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Tyler Nyquvest

Before becoming a certified breathwork trainer and life coach, Liza Rosen suffered from severe burnout.
She abandoned her high-stress finance job and grappled with depression and anxiety for years. It wasn’t until a therapist directed her to breathwork that she realised she had been breathing wrong all that time.
Now Rosen wishes someone had explained the concepts and effects of functional breathing to her early on, as “it would surely have helped me better manage my own stress and anxiety”.
“I am always amazed at how little people actually know about proper breathing and at how many people breathe badly today,” she says.

After addressing her own poor breathing habits and learning more about the subject, Rosen came to realise her 12-year-old son was a “chronic mouth breather”. He had a consistent tendency to breathe heavily through his mouth, rather than lightly through his nose.
An ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist identified the cause. “It turns out he was totally blocked and had nasal obstruction due to common allergies.”
What’s the key to better sleep and less stress? It’s how you breathe
The doctor’s description of the symptoms and consequences of chronic mouth breathing “left me speechless”, she said.
If left untreated in children, it can lead to abnormal development of the face and jaw (long face syndrome), narrow airways, poor sleep due to sleep apnoea and snoring, frequent respiratory infections such as bronchitis, malocclusion or crowded teeth, and teeth cavities. It can also cause hyperactivity and behavioural disorders, as well as concentration and attention deficits.
Another symptom of poor breathing habits that contributed to Rosen’s own poor health and burnout was breath apnoea – or “email apnoea”. Coined by consultant and writer Linda Stone nearly two decades ago, email apnoea refers to the temporary suspension of breathing when checking or writing emails.

The definition has changed over time but mainly refers to the tendency to hold our breath when dealing with high-stress situations, or when interacting with attention-consuming technology such as computers, devices and smartphones.
“A majority of people unconsciously hold their breath, or breathe shallowly, when operating behind a screen,” said Rosen. “More generally, many people experience breath apnoea, usually when stress, anxiety and tension arise, or during moments of intense concentration.”
This impacts the biochemistry and biomechanics of our breathing, which can create negative health effects and imbalance in the gases in our body such as oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitric oxide and contribute to heightened stress-related health conditions, she adds.
Start becoming aware of your own breathing habits, especially when you are emailing, texting, video gaming or working behind a screen
Liza Rosen, a life coach and certified breathwork trainer
Parents are becoming more aware and concerned about their children’s breathing, and have started to understand that some behaviours may alert them to mental health concerns.
Counsellor Amy Williams, director of Embrace Counselling in Hong Kong, does a lot of work with young people, and often employs mindfulness-based cognitive behaviour therapy, or MBCBT.
CBT is a type of talking treatment that focuses on how thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect feelings and behaviour, and teaches coping skills to help a patient to change negative thinking and replace problematic thoughts with healthier ones. Mindfulness is a meditative technique that helps bring focus to the present moment with a non-judgmental attitude.
Williams has worked with children for most of her career and has noticed an influx of parents seeking help in managing their child’s anxiety levels.

Williams says children are experiencing greater stress as they deal with difficult realities such as climate change, extreme academic pressure from school or at home, and the current global coronavirus pandemic that has completely changed the way we live.
“With an increase in anxiety, we can expect rapid and shallow breathing, which can lead to hyperventilating and eventually a panic attack. Young people are often less aware of this [bodily] connection between thought and physiology, and therefore can be quite overwhelmed when seemingly [for no reason] their body feels out of control,” she says.
Most young people turn to social media or online platforms to socialise or perhaps seek support, she says. However, more often than not, these platforms and technologies are actually making their anxiety worse – and invoking apnoea.
Take a deep breath: coach teaches how to inhale and exhale
“From comparisons of body image to your worth being boosted by the amount of likes or followers you have, increasingly this form of external validation is becoming a foundation for building unhealthy self-esteem,” she said.
“Plus, the sheer amount of time spent scrolling versus other activities important for healthy development such as in-person socialising, hobbies and interests is concerning.”
Rosen and Williams see breathwork as a solution for many of these issues. “My work with anxiety often concentrates on the [bodily] experience first, encouraging young people to feel empowered in their body and steering their ‘car back on the road’,” says Williams.

“This starts with an explanation of diaphragmatic or deep breathing, which is the fastest way to access your nervous system, resulting in feeling calm. It also promotes taking awareness away from [thoughts], which feels like a messy, overwhelming place for young people, and instead brings attention to the body.
“By asking young people to actively spend time bringing their awareness to their breath and body, it encourages a connection to the experience beyond the negative thoughts they are having, allowing them to take the break needed to re-evaluate how rational their perspective is on what they are currently dealing with.”
Just recognising these issues can be a challenge, which is why Rosen and other professionals are passionate about discussing their own experiences and encouraging parents to be vigilant.
Four strategies for reducing stress in children and teens
“I always share my own family experience with clients during breathwork workshops, and as a result, many parents come back to me asking for advice for their own children,” says Rosen.
“Start becoming aware of your own breathing habits, especially when you are emailing, texting, video gaming or working behind a screen. Catch yourself during the day when you are holding your breath and take a couple of low diaphragmatic and slow breaths at that moment.
“With any change we wish to implement in our lives, it all starts with self-awareness.”


The three-minute breathing space exercise
Canadian cognitive psychologist Zindel Segal, a founder of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, developed this quick exercise as a way to step out of “automatic pilot” mode and have an awareness of the present moment, in three steps.
For the first minute, you ask “How am I doing right now?”, focusing on the feelings, thoughts and sensations that come up.
The second minute is spent keeping focused on your breath.
What is breathwork and why is it like ‘meditation on jet fuel’?
The last minute is used to expand your attention from solely focusing on the breath to feeling physical sensations and how they affect the rest of the body.
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Experts say more parents are using breathwork to help their children cope with life’s daily pressures that have been made worse by the global coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Getty Images 

Some children have a tendency to breathe heavily through their mouth, rather than their nose, and this can profoundly affect their development. Photo: Getty Images

 Liza Rosen is a life coach and certified breathwork trainer.

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Breathwork can help young people feel empowered. Photo: Getty Images 

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Chronic mouth breathing – inhaling heavily through the mouth, not lightly through the nose – can trigger problems from poor sleep to difficulty concentrating
Experts say more parents are using breathwork to help their children cope with life’s increased pressures during the pandemic, and to focus on the present



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