A Nervous System Shift: How Breathing Affects Stress and Burnout in Educators

This blog is part of our summer blog series exploring nervous system shifts for educators that support returning to the school year with greater awareness, capacity, and sustainability. Each post focuses on different patterns that often contribute to chronic stress and burnout in schools. With more time to slow down over the summer, educators can notice what is happening internally and support their bodies in moving out of chronic states of stress and activation.

Of all the nervous system shifts we’ll explore, breathing patterns may feel the most familiar. Yet the relationship between breathing and the nervous system is often misunderstood. The way we breathe influences how stress is carried and experienced throughout the day.

Why Breathing Patterns Matter

Many educators spend large portions of the school year moving quickly, managing constant demands, and responding moment-to-moment without realizing how their breathing patterns may be contributing to ongoing stress and tension.

We’re taught to take long, deep breaths as a way to calm down. This is not always easy, and it is not always the type of breath the nervous system needs in that moment. If you are already anxious or tend to be a shallow breather, a large breath in can sometimes make you feel even more anxious.

At the same time, shallow, chest breathing can activate the sympathetic nervous system and create a consistent baseline of anxiety or tension in the body. Over time, this can contribute to the feeling of always needing to be alert, even during moments that are supposed to feel restful.

Exploring Different Breathing Patterns

Instead of assuming there is one “right” way to breathe, it can be more helpful to begin noticing how different breathing patterns affect the way your body responds to stress.

Start by Noticing How You Breathe

• Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly. Notice whether only your chest moves or whether your belly moves as well.
• When the diaphragm is more involved and the belly expands, this can help engage the parasympathetic nervous system, which supports slowing down, recovery, and regulation after stress.

If diaphragmatic breathing feels difficult or uncomfortable at first, you are not alone. Long-term shallow breathing patterns can make deeper breathing feel unfamiliar or even stressful initially.

One way to practice diaphragmatic breathing is by laying on your stomach with your belly against the floor. As you breathe in, gently try directing the breath toward your belly. The pressure from the floor can make it easier to notice diaphragmatic movement.

Experimenting With Different Ways of Breathing

Once you begin noticing how you breathe, experiment with different ways of breathing and notice how they affect your stress levels, energy, and sense of regulation.

Bringing This Shift Into the School Day

How can educators take these breathing patterns and apply them to real-life scenarios in learning environments?

Developing greater awareness around these patterns can help educators recognize stress responses earlier and build tools they can access throughout the day to navigate challenging situations during the school year.

As an educator, you may also begin seeing how this shows up for your studen. Just like adults, students respond differently to different forms of breathing and regulation strategies. What supports one nervous system may not support another in the same way.

Diving Deeper Into Behavioral Health

The concepts covered in this blog are explored more deeply throughout SEI’s Behavioral Health Program, where educators connect neuroscience and behavioral health concepts to what they experience every day in learning environments.

The program helps educators build tools and strategies that reduce strain without adding more to their plate.

SEI’s Behavioral Health Program is designed for educators nationwide and also supports Colorado educators in meeting behavioral health and special education professional relicensure requirements recently implemented by the Colorado Department of Education.

Our Nervous System Shift Blog Series: Navigating Burnout Continues

Throughout the summer, we will continue sharing nervous system shifts connected to stress, burnout, behavior, and educator sustainability on our blog. Next week, we’ll explore how interoceptive awareness (the ability to notice what’s happening in our bodies) shapes nervous system responses throughout the school day.

This series is intentionally designed to first support educators in recognizing and shifting patterns within their own nervous systems before exploring how these concepts can be applied in classroom settings. After educators have had the time to explore these shifts within themselves, we will begin sharing bonus classroom application resources later in the summer that are available only to our subscribers. These resources will help educators take the nervous system shifts from this series and apply them with students in practical ways that support regulation, learning, and more sustainable classroom environments in the new school year.

To ensure you receive special access to these resources, subscribe using a personal email address or phone number so we can reach you during summer break.