Taking on the role of CEO may or may not be on your radar. While some of us dream about corner offices and the big swivel chair at boardroom meetings, there’s also a segment of the population that can’t even begin to picture themselves in corporate America, let alone a leadership role within that world.

And that’s cool.

There’s also an emerging species of CEOs, like me, who build wildly successful businesses from their favourite corner at the local coffee shop (shout out Curio in East Cambridge!) and have no concept of what “formal attire” on a Tuesday afternoon looks like!

That’s cool, too.

Because this article isn’t about corporate ladders or capitalism. It’s about leadership – what it takes to be a great leader and how taking ownership of your physical body and internal monologue, so you can burn bright in your career without burning out is both a game-changer, entirely within your sphere of influence, and vital for your long-term success.

I partner with companies who send their stressed-out CEOs and employees my way, and it’s almost hilarious how predictable the conversations are.

The dude who is bringing in multi-million dollar funding rounds for his startup can’t sleep at night.

The brilliant engineer at Facebook had to take leave because the stress of her job (and pressure from a boss) crushed her.

The guy who’s mastered NFTs who wakes up with his heart pounding out his chest for no reason.

The partner at a tech company gets told every single day that his anxiety is crippling his ability to take strategic risk in his company, stalling their growth.

And what do I teach them all?

Breathwork.

Why?

Because it doesn’t matter how intelligent, smart, or successful you are. You can’t bypass being human.

If you don’t have self-mastery, you fall to the level of the most human part of you: your body. And breath is your body’s language.

If you don’t know how to use tools like breathwork for nervous system regulation and stress management you’re not operating at your full potential.

Here’s the good news. Breathwork isn’t complicated; it is potent. And once you have the tools, you can use them to increase your capacity, magnetism, and effectiveness in your life and work. Because the breathwork tools that calm your heart rate are the same tools you can use in a difficult negotiation.

And the breathwork tools you use to boost your focus in the morning are the same ones you can use before stepping into the boardroom (or Zoom call) and closing big business.

Also, don’t be shocked when your wife or husband comments on your sudden increase in emotional intelligence.

It’s a win, win.

So, if you’re a CEO reading this article to learn tools to help you perform better in your role at your company, then you’re in the right place.

And if you’re not a CEO but you’re curious about breathwork and why some of the top executives in the world use these techniques to accelerate their success, then you’re in the right place, too.

The way I see it, we’re all CEOs in our lives (or, at least, we should be.)

“CEO” can stand for “Chief Executive Officer” as much as it can “Critical Execution Officer” or “Confident Executing Official” – in other words, being a CEO in my world is stepping into a role where you:

Get things done without excuses
Know what’s important and what’s not
Prioritize taking action
Accept and own your position as a leader
See yourself as a precious asset that cannot afford to burn out

There’s more that could be added to this list but the main point is that being a CEO is less about someone telling you that you are, and more about anointing yourself with the title.

Put yourself on the throne. You’re in charge. You’re responsible. You’re who everyone else is looking at to see what your next move is going to be.

How to Become a Better CEO

Corporate breathwork has taken off around the world because there’s mounting evidence that it really does help leaders of organizations perform their jobs better. From handling stress to becoming more confident (and even sleeping better at night), the right breathing exercises can help you do all of the things you need to do as a CEO better and more efficiently.

That means, breathwork really does reduce the likelihood of CEOs burning out.

So while big corporations are happy to invest in breathwork so that their top executives don’t quit (you know, rehiring is expensive), you should also lean into your curiosity around breathwork.

Do you really want to quit in life?
Who’s going to replace you when you’re not able to be fully present in your role?
Remember, nobody else can be retrained or rehired to do what you’re uniquely talented at

So how does breathwork help CEOs perform better?

Let’s first look at what it takes to be an effective CEO (of any business, including your own life)...

