Breath and Movement: Pathways to Women's Well-Being

Exploring how breath and movement can become powerful resources for healing, freedom, and connection.

Last week, during our Flow Movement sessions at Lea Center, we introduced a new focus: the breath.We didn’t just treat it as a tool—but as a movement in itself. We invited the breath to feed our bodies and liberate our flow. Through it, we explored how breath could shape, soften, and even spark movement. Sometimes I think of breath as the agent of movement itself—softly whispering the direction, rhythm, and intention our bodies long to express.

Breath as a Holistic Regulator

Breath is more than an automatic function; it is a living rhythm that can anchor us in moments of stress and expansion alike. In the field of women's psychology, conscious breathing has long been used to calm the nervous system and help women reconnect to their bodies during moments of anxiety or overwhelm. A 2024 study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that focused breathwork significantly reduced stress and increased heart rate variability in women with burnout symptoms—demonstrating a clear link between breath and well-being.

Reference: Frontiers in Psychology, 2024 – "Effects of Breathwork Interventions on Women with Burnout Symptoms"

Movement as Expression and Healing

Dance/movement therapy (DMT) understands the body as a container of emotion, memory, and story. Through movement, we can express what language cannot. For many women, movement becomes a form of return—a way back into the self. When breath accompanies movement, something shifts: we feel held, empowered, and grounded in our own rhythm. A 2023 meta-review published in Mental Health and Physical Activity concluded that mindful movement interventions—such as yoga, tai chi, and dance—produced stronger mental health outcomes when breath and mindfulness were intentionally integrated.

Reference: Mental Health and Physical Activity, 2023 – “Mindful movement interventions: A meta-review”

Buddhist Psychology & the Inner Witness

Buddhist psychology teaches us to sit in non-judgmental awareness—to meet ourselves with presence and compassion. This aligns beautifully with a movement practice called Authentic Movement, in which one moves with closed eyes, guided from within, while being silently witnessed by another. It is a sacred space of trust, where breath and impulse guide expression. In this practice, breath becomes the bridge—between awareness and action, between inner knowing and outer movement.

An Invitation

In your everyday life, how often do you let breath lead your movement?

Can you find one small moment today to pause, inhale deeply, and let your body respond—not from the mind, but from sensation?

As women, reclaiming our connection to breath and movement is a radical act of care.

It is a return to intuition. A return to freedom. A return to self.