The Breathing Foundation That Changes Everything
Practical insights into one of the most baseline wellbeing practice: your breath.
Last week, I shared how most high-performers get stuck between knowing what to do and actually embodying it.
Today, we’re building the foundation that makes embodiment possible: your breathing system. Here’s what happens when I guide high-performers through just three optimal breaths:
Immediate relief. Every single time.
Because we’ve normalized breathing like we’re in constant survival mode.
Shallow. Rushed. Often through the mouth.
The result?
We’re starving our bodies and brains of oxygen.
The cascade effect:
Under-oxygenated organs
Tired muscles and low energy
Disrupted sleep and mental fog
A nervous system that can’t find calm
Decision paralysis and mental loops
Lost presence in difficult conversations
If three breaths create that much relief, what would happen if we rebuilt your entire operating system on optimal breathing?
We can create and run innovative projects, but we can't run our respiratory system.
Modern researchers like James Nestor and Patrick McKeown discovered something shocking that happened to human breathing.
Our nasal airways have literally shrunk.
Why? Our modern diet.
We don’t chew as much anymore. Everything is processed, soft, convenient.
I get it. I eat half a kilo of fresh vegetables daily and it’s exhausting to chew that much.
But here’s the trade-off:
We save energy on chewing
We lose energy from inadequate oxygen intake
Our airways can’t handle optimal breathing
The bigger problem?
Your nervous system is stuck in constant activation mode.
Every notification. Every deadline. Every busy street.
Your body can’t tell the difference between:
A charging tiger
A beeping phone
Both trigger the same fight-or-flight response.
The result?
You’ve been rewired away from your natural breathing system.
Instead of nasal breathing (your evolved system), you default to mouth breathing. Your body’s emergency backup that was never meant to run 24/7.
Why This Is Sabotaging Everything?
Most high-performers are making two critical breathing errors that undermine every other optimization effort they make.
Error #1: Mouth Breathing
When you breathe through your mouth, you’re running your oxygen delivery system roughly at 30% efficiency.
Like trying to fuel your car with a garden hose.
Your brain gets a fraction of the oxygen it needs for complex decision-making.
Error #2: The CO2 Misconception
Most people think CO2 is just waste we need to get rid of.
The counterintuitive truth:
When you exhale through your mouth, you’re actually starving your tissues of oxygen.
You’re releasing too much CO2 too quickly.
Think of CO2 as the delivery truck that drops oxygen at your cells’ doorstep.
Without adequate CO2 in your bloodstream, your red blood cells hold onto oxygen instead of releasing it where you need it most:
Your brain
Your organs
Your decision-making centers
No delivery truck, no oxygen delivery, regardless of how much you’re breathing in.
This is dysfunctional breathing.
I see it in every high-performer I work with. Including myself, before I understood these mechanics.
We’re trying to optimize mental loops, decision fatigue, and reactive patterns while operating on a fundamentally compromised foundation.
It’s like trying to grow nourishing vegetables in depleted soil.
What This Looks Like in Real Life?
Most high-performers are making two critical breathing errors that undermine every other optimization effort they make.
Error #1: Mouth Breathing
When you breathe through your mouth, you’re running your oxygen delivery system at 30% efficiency.
Like trying to fuel your car with a garden hose.
Your brain gets a fraction of the oxygen it needs for complex decision-making.
Error #2: The CO2 Misconception
Most people think CO2 is just waste we need to get rid of.
The counterintuitive truth:
When you exhale through your mouth, you’re actually starving your tissues of oxygen.
You’re releasing too much CO2 too quickly.
Think of CO2 as the delivery truck that drops oxygen at your cells’ doorstep.
Without adequate CO2 in your bloodstream, your red blood cells hold onto oxygen instead of releasing it where you need it most:
Your brain
Your organs
Your decision-making centers
No delivery truck, no oxygen delivery — regardless of how much you’re breathing in.
This is dysfunctional breathing.
I see it in every high-performer I work with. Including myself, before I understood these mechanics.
