By Katharine Chestnut

About This Session:

Discover how to use your breath as a tool for clarity and calm. In this guided meditation, you’ll visualize water flowing through you—cleansing, refreshing, and releasing what no longer serves you—so you can reset your energy and return to life’s moments with greater ease and perspective.

Strong women cry in secret.
I did too.
I looked successful on the outside, but inside.
Outside I was crying and chaotic and unraveling.
I learned the hard way that when we don't breathe with intention, life feels like drowning in shallow
water.
Always performing, always gasping, never really exhaling.
Foreign I'm Kathryn Chestnut and I guide high achieving women who are tired of holding it all
together.
Today we're stepping into the element of water.
The place of flow, emotion and connection.
Together, we'll explore how something as simple as your breath can reshape the way you
experience life.
Not because you've hit rock bottom, but just because you can.
Here's what we're diving into today.
Water represents emotional energy, our ability to feel, to flow, to adapt.
And breath is the bridge between our body and our emotions.
It's the rhythm that grounds us, calms us, helps us reconnect when life feels heavy and emotions
are energy in motion.
I know the first time that I heard that, I was like, poof.
Mind blown.
Yes, emotions need to move.
And when we change how we breathe, we change how we feel, how we experience our emotions.
By the end of this session, you will leave with a simple braving practice that unlocks optimism.
This is a practice that you can carry with you into meetings, into hard conversations, or in those
quiet moments when the mask feels heavy.
There was a time in my life when I was in constant fix it mode.
I was the girl that got things done.
When somebody needed something, they knew that I would fix it somehow or another.
It didn't matter if it was related to work, if it was related to family or my child.
I was the one that would get things done and get it fixed if there was a problem.
On the outside, I was great.
I was polished.
I was all about it.
On the inside, I was exhausted.
I just thought that if I worked harder and read another self help book and checked another box, all
would be well.
I would finally release all that exhaustion.
I wouldn't be tired anymore.
I would just be grooving along just like always.
But my body told the truth.
My breath was shallow, tight, quick.
It mirrored my emotions, stuck at the surface, never flowing.
The shift came when I started practicing conscious breathing.
And I can't tell you how I learned about it.
I don't recall. No idea.
I do know that at first it felt way too simple, too small to actually have an impact.
But slowly I realized that my breath wasn't just oxygen.
It gave me perspective.
It was the pause that I had been missing.
My breath became my anchor not to escape My feelings, but to move through them.
When we breathe shallow, we live shallow.
Shallow breath keeps us in survival mode.
Anxious, rushed, disconnected.
Can you relate with me?
Definitely.
When we deepen the breath, we expand.
We create space for clarity and flow.
Just think about a time where you sighed in relief.
That sound, that long exhale, that was your body reclaiming perspective.
Just like rivers that shift and bend, emotions are meant to move.
Just like I said, emotions are energy in motion.
When we hold our breath, we are damming the river.
Feelings get stuck and pressure builds.
I know that.
I felt that.
And I was so scared that it was gonna blow like a pressure cooker.
Breathing consciously doesn't erase our emotions, but it allows them to pass through, through like
they're supposed to.
Just like water that flows downstream.
Every inhale is an invitation to receive, while every exhale is permission to release.
When we choose to breathe with awareness, we choose to shift our perspective from heaviness to
possibility, from overwhelm to optimism.
So let's experience this together.
Get a comfortable seat.
Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly.
Close your eyes. If it feels safe.
I like to close my eyes when I'm doing breath work because I can get more grounded and
connected.
But you do. You take a few breaths and just notice that natural rhythm.
There's no judgment here, just acceptance.
Now let's shift.
Inhale through your nose for four count, and you'll be receiving.
Then we'll hold for two, Pausing and gaining perspective.
And then we'll exhale for six count, releasing.
Let's do this together.
Inhale through your nose for 4, 3, 2, 1.
Hold for 2, 1.
Exhale for 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Again.
Inhale to receive.
4, 3, 2, 1 dot Hold.
Gaining perspective. 2, 1.
Exhale. Releasing 6, 5, 4, 3,.
2, 1.
Again.
Inhale through your nose to receive.
4, 3, 4, 2, 1.
Holding. Gaining perspective.
Exhaling to release for 6, 5, 4,3, 2, 1.
Okay, take a breath.
Let's do that again.
Inhale to receive.
4, 3, 2, 1.
Holding. Gaining perspective.
2, 1.
Releasing for 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, one.
Notice how that time was a different pace, a little bit slower pace.
That's okay.
We're just testing the water here.
We're imagining water and we're testing it out.
Let's take that visualization of water a little bit further.
As we inhale, imagine water flowing through you.
Clear, refreshing, cleansing your insides.
Hold to reflect clarity.
Like a still pool.
When we release, we're releasing debris to go downstream, Letting go of what no longer serves
you.
Let's try again.
We're going to inhale, imagining cleansing our insides for 4, 3, 2, 1.
And we're holding.
We're looking at the pool, reflecting the clarity that we have inside for two and one and exhaling,
releasing the debris of the stuff we no longer need.
For 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Let's do that one more time.
Inhaling for 4, 3, 2, 1.
And holding for 2, 1.
And exhaling for 6, 5, 4, 3rd, 2, 1.
Notice how your body feels now.
Has anything shifted inside you?
You just changed your perspective in less than a couple minutes with nothing more than your
breath.
There are two ways that you can bring this into your life right now.
The first is to use that perspective breath.
Every day before a big meeting, after an argument, or any time you feel yourself tightening.
I've been known to escape by going to the ladies room and breathing for two or three or four
minutes, just focusing on my breath, that perspective breath.
And when I return, I am able to handle whatever is going on and I have a lot more perspective and
I'm relaxed.
It still may be chaos, but I am not contributing to the chaos.
The second thing that you can do is to write things down in a journal.
I like to practice mindful journaling.
It's what we do in the Mindful Life community, and I outline it in my book, the Inner Affirmations.
When you're doing that, you can do it right after you do this breathing, or you can do it at the end
of the day.
The questions you want to ask yourself are, what did I release?
What did I let go of?
The second question or the other question that you might pose to yourself are, what new
perspective opened up for me?
Those are two ways that you can integrate this right away.
If slowing down to do this feels uncomfortable, it's okay.
Breath isn't about perfection.
It's about practice.
It's why I have a meditation that is 90 seconds long, because sometimes that feels like it's all I've
got.
Even one intentional breath can shift your energy, your emotions and your day.
Today, you've got to touch what it feels like to flow with your emotions instead of swimming
against them.
You don't have to fix yourself to feel whole.
You just have to remember to breathe.
If this resonated with you, I would love for you to keep exploring with me in the Mindful Life
Community or somewhere else.
There are lots of practices that expand on this.
It's just one gentle step for you to deepen into what we started here today.
Thank you for breathing with me.
And may you keep choosing openness and optimism one conscious breath at a time.