Nourish, Then Flourish
Nourish, Then Flourish
You ruminate over things that happened today.
You lie awake running through tomorrow.
You tell yourself to just relax, but your chest stays tight.
You reach for the anti-inflammatory nasal spray again.
What if part of the answer is something you do 20,000 times a day without even thinking about it?
Your breathing.
Buteyko is a breathing retraining method developed by Dr Konstantin Buteyko in the 1950s.
Most of us were never taught how to breathe, even though we’ve been doing it since the day we were born. It’s what keeps us alive.
Over years of stress, busy days and blocked noses, many people slip into breathing through the mouth, into the upper chest, and taking in more air than the body needs. Dr Buteyko called this chronic over-breathing.
It’s easy to miss, because it doesn’t feel like heavy breathing. It looks like frequent sighing or yawning, a nose that’s often blocked, waking with a dry mouth, cold hands and feet, trouble concentrating, or feeling short of breath when you talk.
More air isn’t actually better.
Every time you exhale, you release carbon dioxide, and when you over-breathe, you lose too much of it.
That matters because carbon dioxide isn’t just waste. Your body needs a certain amount of it to release oxygen from your blood into your muscles and organs, and to keep your airways and blood vessels relaxed. With too little, less oxygen reaches where it’s needed, even though you’re breathing more.
Over time, your brain gets used to the faster pattern and treats it as normal, so the over-breathing carries on, day and night.
Buteyko gently retrains your breathing until calm, gentle nose breathing becomes your body’s natural default, whilst you’re awake and while you sleep.
It’s built on four principles:
– Breathe through your nose: not your mouth, unless you really have to. Your nose filters, warms and humidifies every breath, and clearing a blocked nose is often the first step.
– Breathe light: softly reducing how much air you take in.
– Breathe slow: slowing your breathing rate to calm your nervous system.
– Breathe low: breathing from your diaphragm rather than your upper chest.
– Clearing a blocked or stuffy nose
– Boosting nitric oxide, made in your nose and sinuses, which supports your body’s defences against infection and inflammation
– Keeping you breathing through your nose at night, for fewer wakings and less snoring
– Switching on your “rest and digest” response through the vagus nerve, to calm your body and mind
At your first session, I measure your control pause, a simple, comfortable breath-hold test that shows how your body is handling carbon dioxide.
It’s your starting point.
As your breathing improves, the number goes up, so you can see your progress as well as feel it.
Women’s breathing is shaped by hormones. Progesterone stimulates breathing, which is why many women breathe more in the second half of their cycle, and why breathing patterns often shift through perimenopause and after menopause. Women also tend to have lower resting carbon dioxide levels than men to begin with. Buteyko gives you a way to work with your body through all of these changes.
No forcing. No big gulping breaths.
Small, practised changes that add up.
Obviously, respiratory conditions such as asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (“COPD”), and dysfunctional breathing.
But it can also be extremely useful in anxiety, stress and people whose nervous systems tend to be dysregulated or on high alert.
Fast, upper-chest breathing keeps your nervous system on high alert. Women are two to three times more likely than men to develop panic disorder, and research links shifting hormones to changes in breathing sensitivity across the cycle and through perimenopause. Buteyko gives your body a calmer way to breathe, and a tool you can use the moment stress rises.
Your nose is built to filter, warm and humidify every breath. Mouth breathing skips all of that. Buteyko starts with clearing your nose and making nasal breathing your default, so your sinuses get the conditions they were designed for.
Mouth breathing and over-breathing at night can leave you waking tired, foggy or with a headache. In women, disrupted night-time breathing often shows up as insomnia and poor-quality sleep rather than loud snoring, and the risk rises after menopause. Retraining how you breathe by day carries through to how you breathe at night.
Mouth breathing at night is also linked to snoring and sleep apnoea, which is why nasal breathing is at the heart of Buteyko.
Five one-on-one sessions to retrain your breathing for good.
– Initial 60-minute session, including a full breathing assessment and your starting control pause score
– A follow-up session a few days later, while new habits are forming
– Three 30-minute sessions to refine your practice and progress your exercises
– Your control pause measured at the start and finish, so you can see your progress in numbers
– Exercises to practise at home between sessions
If you would like herbal or nutritional support alongside your breathing, you can add a Herbalist Consult at any time.
I’m Julia Brosnan, a naturopathic herbalist, certified Metabolic Balance Coach Practitioner, and Buteyko Clinic International Accredited Instructor.
That means I don’t see your breathing in isolation. Stress, sleep, hormones, gut and breath are all connected, and when it helps, I can bring herbal and nutritional support alongside your breathing work.
Buteyko works alongside your medical care, not instead of it. Keep using any prescribed medication, inhaler or device exactly as directed by your doctor.
If you are pregnant or trying to conceive, please let me know before booking. Breath holds and reduced breathing exercises are not practised during the first trimester.
There’s always somewhere to begin.
Your next breath is one.
$595, payment plans available