We’re trying to optimize mental loops, decision fatigue, and reactive patterns while operating on a fundamentally compromised foundation.
It’s like trying to grow nourishing vegetables in depleted soil.
What This Looks Like in Real Life?
Meet Anton.
Senior Agile Coach at a tech-marketing company. Managing complex projects and human dynamics.
A few months ago, everything was hitting at once:
School applications for his 6-year-old weren’t going smoothly
New teammates bringing underlying challenges to the surface
Company changes running through everything
“I started to feel like I was drowning between priorities,” Anton shared. “Even smaller decisions, like writing a grocery list became total stress.”
His sleep became shallow and constantly interrupted. He felt worse physically.
This is what I see in every high-performer before they learn optimal breathing: systematic overwhelm that makes everything harder than it needs to be.
Here’s what changed when Anton learned optimal breathing:
Parenting: “I started to catch myself on multiple occasions before losing it with my 6-year-old that prevented significant derailing from how I want to show up as a Father to my son”
Professional: “I was able to stop and breathe optimally in an escalating conflict with teammates and managed to stay professional, calm and empathetic while expressing my point of view.”
This is the shift from reacting to responding.
When you optimize your breathing foundation, you optimize everything built on top of it:
Your nervous system
Your ability to meet your emotions
Decision-making under pressure
Your presence in difficult moments
Your 3-Step Breathing Foundation
These three steps will help you retrain your body's breathing mechanics and contribute to a more balanced nervous system.
Unlike traditional meditation that requires 20-40 minutes of dedicated time, optimal breathing retrains your muscles through shorter, more frequent practice. You're literally teaching your body a new default pattern.
Step 1: The Breath Audit
First, become aware of your breathing quality without trying to change anything.
Check #1: Nose vs. Mouth
Do you catch yourself with an open mouth at your computer?
Are you mouth-breathing during walks?
Do you wake up with a dry mouth? (Sign of overnight mouth breathing)
Check #2: Horizontal vs. Vertical
Horizontal (optimal): Lower ribs expand sideways, front and back
Vertical (dysfunctional): Shoulders rise, creating tension
Check #3: Breath Rate Set a timer for 1 minute. Count each full breath.
Most people: 15-25 breaths per minute
Optimal range: 6-10 breaths per minute
Step 2: Master the Optimal Breath
Two components: Horizontal breathing + The optimal rhythm
Horizontal Breathing: True diaphragmatic breathing is 360-degree expansion — front, sides, and back simultaneously.
The Optimal Rhythm:
Inhale: As much as feels comfortable (aim for at least 4 seconds)
Exhale: Slightly longer than your inhale
Pause: Brief 1-2 seconds after exhale
This helps your nervous system to find its way back to balance when it is overactivated. [More on this soon in future articles.]
Step 3: Integration Through Micro-Practices
3 × 5-minute sessions daily
Attach to existing habits:
Morning routine before leaving bed
Before meetings or computer work
During daily tasks (cooking, commuting, walking)
Key insight: Practice away from a meditation cushion. Any moment can become a breathing practice opportunity.
[Link to integration guide]
The Bigger Picture
This breathing foundation is Step 1 in mastering your inner system.
Coming in future newsletters:
Further nervous system balancing techniques
How to use this foundation for emotional regulation
Moving from “thinking about emotions” to feeling them
When you master your breath, you master the operating system that everything else runs on.
This Week’s Challenge
For the next 7 days:
Attach 10 optimal breaths to 3 existing daily habits.
Examples:
10 breaths before opening your laptop
10 breaths while your coffee brews
10 breaths before walking into any meeting
Track: How does your energy and mental clarity feel compared to days when you skip it?
Reply and let me know. I read and get back to every response.
With Gratitude,
Tamás Hovanyecz
P.S. Thanks for reading PROOF | OF | BALANCE! This supports general wellbeing and deepening integration work; for clinical anxiety, depression, or other mental health concerns, focused work with licensed professionals is recommended.