Change Your Breath, Change Your State: Dan Brulé on Breathwork and Energy

Editor's note: This article summarizes what Dan Brulé shared in an interview on the Feel More Energy podcast. These are the guest's own views and experiences, not established facts or absolute truths, and Feel More Energy has not independently verified every claim. Nothing here is medical advice.

Most people overlook the one system they use more than 20,000 times a day: their breath.

For Dan Brulé, a world-renowned breathwork expert who has trained Navy SEALs, executives and elite athletes, breath is not a metaphor or a spiritual concept. It is a biological tool that directly shapes your state, your chemistry and your energy.

Awareness first, then technique

Dan separates two skills that are often confused:

• Breath awareness requires no technique. You simply notice the breath: feel it, watch it, track it.
• Conscious breathing is where you take over. You give the breath a rhythm, a quality and an intention.

Real ability develops in the relationship between the two.

Breath and state work both ways

Every emotional state has a matching breathing pattern. When your state changes, your breathing changes, and because the link runs both ways, when you change your breathing, your state changes. In Dan's words, breath is the handle on that energy: the most direct tool for shifting how you feel, with nothing to buy and no waiting.

Patterns that work against you

Most people breathe in ways that signal stress to the nervous system, even when there is no real threat:

• Mouth breathing as a habit
• Chest breathing: high, shallow and activating
• Over-breathing, which depletes carbon dioxide and sets off a chain of physical effects
• Breath holding, which sends an alarm signal to the brain dozens of times a day

Breathe through your nose

The nose is designed for breathing, the mouth for eating. Nasal breathing filters, warms and humidifies the air, produces nitric oxide and lets the nervous system regulate properly.

If nasal breathing isn't your default, you can train it: practice during walks and exercise, and some people use nasal strips or mouth taping at night. Mouth breathing isn't always wrong, since some breathwork practices use it. The difference is doing it on purpose rather than by default.

Relaxation lives in the exhale

When you inhale, the diaphragm contracts. When you exhale, it releases. A sigh of relief is exactly that: a bigger inhale followed by an effortless letting go. We sigh roughly every five minutes without thinking about it.

Doing it deliberately amplifies the effect. A 2023 Stanford study found that five minutes a day of intentional cyclic sighing improved mood and lowered breathing rate more than mindfulness meditation.

How to do the sigh of relief

1. Start with a full exhale, emptying the lungs more than usual.
2. Take a normal inhale, then stack a second inhale on top of it.
3. Release. Let the jaw go and the shoulders drop.

The fuller the inhale, the more powerful the release, like pulling a bow all the way back before letting the arrow fly. Add a word, an image or an intention, and you are breathing with consciousness.

Adrenalized energy vs. authentic energy

Many high performers run on stress hormones without realizing it. Adrenaline is powerful and addictive, and once the nervous system depends on it, running on stress starts to feel normal. Dan contrasts it with the steady energy that ancient traditions call prana or chi: sustainable and not depleting. The shift, he says, starts with the breath.

Three phases for high-pressure moments

The framework Dan uses with special operations teams applies to any big moment:

• Before, box breathing: inhale 4 seconds, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4. It balances the nervous system and creates a felt sense of control before a presentation or a hard conversation.
• During, tactical breathing: connected, smooth and steady, like a wheel turning, paired with small goals to keep focus.
• After, recovery breathing: lengthen the exhale and pause at the bottom to step out of fight-or-flight mode.

Coherent breathing

Breathe in for five seconds and out for five to six: roughly 5.5 breaths per minute. Most people breathe 16 to 25 times a minute, so jumping straight to six can be a big change. Start around ten and work down gradually. And relax the body: perfect breathing with a tense body and a racing mind cancels out much of the benefit.

Daily rituals

Morning: three spaces, three paces. One minute each of slow belly breathing for grounding, slightly faster chest breathing for connection with others, and faster upper breathing for clarity and creativity.

Evening: slow down, lengthen the exhale and move from screen to stillness at least an hour before sleep. Use the breath to cross the bridge between work and rest.

Breath and anxiety

The classic anti-anxiety breath is low and slow: belly, not chest. Breath awareness reveals where the dysfunction is, whether it is breath holding, rushed inhales or incomplete exhales. Once you can see the pattern, you can start to change it.

The takeaway

Breath is the most direct, accessible and underused tool for changing your state. Breathe through your nose by default, use the exhale to let go, and keep three tools ready: box breathing to prepare, connected breathing to perform and recovery breathing to restore. Breathwork isn't about perfection. It is about becoming more conscious, one breath at a time.

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