From Stress to Rest: How to Self-Regulate at work

I was recently invited to the P1 from DR Danish Radio to talk about Breathwork and stress.
The hosts — experienced journalists used to deadlines, breaking news, and constant adrenaline — asked how breath could possibly change anything.
So instead of explaining, I asked them to count their breaths in one minute. After sixty seconds, the numbers came in — between 7 and 25 breaths per minute.
That’s almost double what a calm, balanced nervous system needs.
And that, I told them, was their anxiety — measured in real time.

The Science of Self-Regulation

When we breathe fast and shallow, our brain interprets it as danger.
Cortisol rises. Muscles tense. Focus narrows.
The body doesn’t know the difference between a tiger in the jungle and a full inbox at work.

But when we slow down the breath — lengthening the exhale, softening the shoulders — the nervous system gets a new message: “I’m safe.”
Heart rate lowers, digestion restarts, thinking clears.

This is self-regulation — the ability to shift from stress to rest without external help.
No gadgets, no therapy, no supplements — just awareness, lungs, and a few moments of patience.

From Chaos to Calm in Two Minutes

I guided the journalists through a simple exercise and the studio grew quieter.
You could hear the nervous systems exhaling.
One journalist whispered, “It feels like the noise inside my head just turned down.”

That’s the power of breath.
It’s not magic — it’s biology.
We can’t remove stress from life, but we can learn to meet it differently.

The Modern Human Paradox

We live in a world designed to activate us — endless input, pressure to perform, constant comparison.
But no one ever taught us how to down-shift again.
Breathwork is the missing manual for our nervous system.

It teaches us to notice before we burn out, to reset before we break down.
It turns recovery into a practice, not an afterthought.

One Breath at a Time

What I told the journalists that day — and what I tell everyone I work with — is simple:
You don’t have to fix your whole life.
You just have to take one conscious breath.

Because every calm decision, every creative idea, every act of presence begins the same way —
with a single, intentional inhale.

Esben Seir