My Story
For a long time, I ran on stress and pressure.
I worked long hours in a demanding career, managing projects, deadlines and other people’s expectations. I was always the one getting things done, saying yes, taking on more and making sure I didn’t let anyone down.
Somewhere along the way, I’d stopped listening to myself.
I ignored the signs that I needed to slow down. I was exhausted but rarely felt rested. I lived in my head, questioned my decisions and looked to everyone else for answers because I didn’t trust myself.
And I wasn’t comfortable with emotion. Rather than feel what was happening, I’d push it aside and get on with things until eventually it would all catch up with me.
From the outside, I looked like I was coping. But underneath, I felt disconnected from myself and wasn’t really sure how to find my way back.
I found breathwork during a difficult period of my life, when I was trying to find my way back to myself.
Someone had recommended it, and I went along curious, without really knowing what to expect.
It took a few sessions for me to settle into it. I was so used to living in my head that simply being present with what was happening in my body felt unfamiliar.
But something kept drawing me back.
Every session was different. Some were gentle, others brought up emotions I’d been pushing aside for years. At times it was uncomfortable to let myself feel so much, but I began to realise that I didn’t have to run from everything I was feeling.
I remember one session in particular. After moving through a flood of emotion, I came away with a quiet sense that I was going to be okay.
Not because everything in my life had changed, but because I was beginning to trust that I could meet whatever came next.
I won’t pretend I have it all figured out. I don’t think we ever stop learning about ourselves. I’m still unpicking old patterns, discovering new things and learning as I go.
But the way I move through life has completely changed.
I recognise when I’m pushing past what my body needs. I can create space before reacting. I’m learning to have the harder conversations, trust my own decisions and stop automatically putting myself last.
I’m still working in a demanding career while building Home with Nicola. Life hasn’t suddenly become less busy or challenging.
But I no longer move through it in the same way.
Breathwork remains one of the things that brings me back to myself.
The changes didn’t always happen in the breathwork sessions themselves. I started noticing them in everyday life.
I remember travelling to a girls’ trip, caught up in train delays and long airport queues. Normally, I’d have been anxious, frustrated and trying to control everything.
But this time I wasn’t.
I was calm. I wasn’t fighting what was happening. I remember thinking, it is what it is.
It sounds like a small thing, but for me it was huge.
I was beginning to respond differently to the same life I’d always been living.
Breathwork had become something I could return to, not just in a session, but in the middle of ordinary life.
And this is why I do this work.
Because I know what it’s like to spend so long looking after everything and everyone else that you lose touch with yourself.
I also know what it feels like to begin finding your way back.
I became a breathwork facilitator because I wanted to share what had made such a difference in my own life, and help others discover what might be possible for them.
Not by telling you how you should feel, or promising that one session will change everything.
But by offering a space where you can slow down, explore what’s happening within you, and begin to build a different relationship with yourself.
You don’t have to have it all figured out before you begin.
I’m a certified Conscious Connected Breathwork Facilitator, trained through Seven Directions, and a certified Oxygen Advantage Functional Breathing Instructor.
Alongside my professional training, I’ve spent years exploring personal development, coaching, emotional wellbeing, health and the nervous system.
That learning, together with my own lived experience, has shaped how I understand myself and the way I support others. I believe there’s always more to learn, and I continue to bring that curiosity into both my life and my work.