged with urgency. The awkward conversation, the restless night, the workout, the traffic, the ordinary stress of being human.
In those moments, there is no guide. No music. No perfectly timed instructions. You default to your conditioning. Your training.
Breath is trainable. In fact, if you’re not training your breathing, you’re leaving 10% on the table.
So over years of coaching real people in real lives, I’ve boiled breathing down to three “minimum effective doses”: three simple principles you can use anywhere, anytime.
When the chips are down, these are the go-tos that bring you back. They help you stay present. They restore a sense of agency. They build resilience as a lived bodily skill.
Any one of these is gold. You don’t need to remember anything else.
1. Notice Your Breath
This may be the most underrated practice in modern life: simply noticing that you are breathing.
It sounds almost too simple, like being told the secret to health is “drink water” or “sleep sometimes.” But awareness is not nothing. Awareness is the beginning of everything.
Most people go through their days without ever realizing what their breath is doing. And the breath is always doing something: slowing, tightening, speeding up, flattening, deepening, holding, climbing into the chest.
Your breathing pattern is a background weather report for your nervous system.
When you notice your breath, you notice your state.
And that alone is profound.
Because you cannot change something you are not aware of.
Notice does not mean judge. It does not mean fix. It simply means observe, with the gentle curiosity of a scientist or a meditator:
Am I breathing fast or slow?
High in the chest or low in the belly?
Smoothly or with little catches and holds?
The moment you notice, you step out of autopilot. You become present.
In my experience, this single practice—done consistently—can change someone more deeply than any exercise plan or diet program. Not because breath is magic, but because awareness is transformative.
You begin to meet yourself where you actually are.
2. Slow Your Breath (Especially the Exhale)
Once you notice your breath, the next minimum effective dose is simple:
Slow it down.
Especially your exhales.
The exhale is the nervous system’s downshift.
When your exhale lengthens, your body receives a message: we are safe enough to soften. And in your softness is your true power.
This is not just philosophy. It is physiology.
Your autonomic nervous system—the part of you that governs stress and relaxation—responds directly to breathing rhythm. A long, unhurried exhale supports the parasympathetic “rest and digest” state. It stimulates pathways in the body associated with recovery, digestion, and calm.
In plain language: longer exhales tell your body you are not being chased by a tiger.
Even if the tiger is just your calendar.
A slow exhale is one of the most reliable ways to interrupt stress in real time.
No special posture required. No dramatic effort. Just a quiet signal to your system:
I’m here. I’m okay. I can return.
This is one of the most practical tools I know for anxiety, overwhelm, emotional reactivity, or even just the low-grade tension so many people carry as normal.
The exhale is the way back to presence.
3. Nasal Breathing as a Daily Anchor
The third minimum effective dose is deceptively powerful:
All nasal, all day. Even during exercise. Let your nose be the throttle of your intensity.
In the modern world, many adults have unconsciously become mouth breathers—especially under stress, during workouts, or while sleeping.
But nasal breathing is how humans are designed to breathe. The nose is not just decorative. It is a filtration system, a humidifier, and a regulator.
Nasal breathing also supports the production of nitric oxide, a molecule involved in circulation and oxygen delivery. It naturally slows the breath. It encourages diaphragmatic breathing. It anchors you.
Mouth breathing, by contrast, tends to be faster, shallower, and more activating.
A simple rule of thumb is this:
Mouth breathing signals urgency.
Nasal breathing cultivates steadiness.
During workouts, nasal breathing can feel challenging at first. Not because you aren’t getting enough oxygen, but because it asks you to build tolerance for carbon dioxide—the natural “air hunger” sensation that arises when the breath slows down.
Unforced tolerance is part of the training.
Nasal breathing teaches calm under load. It turns exercise into nervous system practice, not just muscle work.
And even if you don’t do it all the time, simply returning to the nose whenever you remember is powerful.
The breath becomes a home base.
The Point: Simple Enough to Remember When Life Is Real
These three principles are not meant to replace more comprehensive breath coaching.
But the foundation is simpler:
Notice.
Slow.
Nasal.
Those are the minimum effective doses.
Breathing is happening anyway. The question is whether it happens unconsciously, shaped by stress and habit, or consciously, shaped by awareness and choice.
The breath is one of the only bridges between the voluntary and involuntary body. It is a doorway you can walk through at any moment.
It is trainable.
To come back to yourself, again and again, in the middle of the day, in the middle of difficulty, in the middle of being human.
Bob Soulliere is the founder and head coach at Breathe Your Power. Through breath, conscious cold, mindset, and HRV training, he puts you in the driver’s seat of your experience of life, reconnecting you with your birthright power, your native capacity to regulate your nervous system. To become happier, healthier, and stronger. To improve performance and emotional intelligence. To find and embody your voice and full expression, change and shift your life with more ease and grace, and maybe even find the fun at the heart of life. He is a Wim Hof Method Global and Academy Instructor and North America Instructor Lead, and Master Instructor for Oxygen Advantage / Buteyko Clinic International, and have trained thousands in these methods. Learn more at BreatheYourPower.com.
