What is a Breath Coach?

By stephanie 02/15/2022

You may not know it, but you have a superpower— It’s your breath.

The way we breathe profoundly impacts our everyday health and wellness. This is why I decided to become a breath coach.

What is a breathing coach, you ask? Let’s dig into what I do and how learning to breathe well can completely transform your life.

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What is a Breath Coach?

A BREATHE™ coach is a certified instructor who analyzes your breathing patterns using the Breathing IQ (B-IQ). Many of us have adopted inefficient and ineffective breathing habits that hurt our health and increase stress and anxiety in our lives. Until now, there hasn’t been an easy way to measure your breathing, and Dr. Belisa Vranich developed a simple self-assessment you can do on yourself to see if your primary breathing muscles are working for you or against you.

Your breath is your superpower. Learn how to use it!

Breathing is something we all do, but most of us have poor breathing habits that leave us stressed and exhausted. In fact, according to Dr. Belisa Vranich’s Ted Talk, 9 out of 10 of us breathe in a way that is out of sync with our bodies.

Breathing incorrectly can cause a laundry list of problems as we get older, such as:

Increase stress
Neck and shoulder pain
Decreased lung capacity
Lack of concentration/energy
Digestion issues
Crooked teeth (yes, really)

Breathwork is a tool that you should use daily. It’s just as important as drinking your 8 glasses of water or getting a certain amount of steps every day.⁠
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And it only takes 5 minutes out of your day.

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A post shared by BE Buddy® by Stephanie Esser (@bebuddy)

Why I Became a Breathing Coach

To be honest, one of the reasons I became a breath coach probably has to do with my birth story.

My life began with me struggling to breathe. And (believe it or not) there are people who struggle with this daily. And they don’t even know it.⁠

My goal as an instructor is to help you learn how to breathe efficiently, using the correct breathing muscles that promote your physical and emotional wellness.⁠

Experienced breath coaches will help you discover what your kryptonite is.

Is it stress? Trouble sleeping? General fatigue or difficulty focusing?

Then we’ll work on specific breathing techniques that address your individual needs.

The Breathing Class

Dr. Belisa Vranich, clinical psychologist, author of BREATHE and The Breathing Class™, explains how the breath, the brain, and the nervous system work together.

She has developed a functional measurement known as the Breathing IQ (B-IQ), which establishes a baseline for your breathing habits.

Under her training, I was able to fine-tune my own approach. As a former teacher, I knew I wanted to use my knowledge as a breath coach is to help parents and educators teach their kids how to breathe well to BE well.

Because your breath is your superpower. You take it with you where you go. By teaching your kids breathwork, they’ll learn a skill they can take with them well into adulthood.⁠

This is also why I developed the BE Buddy®! But how that invention came to be is a whole other story.

4 Reasons You Need a Breathing Coach

What are the specific benefits you get from working with a breath coach? Here are just a few:

1. Awareness

Most of us don’t think about how we breathe. When you start working with a breath coach, they help you tune into your habits. You’ll learn to bring awareness to your breath, and you’ll do specific exercises to improve your mindfulness while breathing.

Breath awareness is the first step to any breathwork practice.

2. Improve Physical and Emotional Wellbeing

Proper breathing techniques can make a huge difference in how you feel in your daily life. Here are a couple of ways working with a breathing coach can help you feel better:

Calm mind and body. Good breathing habits use the primary breathing muscles and engage the diaphragm. Breathing this way activates the parasympathetic nervous system. This reduces stress and tension throughout the body. It also helps you feel calm and grounded.
Improved energy and focus. Poor breathing habits leave our bodies oxygen-starved. This leads to fatigue and foggy thinking. When we breathe properly, we feel naturally energetic and clear-headed. It’s easier to focus and get things done.

FREE eBook: Self Care For Kids with Anxiety

3. Personalized Guidance

Sometimes the trouble is that we just can’t tell if we’re breathing correctly. After years of quick, shallow breathing, it can take a little practice to get it right. A breathing coach can work directly with you to see precisely where you need the most help.

You might need help engaging the diaphragm to take deep breaths, or maybe you’re focusing too much on mouth breathing. A breath coach can spot these issues quickly and help you get on track.

4. Accountability

We know we need to learn good breathing habits – but how do we stick with them? That’s one of the best benefits of having a breath coach: accountability.

Research shows that it gives you a 95% chance of reaching your goal when you’re accountable to someone.

With a breathing coach, you know you have someone on your side. A coach will cheer you on and check in to ensure you’re doing the work.