7 Key Characteristics of Effective CEOs

Having strong leadership skills. The best CEOs are confident leaders. Now, some people are just born leaders, but everybody can improve their leadership skills. Being a leader means putting other people first by paying attention to their strengths and desires. By focusing on what the people around you need to thrive (and helping them see their next steps clearly), you instantly step into a strong leadership role.
Knowing your business’s goals. If you want to lead people through a forest, you have to know where you want to go – otherwise you just keep wandering (and people get hungry and tired.) Having a strong grasp on your business’s goals is what allows you to organize people so that you can work together to get to your destination. Having clear goals is also how you help people to stay motivated and excited. (Whenever you can, celebrate achievements with your team – even little wins. That goes for your own internal dialogue too. What you focus on expands.)
Communicating clearly. Great leadership requires great communication. Not only do you have to be clear and concise in order to get your message across, but you also have to understand what you’re saying. On the flip side of the communication coin, you have to make sure that you’re open to receive feedback and ideas from your team. Creating a culture that fosters constructive communication is one of the most important things a CEO can do for their business.
Being confident and decisive. The best CEOs help their team get through the weeds by seeing things from a different vantage point. The more you’re able to develop a reputation for making the right decisions, the more your team will see you as a leader. Confidence comes from repetition – the more decisions you make, the better you’ll get. And, yes, you’ll make the wrong decisions sometimes. Just be open with your team, help everyone recover, and learn from what went wrong.
Demonstrating care and concern. To be an effective leader of any business, you have to ensure that your team wants you at the top. How do you make that happen? You work on being more likable by genuinely liking the people you work with. Get to know them by listening. Be empathetic. Of course, you can’t be everyone’s best friend. But, you should absolutely connect with everyone on your team on a human level. Doing your own inner work to forge a relationship with yourself makes these connections far more authentic.
Being a better human. Perfection isn’t what we’re after – ever. But a great leader should always be working on self-improvement and growth. By setting a strong example for your team, you can inspire everyone around you to rise up to your level. In other words, set the bar high and inspire others to elevate themselves, too.
Delegating the right tasks to the right people. A great CEO doesn’t do everything themselves. Instead, they build the confidence of their team by giving them the right tasks to do. Every time a person on your team accomplishes an important task you gave them, they get better at their job. And when they get better at their job, they feel better about themselves. It’s a positive feedback loop that you definitely want to plug into.

But does breathwork really work? Does it really make CEOs better?

The short answer is yes, absolutely. Every single one of the key characteristics listed above can be cultivated and strengthened through breathwork sessions and breathing exercises. Perhaps the most underrated power tool for a leader is deep awareness and understanding of how your inside world shapes your external reality. The only way you cultivate internal awareness is by practicing tools that invite you to look inside.

Also, research has shown over and over that breathwork is incredibly effective at halting your stress response. And because the majority of CEOs (and just lots of people in general) demonstrate symptoms of chronic stress, finding tools that slow or completely stop your body from living in constant stress is essential.

Being stressed puts your body in a weakened state, health problems typically pile up.

And when health problems mount, so do the psychological and spiritual side effects. Suddenly, you’re not just stressed about what’s going on at work; your entire life is completely thrown off its gravitational center.

There’s no flow.

Everything feels difficult.

You’re exhausted.

You’re anxious.

It’s time to give up or burn out.

But what if you can stop that stress spiral from happening?

What if all you need is a way to not just relax, but to clear out everything that is weighing you down physically, mentally, and spiritually?

That’s exactly what breathwork can do.

Breathwork triggers your body’s relaxation response, lowering your blood pressure and calming your mind. Certain types of breathwork, like holotropic breathwork, has been shown to actually help people recover from a variety of addictions because of its ability to cathartically release stored trauma and stress.

Let’s look even closer at what breathwork does to your body…

When your body is responding in a stressed state, your breathing becomes shallow. You only breathe through the upper part of your chest. So when you start to breathe consciously, especially with a breathwork session, you allow your breath to expand through your entire chest and engage your diaphragm.

