From Survival Mode to Presence: 3 Breathwork Practices You Can Use Anywhere

The thing about feeling constantly “on” is that sometimes you don’t realise how much pressure you’re carrying.

You move from one thing to the next.

The meeting. The deadline. The school run. The presentation. The emails. The conversation you’ve been putting off.

Your body might be sitting still, but your mind is already thinking about the next thing.

I know this feeling well.

As an Olympian, I spent years learning how to perform under pressure. There were moments when I needed to stand behind the blocks, hear my name announced, look down a 50-metre swimming pool and be ready to perform.

At the Beijing Olympic Games, my race lasted less than 30 seconds.

Years of preparation for a moment that was over almost as quickly as it began.

And while the pressures in our everyday lives may look very different, one lesson from high-performance sport has stayed with me:

We need tools that help us come back to the present moment.

For me, one of the simplest is something we already do thousands of times every day.

Breathe.

Your breath is a performance tool

When people hear the word breathwork, they sometimes imagine a long meditation practice, lying on a mat or needing 30 minutes of uninterrupted quiet.

It doesn’t have to look like that.

Some of the breathing practices I use take less than a minute.

I use them before speaking on stage.

Before an important meeting.

When my mind is racing.

When life at home feels chaotic.

Or simply when I notice that I’m physically in one place but mentally somewhere else entirely.

That’s what I love about the breath.

It’s available in the moment you actually need it.

Here are three simple practices you can experiment with.

1. Box breathing for focus and clarity

Box breathing follows an even four-part rhythm:

Inhale for 4 seconds
 Hold for 4 seconds 
Exhale for 4 seconds
 Hold for 4 seconds

Then repeat.

Rather than trying to tell yourself to “stop thinking”, counting gives your attention somewhere to go.

I use box breathing before speaking on stage, recording, presenting or stepping into a moment where I want to feel focused and intentional.

It has become part of the way I prepare to perform.

And that’s an important distinction.

Breathing isn’t only something I use when I’m stressed. I also use it to prepare.

That is one of the ideas I teach in my keynote Breathe Like an Olympian.

We often wait until we’re overwhelmed before reaching for tools to manage pressure.

But what if we practised them before we needed them?

2. Extended exhale for slowing things down

Try:

Inhale for 4 seconds 
Exhale for 6 seconds

Continue for several comfortable rounds.

Don’t force the breath or try to make it as deep as possible. Keep it easy.

I use a longer exhale when I want to deliberately slow my breathing and create a transition from one state or activity into another.

That might be before sleep when my mind is still busy.

After a demanding day.

Before walking into the house after work.

Or between two high-pressure moments when I don’t have the luxury of taking half an hour to reset.

Sometimes you don’t need a complete change of environment.

You need a moment to change gears.

3. Three conscious breaths when life is happening

This might be the least complicated breathwork practice I teach.

Take three intentional breaths.

That’s it.

No complicated counting.

No special environment.

No equipment.

The value is in creating a deliberate pause.

I use this in real life when I’m rushing, before an important conversation, walking into a meeting or when I notice myself trying to do five things at once.

Take three breaths.

Notice where you are.

Then ask yourself:

What does this moment need from me?

Sometimes that small pause is enough to change how you respond to what happens next.

You don’t need less pressure. You need tools for the pressure.

One of the biggest lessons I took from elite sport is that pressure isn’t always something we need to eliminate.

I competed on some of the biggest sporting stages in the world.

The goal wasn’t to make the pressure disappear.

I had to learn how to perform within it.

And I think that’s an important conversation outside sport too.

There will be deadlines.

Important presentations.

Difficult conversations.

Busy mornings.

Unexpected changes.

Moments when people are relying on you.

We can’t always control the pressure around us.

But we can build a toolkit for how we meet it.

For me, breath is one of those tools.

Not because breathing magically removes everything happening around you.

But because an intentional breath can give you a moment to pause, focus and decide how you want to respond.

And sometimes that’s all we need to come back to the present.

Breathe Like an Olympian

What if the way you breathe could change the way you perform under pressure?

In my keynote Breathe Like an Olympian, I draw on my experience representing Papua New Guinea at the Olympic Games and more than two decades in high-performance environments to explore what pressure can feel like and what we can do in the moments that matter.

Rather than simply hearing my Olympic story, audiences experience practical breathing techniques they can use themselves before a presentation, during a stressful day, ahead of an important conversation or whenever they need to reset and refocus.

Because high performance isn’t about eliminating pressure.

It’s about having the tools to meet it.

Explore Breathe Like an Olympian and invite Anna-Liza to speak at your next conference, leadership event or staff development day.