One Breath at a Time: Executive Coaching for Stress Reduction
My love affair with breathing began with a near-death experience.
I was about a year into long COVID, grappling with horrible fatigue and muscle weakness; I couldn't even walk my dog around the block. I had spent thousands of dollars and got poked a lot for tests trying to get to the root of what felt like it was killing me.
All my doctors, except one, told me to go home and rest.
Fuck that. I had to go on my own search.
I've since shared my breathing experiences with hundreds of people through coaching, cacao, psychedelics, and retreats, leading to immense breakthroughs. Here's where my journey began.
An Unexpected Diagnosis
A friend who was grappling with her own post-COVID symptoms referred me to Dr. Jason Keifer of BrainHealth Hawaii. He helps people suffering from sleep disorders and brain injuries. He was the first doctor to use an EEG to measure the electrical activity in my brain.
Taking one look at my scan, his eyes widened and he said, "I can't believe you're functioning right now!"
My EEG reading, courtesy Dr. Jason Keifer
The EEG is broken up into separate parts of the brain. Most people see the concentration of their brain activity in the middle of each of the diagrams, like a tall mountain.
I’ve added a yellow box highlighting that my distribution showed strong peaks to the left, especially in the front lobes, where my decision-making lives. Long story short, my brain was operating at a low electrical frequency, like my RPMs couldn't get high enough to power daily living.
I was slurring my words and couldn’t complete sentences. It was terrifying. I can’t tell you how good it felt to have someone validate the living nightmare I was slogging through.
As we dug for answers, he looked in an unlikely place: my sleep. I'm pretty lean, and while I do snore a little (my fiancé may argue more than a little), I slept pretty decently. That's why his recommendation of a sleep test shocked me.
It turns out that I had mild sleep apnea—a condition that means I wasn't breathing properly throughout the night. The readings showed that I was gasping for air at multiple points of the night.
This led me on a journey marked by surgery, where I had soft tissue in my airways reduced so I could breathe better. Then I moved to mouth tape at night to promote nasal breathing. Finally, a nose strip to lift my collapsed nasal passage to promote better breathing.
As I made these changes, my sleep got better and my recovery improved. My anxiety decreased as my body could breathe again.
His hunch was that my body had been weakened by my sleep apnea. All it took was a COVID booster shot and a stressful event (I was going through a breakup at the time), and my dry powder was lit.
It took me two years to (mostly) heal from long COVID, and proper breathing was one of the pillars that supported my recovery.
Maybe this breath thing was more than Wim Hof and ice baths. Turns out, it’s also a game-changer in executive coaching for stress reduction.
The Science of Breath
A proper inhale, image courtesy of anatomytool.org
I read Breath by James Nestor, and I learned the remarkable science behind nasal breathing and its production of nitric oxide—a wonder chemical the body produces that is antiviral and has numerous other benefits for the brain and immune system.
When we breathe through our nose, we're not just taking in air—we're activating our body's innate healing mechanisms.
But that's just the gateway to the respiratory system.
I went deeper and stumbled upon this podcast by Dr. John Douillard about diaphragmatic breathing. When environmental stressors build (like conflict, crazy deadlines, end of runway, etc.), your breathing tends to get shallower. Oxygen isn't hitting the bottom of your lungs as much. The upper part of the respiratory system signals to the nervous system that you're in fight or flight.
The unlock is the lower part of the respiratory system—this is where deep belly breaths go. Try it now—take a deep nasal inhale all the way into the belly and up across the rib cage.
Practical Applications for Leaders Under Pressure
For leaders, this physiological response can be disastrous. When you're in that heightened state of alertness, your prefrontal cortex—responsible for complex decision-making and emotional regulation—takes a backseat to more primitive brain functions. I've seen executives make snap judgments in meetings that derailed projects and damaged team trust, all because their bodies were in a stress response.
As a leader, your state becomes your team's state. A calm leader creates a calm team. Executive coaching for stress reduction often starts with something as simple as breath awareness.
The Mindful Leader's Edge
Today, breathing isn't just something my body does—it's a conscious practice that grounds my leadership. I dedicate time daily to breathe into my belly, gradually releasing the tightness that once bound my chest and diaphragm. With each breath, I stretch not just my physical capacity but my emotional resilience as well.
The most effective leaders I know aren't just strategic thinkers or charismatic speakers—they're people who have mastered their internal state. And that mastery begins with the breath.
So I invite you to pause right now. Feel your feet on the ground. Draw one slow breath deep into your belly.
And remember that in a world that rewards constant action, sometimes the most powerful leadership move is simply to breathe.