Your diaphragm is a layer of muscle that resides beneath your lungs. There are also muscles between your ribs that help you breathe effectively. In a stressed state when your breathing is shallow, you don’t engage these muscles. Instead, you inefficiently use your shoulders – that explains all of the shoulder tension so many people experience! And improper muscle engagement while breathing (i.e. using your shoulder muscles instead of the muscles between your ribs and diaphragm), alter the balance and physical state of gasses in your body.

In other words, conscious breathing physically alters your body in countless ways.

And when you change something physically, your mind responds along with it.

This is why breathwork is important for CEOs…

Remember, breath is your body’s language. Breathwork interacts with and actively operates your nervous system, giving your entire body permission to relax and rest. When that happens, you benefit from things like:

Reduced blood pressure
Lowered heart rate
Fewer stress hormones in your blood
Less lactic acid in the tissue of your muscles
Balanced oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood
Healthy immune system responses
Increased energy
Improved feelings of well-being

Breathwork is like a CEO’s secret weapon. (It’s like everyone’s secret weapon.)

And here’s exactly why…

16 Reasons Why Breathwork for Business Professionals (And CEOs of Life) Matters

CEOs are in the public spotlight. What you do is analyzed and scrutinized by competition, investors, and employees. When you’re not “on” – everybody notices. Breathwork helps to keep CEOs performing at a higher level, meeting expectations and then raising the bar over and over again.
How a CEO spends their time dictates the future of a company. When time is used efficiently, companies thrive. But when a CEO is distracted, confused, or simply ineffective with time management, everything in the business suffers. Breathwork helps because it gives you the ability to focus, along with the confidence to get things done. Rather than feeling weighed down by everything (including things from your personal life), you feel energized. Breathwork can heighten creativity, too. Non-essential intelligence tends to go “offline” when you’re in a stressed state. Priortizing the state of your inner world with breathwork pulls you out of survival mode and turns channels like creativity and intuition back on. Suddenly knowing what needs to be done next becomes a whole lot easier, and more consistent.
60% of CEOs agree that creativity is the most important quality of a leader. Did you know that breathing exercises can help you become more creative? When you’re in a stressed state, your creativity is literally blocked. Your body won’t allow for creative processes to happen because it feels like it has to take care of other more pressing (life or death) matters. When you let go of your stress and remove creative blocks through breathwork, you can become a more impactful CEO.
The majority of a CEO’s time is spent in meetings. According to one study, more than 60% of a CEO’s time is stuck in meetings. That means that not only do you have to be able to focus on all of those meeting presentations, but you also have to be even more efficient with your out-of-meeting time in order to get everything done. By practicing breathwork, you reap the benefits of heightened focus and elevated productivity. When I do corporate workshops, I always teach resonance breathing. Resonance breathing is 6 breaths a minute (5 second inhale, 5 second exhale through the nose). Resonance breathing syncs the heart and nervous system and increases receptivity and openness. Also, it’s invisible! Perfect for in-person or Zoom meetings.
Effective CEOs communicate clearly on the phone and in person. Communication is obviously an essential part of a CEO’s role. When research shows that most CEOs spend 25% of their time on phone calls or interacting in public events, it’s essential that you (and your words) come across well. Not feeling like you’re trudging through life thanks to some powerful breathwork sessions definitely helps.
Most of the time, CEOs are not working alone. According to one report, the average CEO spends less than 15% of their time at work alone. So, whether you like it or not, you have to be energetically available to people almost all day long. Those energy exchanges that happen 85% of the day can wear you down if you don’t have the capacity for them. If you don’t want to burn out or become completely ineffective as a CEO, then you have to bolster yourself so that you’re prepared for almost constant interaction. The right breathing exercises can literally make you feel invincible, like you have an energetic shield that can absorb all of the bullshit so that you don’t have to.
