Mindful breathing is gaining mainstream momentum, according to the Global Wellness Institute. Melbourne lawyer and coach Niti Nadarajah discovered how it can help navigate major life upheavals.
In March 2022, corporate lawyer Niti Nadarajah left the career she had been building for 20 years. After a decade as General Counsel for Philip Morris International, Nadarajah took a few months off to rediscover who she was and what she wanted to do with her life.
By 2023, the Melburnian’s life looked very different. She was coaching clients one-on-one and began practising law for herself. But the biggest changes were still to come.
“Navigating the end of the relationship I had been in for 17 years was one of the hardest experiences of my life,” says Nadarajah. “I had not realised that the process would take as much of a mental, emotional and even physical toll as it did.”
She talked to the owner of her neighbourhood gym about the mental anguish and nerve pain she was experiencing.
“He invited me to come and try a breathwork class as they were trialling them in the studio. I thought to myself, what do I have to lose? It can’t make anything worse,” says Nadarajah.
Pranayama, as yogic breathwork is known, had a profound impact on the lawyer.
“During the class, I found myself seeing strange colours, feeling my body tingle, my blood flowing… and by the end of the class, my arm, which had been experiencing nerve pain, felt so much better,” says Nadarajah.
The mother of two continued practising the ‘art of yogic breath’ over the coming months, and each time, observed that her physical and emotional pain were temporarily alleviated. Wanting to understand more, she enrolled in a program to learn about the science behind breathwork. After that, she took an instructor’s course with Breathless Expeditions, which lists Adobe and Atlassian as clients on its website, to expand her knowledge.
“I realised that breathwork has endless applications, including in relation to the healing of emotional trauma and emotional self-regulation.”
Breathing purposefully during a Breathless Expeditions instructor session enabled her to release physical and emotional discomfort. This was a tool that could be used in coaching, Nadrajah observed, as well as in her own journey processing major life transitions.
“My body took over from my mind,” she recalls. “What happened next blew me away. Suddenly, my out-breaths turned into screaming breaths. I’ve since described what happened as “breath-orcism” – my anger was simply exorcised out of my body through the power of my own breath.”
The benefits of breathwork
The roots of pranayama lie in ancient civilisations, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
“For thousands of years, Eastern medicine practices, including Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine, have employed breathing techniques to calm the body and the mind,” the Cleveland Clinic states on its website.
“Breathwork is one way to help you step back from the chaos and keep your mind and body healthy,” says Cleveland Clinic functional medicine doctor, Melissa Young.
Research from UK and Spanish researchers published in the medical journal Nature in 2023 found that breathwork may be effective for improving stress and mental health.
“Modifying breathing alters communication sent from the respiratory system, rapidly influencing brain regions regulating behaviour, thought and emotion,” University of Sussex researcher Guy William Fincham states in the paper.
According to Nadarajah, breathwork can send people into altered states of consciousness, help to release emotional trauma, improve physical performance and recovery, manage pain, and enhance focus and clarity.
“I realised that breathwork has endless applications, including in relation to the healing of emotional trauma and emotional self-regulation.”
Niti Nadarajah
“Slower, more conscious styles of breathing reduce stress or cortisol levels in the body and also increase oxygen supply to the brain. These effects improve cognitive function and focus, while reducing brain fog,” says Nadarajah.
She now teaches breathwork techniques to private clients and leads classes at Strong Pilates in the Melbourne suburb of Balwyn. Awareness and practice of breathwork is becoming more pervasive, she says, and she is delighted to see other people helped by the same techniques that were so beneficial in her own life.
“We are definitely seeing an increased interest in breathwork, something that has been around for centuries in many ancient civilisations around the world. People are realising that breathwork has endless potential, and best of all, we all have access to it. We just need to understand how to activate it.”
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