What is Breathwork?

I'm Nathan and I'm an Educator of 14 years. Throughout the span of my career in Education, I've taught in a diverse range of settings in Australia and Japan including English as a Second Language (Adults, Elementary and Junior High School), Special Education (K-12) and Primary School (K-6).

In 2009,  I started practising meditation to manage my mental health and by 2011, I was facilitating guided meditations and visualisations to adults. I understood the need to regulate the body, mind and emotions and wondered about the possibility of teaching this to children. Initially, I found this particularly challenging while teaching English as a Second Language and Special Education. 

My students had limited language skills in both contexts, which made it difficult for me to guide them. What was I to do with them if I wanted to offer them a valuable and worthwhile experience of regulating their body, mind and emotions? 

Then it struck me. I could work with their breathing! 

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At the time, all I knew of was deep and slow breathing and that is all I worked with.

 Whenever there was any students needing to calm themselves down, I'd just tell them to "take a deep breath". 

I even developed and presented a research topic on "The Positive Effects of Mindfulness for Students on the Autism Spectrum" at the Autism in Education Conference in Melbourne, 2016.

At the time, I didn't even know what the word "Breathwork" meant. Whenever I saw the word, I always  thought it was the same thing as meditation. Or the breathing exercise that I did during Yoga Class.

I experienced a series of intense personal challenges between 2019-2021, where I felt like I was burning out and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I closed the door on my role in Special Education and thought that I was done and dusted with teaching. 

My introduction to Breathwork came at a time when I first discovered cold exposure and ice baths during my recovery from surgery. I felt inspired to learn how to facilitate and deepen my understanding of the science, art and application of the breath. 

At first, it was more for myself! 

Instead, I fell in love with every single application of Breathwork that existed! I learnt so many different things about the breath and how it affects and is affected by everything that we do. 

From emotional regulation, to sports performance, better sleep, immunity, digestion, focus, attention, buried emotions and unprocessed trauma. The list grew longer and longer and Breathwork could be applied to every area of my life, as an Individual, Parent and Educator.  

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It was as if a breath of fresh air, of fresh life was flowing through me and I decided that I wanted to teach Breathwork to Children.  It was coming up to the end of the 2022 school year and I had no concrete plans for the following year (2023). I was contacted by a local school principal on the 12th of December, at 11:11am to ask me if I'd be interested in teaching a Year 6 class full time. I accepted without hesitation!

Being my first year in primary school as a full time teacher, I didn't know what to expect. I doubted myself and whether I'd be able to do the job confidently and be able to teach the kids Breathwork like I hoped I would. 

On the first day of school the following year, I opened up the Year 6 Spelling text book to the first unit my students were working on. 

Guess what the first two words were?

Breathe

Breath

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It was time to embrace my destiny and teach Breathwork to Children! 

Over the next year, I introduced daily Breathwork to my Year 6 Students, taught them about the science, the how's and why's of Breathwork, to help them develop a sound understanding. 

It created a ripple effect, where students were teaching their parents, siblings, sports teams and even other students at school. 

I ended up teaching several Staff Development sessions for my school and was given the opportunity to work with targeted small groups of students from across my school.

This year (2024), an exciting opportunity awaits me, where I'm at the same school, in a new role. I am teaching K-6 Personal Development and Health (PDH) and incorporating Breathwork as part of the whole school's explicit teaching approach to socio-emotional regulation. 

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Imagine the impact this has on one school!

Now imagine how many schools there are out there that would benefit from this!

Breathe Live Learn was born out of my desire to bring "Breath Literacy" to Children, Families and Schools all over Australia and the world.

I whole-heartedly wish that learning to breathe efficiently becomes a part of every child's life and education. 

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The Breath is a gift that keeps on giving.

Let each breath connect us all.

With love, Nathan