The amount of time a CEO will stay with a company has decreased by three years over the last decade. CEOs are burning out and giving up sooner than they used to (from an average tenure of almost 10 years to now not quite 7 years). It’s not shock to me. Our hyperconnected world mean our bodies are “on” more than they’re “off.” By reducing your stress levels through breathwork, you can increase your tenure with your business, outlasting and outperforming your toughest competition.
Some of the most effective and successful CEOs of Fortune 100 companies have a military background. Any guesses why? As a former All American athlete under a coach who had a dad with military experience, I some theories! The discipline they received from their military training helps them work their way up the corporate ladder – and stay there. All of us, however, can become more disciplined. Practicing breathwork is a great way to instill more discipline in your life. (Certain breathing practices discipline your nervous system, too!)
The majority of CEOs have a presence on social media. Social media is one of the most addictive and consuming drugs of our time. In order to navigate it healthily, you need to be at the top of your game (i.e. not stressed.)
The role of a CEO is never low-stress. There’s a reason why CEOs get paid more money – they’re taking on tons of responsibilities. When the average human in the United States is already living the majority of their lives in a stressed state, CEOs need to be even better equipped to handle the pressure. By adopting a regular breathwork practice, CEOs can mitigate current stress while also evacuating stored stress from their pasts, too.
Being a successful CEO requires longevity. There’s a certain amount of endurance required to be successful in life, including life as a CEO. Breathwork has been proven to dramatically reduce burnout. In fact, I have a whole app of breathwork sessions geared to help you become burnout-proof (and so much more.)
In an interview with successful CEOs, many struggle with “shadows of their past.” These shadows, they say, prevent them from reaching their full potential because they fear that they’ll make “decisions that disappoint.” Working through all of this muck so that you can finally let go and glow is one of the most transformative side effects of practicing breathwork. Try one of the full breathwork sessions on the Soul app to dive deep into clearing past fears. I recommend Cut the Cord.
Effective CEOs strive to exhibit these four Cs: compassion, candidness, capability, and commitment. Guess what improves your ability to have all four of these characteristics? (Hint: starts with “breath” and ends with “work”.)
When CEOs fail, it’s most often attributed to the person being “incompetent, rigid, or narcissistic.” None of these are inherent traits to humans – they’re cultivated through stress and trauma. Get rid of both, and you become a better human, just like you were designed to be.
CEOs often cite their biggest motivation as “coaching and teaching others to be successful.” If you want to stay motivated as a CEO, then being able to help others is key. Of course, you can’t help others very effectively when you’re in a state of needing help. Put your oxygen mask on first. And, speaking of oxygen…
CEOs tend to have personalities that are curious and investigative. These characteristics can only be amplified, however, when you move yourself out of a flight-or-fight response. These qualities are higher up on the hierarchy of needs, which means you can’t get to them until your more basic needs are met. Not getting enough sleep? Feeling constantly stressed? Always getting sick? Not feeling safe? You won’t be able to be as curious or inquisitive as you need to be if any of these are true. Good news? Breathwork can help make sure your basic needs are being met appropriately so that your higher human traits can be amplified.

How to Do Breathwork at Home and at the Office

If you’re a CEO looking to burn bright – not out – then the Soul Breathwork app might be your new favorite thing. When you’re short on time, whether in between meetings or ready to head out the door, you’ll want to go straight to State Changes, a super cool section of the app that features short, potent practices to punch up or chill out your mood depending on which you’re looking for.

Each of these short sessions features combos of visualization, breath patterns, and holds. In 5 minutes flat, you’ll learn how to change how you feel so you’re ready for what’s next.

Unlike other breathwork apps or tools that are focused on being cute-sy, fluffy, or spiritual Soul is different.

I designed it to feel like 1-1 coaching because that’s the best way I’ve learned to share these potent practices.

You’ll learn about breathwork in a straightforward and tangible way by actually practicing the techniques and then seeing the results for yourself.

People are having life changing, priceless results with these classes.

You’re next.

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