Why the Way You Breathe Can Change Your Pain
Dr. Valerie Brown working with client on breathing mechanics to optimize core strength and nervous system regulation.
When you're in pain—especially chronic or recurring pain—the last thing you might think about is your breathing. But here’s the surprising truth: how you breathe can directly affect how your body experiences and holds pain.
This isn’t just about stress relief or relaxation. It’s about how your nervous system, muscles, and brain work together to create—and resolve—pain patterns.
Pain Lives in Patterns, Not Just in Injuries
Pain isn’t always a direct reflection of tissue damage. Especially with chronic pain, the nervous system starts to create loops—predictable patterns of tension, guarding, and discomfort that get stuck on repeat.
Your breath is one of the fastest, most powerful ways to interrupt those patterns.
Breathing and the Nervous System Are Deeply Connected
When you breathe shallowly, quickly, or hold your breath (which many of us do unconsciously when we’re in pain), your body stays in a sympathetic, fight-or-flight state. In that mode, muscles tighten, sensitivity increases, and your brain becomes hyper-alert to threat—including pain.
On the other hand, when you engage in slow, diaphragmatic breathing, you stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system—the rest-and-digest side of your physiology. This helps:
Lower muscle tension
Improve circulation to tissues
Shift your brain’s perception of danger
Reduce inflammation and pain sensitivity
Breath becomes the bridge between your body and your brain, helping them relearn what safety feels like.
Tension, Posture, and Breath Form a Feedback Loop
When you're in pain, your body naturally tenses up to protect itself. This tension changes your posture and often restricts how fully you can breathe. But when breathing becomes shallow or limited, that tension gets reinforced.
Over time, this can lead to:
More pain (especially in the neck, shoulders, jaw, and low back)
Poor core stability
Reduced movement efficiency
Emotional stress and fatigue
By consciously working with your breath—bringing awareness to where it’s stuck, and gently retraining it—you can help unwind the physical and neurological patterns that pain has built.
Breath as a Healing Tool
In my work with patients, I use breathwork as a foundational tool—not as an afterthought. We explore not just how you breathe, but what your breathing patterns are telling us about your nervous system, posture, and emotional state.
It’s not about taking a “deep breath” and calling it a day. It’s about reconnecting with your body’s rhythms in a way that builds resilience, regulation, and relief.
Your Next Breath Could Be the First Step Toward Less Pain
If you’ve been living with persistent pain, especially when nothing else seems to be working, try this:
Pause. Place a hand on your low ribs. Take a slow breath in through your nose, feeling expansion in 360 degrees—not just your chest. Exhale slowly and fully.
You might not feel a dramatic shift right away—but over time, these small moments of reconnection can change the way your brain and body experience pain.
Pain lives in patterns. Breath helps you rewrite them.
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
