The transformative power of breathwork for high achievers

Discover 7 key benefits of circular connected breathwork for high achievers

Breathwork refers to a wide range of intentional breathing techniques that lead to changes in your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual state of being. There are many different styles and breathing patterns that can be used either on their own or combined with other techniques and modalities.

As a breathwork facilitator (and a self-confessed high achiever), I have seen the transformative power of breathwork for high achievers. Today, I wanted to highlight some of the key benefits that you can expect to receive specifically from circular connected breathwork.

Circular connected breathwork, sometimes referred to as conscious connected breathwork, is the style of breath that I prefer to use when I lead a guided breathwork journey for a group. Circular connected breathwork is an active style of breathwork (so it’s a different experience than say the deep belly breathing that you might do at the end of yoga class) – but it’s gentler than some styles of breathwork like Wim Hof breathwork or 3-part breathwork.

Breathwork reminds you about balance

In breathwork, the inhale relates to receiving. The exhale is associated with releasing.

In the circular connected breathwork pattern, the length of the inhale and exhale are more or less the same. There’s balance. There’s no pause between the inhale and exhale, or between the exhale and the inhale. There’s a flow, there’s a rhythm.

In contrast, there’s a common trend for high achievers to be out of balance in terms of:

• giving more than you receive,
• trying to do more than is realistic given the available resources (e.g. time or energy or support),
• putting so much effort into achieving your goals that you neglect your own health and wellbeing.

All of which can potentially lead to stress and burnout. Breathwork reminds you of the flow that balance can bring.

Breathwork shatters the myth that you need to work harder to get better results

Breathwork, as the name implies, does require some work. However, in the circular connected style (or at least in the way that I lead it), almost all of the work is on the inhale. The exhale is passive. You relax your muscles and let the air gently be released from your lungs. There’s no pushing, no forcing, no controlling.

This is in stark contrast to the way that most high achievers have learned to be. We’ve been taught that we need to work harder if we want better results. From an early age we start to believe that we need to hustle harder and do more if we want to have more of an impact. Circular connected breathwork shows you the evidence that you don’t have to push harder to get a great outcome.

Breathwork supports you to manage imposter syndrome

Circular connected breathwork journeys generally go for somewhere between 45-60 minutes. It’s possible to do shorter sessions (15-25 minutes) but it’s not as common. What is common though is for resistance to come up during the breathwork, especially early on in the session.

When resistance comes up, the breathwork can feel hard, like it’s taking a lot of effort. Thoughts can come up. Thought like this is hard for me, maybe I’m doing it wrong, maybe it’s not worth doing this, maybe I should just stop and do something else instead.

While it feels uncomfortable, resistance is a good thing. Resistance always comes up when you’re on a journey of growth and development. As high achievers, we often experience it as imposter syndrome – and we sometimes see it as a sign that something is wrong, or that we’re doing something wrong, or simply that we’re wrong. But the truth is that resistance (or imposter syndrome or whatever label you choose to put on it) is a normal and natural part of transformation.

Breathwork allows you to practice letting go of perfectionism and fear of failure

The question, “Am I doing it right?”, comes up so frequently during guided breathwork journeys that I usually remind people that if you’re still breathing, you’re doing it right!

I try to make it light-hearted, but I understand the weight of perfectionism. The worry, the overthinking, the tension, the procrastination. It’s a pattern I know well. The safety and rhythmic flow of the circular connected breath pattern creates the ideal conditions for practicing letting go of perfectionism and fear of failure.

Breathwork is helpful for letting go of control

Or more specifically, the illusion of control! As a facilitator, it’s really important to me that as the participant, you know that you have a lot of control over your own breathwork journey. I’ll show you the breath pattern, but you get to choose the pace and the depth. You get to choose your level of commitment. You get to choose your specific intention for what you want to get out of the session.

At the same time, you can’t choose exactly what comes up for you. Physical sensations will arise. Thoughts and memories and ideas will pop into your mind. Emotions will come to the surface.

You can’t choose exactly how or when or if any of these specific experiences will happen. But you get to choose how you respond. Will you push that memory away – or allow it to be there? Will you ignore those tingles in your hands – or notice how they’re changing? Will you dismiss that idea because it doesn’t make sense – or wonder if there’s something useful that you could get from it?

Breathwork reduces overthinking and helps you listen to your intuition

As you move deeper into the breathwork journey, you’ll notice that the resistance starts to fall away, and as you really get settled into the rhythm and flow of the breathing pattern, most people tend to notice that the nature of their thoughts start to change.

The analytical part of your mind starts to take more of a backseat, so there’s room for you to receive messages from your intuition more clearly. The result of this is that you’ll see things differently.

You might see something that you’ve thought about thousands of times before from a different perspective now.

Or a new insight will come up.

You might see how part of it connects with other experiences from your past.

You might see a possible solution that had never occurred to you before.

Ultimately, if you’re a high achiever who tends to be an overthinker (like me), you will love the way that circular connected breathwork helps with this.

Breathwork reminds you that you’re not behind and it’s not too late

During the circular connected breathwork journey, the first half of the journey tends to relate a little more closely to letting go (of resistance, of stuck energy, of old emotions or thoughts or beliefs). After the release, there’s a lot more space available to start to receive (new ideas, new insights, new connections, new energy) during the second half of the journey.

But what is also true (because two things can be true at the same time), is that every breath cycle brings an opportunity to release on the exhale and receive on the inhale. It’s never too late. You’re not behind.

If you realise there’s something that you need to let go of towards the end of the breathwork journey, you can simply go ahead and do it on your next out-breath.

The same goes for ‘real life’. You don’t need to wait until the new year or the first of the month or until spring to start something new. You can simply use your next breath cycle as a reset – and then get started.

There are two other key benefits that the circular connected style of breathwork provides – not just for high achievers, but for everyone.

1. It allows both the conscious and subconscious parts of your mind to become aligned. You can click here to find out more about why that is an essential part of reaching the goals that matter the most to you.
2. There’s an integration phase built into the breathwork journey itself. Unfortunately, some tools and techniques leave out integration so you either need to remember to add it in yourself, or you risk not getting the results that you were expecting. You can click here to read more about why integration is essential for creating lasting transformation.

If you want to experience a complimentary circular connected breathwork journey with me – click here to check the dates and to get more details.