How Your Breath Shapes the Way You Experience Pain
Eight years ago, I began my career as a physical therapist at an outpatient orthopedic clinic in Solana Beach, California. At the same time, I was deepening my personal practice of breathwork, using breathing to improve meditation, recovery, and performance.
For months, I kept those two worlds separate. My professional life was filled with therapeutic exercise, manual therapy, and traditional PT, while my personal life revolved around self-awareness, ice baths, and breathwork.
That separation changed when one of my patients, a stressed-out mother of three, came in for her eighth visit, frustrated that therapy wasn’t working. It wasn’t just her shoulder pain weighing on her; it was traffic, parenting, work, and the stress of life itself.
That day, I decided to bring breathwork into the clinic. We began with a short breathing meditation to calm her nervous system before moving into exercises. To both of our surprise, her pain almost completely disappeared. As we continued, she was able to move with ease — pain-free for the first time in years.
Five weeks later, she was discharged. After a two-year struggle, she finally felt like herself again.
That was my lightbulb moment: if we use breathing to calm the nervous system and anchor the mind, the body is better able to heal, move, and perform.
Pain Is More Than a Sensation
For years, pain was thought of as a simple signal from the body to the brain. But research shows it’s much more complex than that.
According to the International Association for the Study of Pain, pain is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.” The key word is emotional.
Pain weaves through the nervous system, memory pathways, and emotional centers of the brain. It’s not just something we feel — it’s something we live. It shapes our stories, affects our relationships, and changes how we show up in the world.
That’s why modern pain science emphasizes supporting the whole person — mind, body, and heart. When your body aches, your emotions are involved. When your heart hurts, your body holds part of that, too.
One of my colleagues, Dr. Rachel Zoffness, is a leader in integrative pain science and beautifully explains this bridge between science and soul. (Check out her book The Pain Management Workbook for a deeper dive.)
The more we expand our awareness of pain — across systems, stories, and sensations — the more room we create for genuine healing. And this is where breathwork becomes a powerful ally.
Introducing: Breath for Pain
If you’ve lived with pain, you know it’s not just about discomfort. It changes how you breathe, move, think, and relate to others. That’s why I created Breath for Pain, a 5-part self-guided course designed to help you shift your relationship with pain.
This isn’t about escaping pain — it’s about navigating it with resilience, compassion, and strength.
Inside the course, we explore how conscious breathing can:
Reset the nervous system
Reframe your perspective on pain
Help you reconnect with your body and heart
Support emotional regulation during difficult moments
Improve overall well-being
It’s not a “quick fix,” but it is a powerful tool. Breath doesn’t erase pain — it transforms your relationship to it. As Rumi wrote: “The cure for the pain is in the pain.”
Education as Empowerment
Years ago, I noticed something remarkable in my clinic: as patients learned more about pain science, their pain lessened. Understanding pain didn’t make it disappear, but it gave them sovereignty over their suffering. They felt less afraid, more confident, and more in control.
What made the biggest difference wasn’t just exercise — it was authentic human connection, breathwork, and education. That combination helped patients feel seen, supported, and empowered.
That’s why I’ve made “empowerment through education” a guiding mantra in my work. Breathwork isn’t just about oxygen and physiology — it’s a tool to deepen awareness, reduce fear, and build resilience.
Shifting Your Relationship With Pain
Pain is universal, but how we respond to it can change everything. By integrating breath, awareness, and education, we create new possibilities — not for eliminating pain overnight, but for living with more freedom, presence, and strength.
This is the path I invite you to explore. Whether through the Breath for Pain course or personalized coaching, you don’t have to walk it alone
JT