Episode 78: Using Breathwork to Regulate Stress & Break the Cycle of Coping with Megan Ashton

What if the tool you need to manage stress, uncomfortable emotions, and the urge to reach for a drink has been with you all along?

In this episode, Lindsay sits down with Megan Ashton, founder of Unity Breathwork, to explore the power of breathwork as a tool for nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and healthier coping.

Megan shares her own powerful healing journey through bulimia, alcohol dependence, and years of using travel and other distractions to avoid uncomfortable emotions. After discovering conscious connected breathwork, she experienced a profound emotional release and eventually found that her reliance on binge drinking and binge eating began to fall away.

Together, Lindsay and Megan talk about why we often turn to alcohol, food, shopping, scrolling, or other quick dopamine hits when we're overwhelmed, and how building a stronger relationship with our nervous system can create more space between a difficult emotion and an automatic reaction.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why stress and unprocessed emotions can make us more likely to reach for alcohol or other coping mechanisms.
• The difference between everyday regulating breathwork and conscious connected breathwork.
• How breath awareness throughout the day can help interrupt the cycle of overwhelm.
• Why practicing breathwork regularly may make it easier to use when you're actually stressed.
• A simple five-count coherence breathing exercise you can try in just a few minutes.
• How conscious connected breathwork is used to explore deeper emotional experiences.
• Why Megan believes we don't need to keep looking outside ourselves for every answer—we already have access to our breath.
• How creating space to feel emotions can change the way we respond to life's inevitable curveballs.
• Why developing healthy coping tools is a practice rather than a one-time fix.

Try a Free Conscious Connected Breathwork Journey

Want to experience breathwork for yourself?

Megan offers a Free Conscious Connected Breathwork Journey online. This is a great opportunity to experience the practice and explore what breathwork may offer you.

→ Free Conscious Connected Breathwork Journey

A simple breathing practice from this episode

Megan guides Lindsay and listeners through coherence breathing:

Inhale through your nose for 5 counts.
Exhale through your nose for 5 counts.
Repeat for several minutes.

The goal is to slow the breath, eliminate the pause between the inhale and exhale, and create a calming rhythm. Start gently and stop if you feel uncomfortable, dizzy, or unwell.

For deeper or activating breathwork practices, Megan emphasizes the importance of working with an appropriately trained facilitator and considering individual safety and contraindications.

About Megan Ashton

Megan Ashton is the founder of Unity Breathwork and a breathwork educator and trainer. Her personal healing journey led her to conscious connected breathwork, and she now focuses on trauma-informed practice, facilitator competency, and education around breathwork and altered states of consciousness.

She leads breathwork retreats in Mexico and directs Unity Breathwork's professional training program.

Connect with Megan

Learn more about Megan’s work, upcoming breathwork sessions, retreats, training, and resources at unitybreathwork.com.

You can also follow Megan and Unity Breathwork on Instagram at @unitybreathwork.

A note for listeners

Breathwork can affect people differently, and some forms of breathwork can be physically and emotionally intense. The breathing exercise discussed in this episode is presented as a simple relaxation practice, not as a substitute for medical or mental-health care. If you have a medical or mental-health condition, are pregnant, or have concerns about whether breathwork is appropriate for you, consult an appropriately qualified healthcare professional before participating in intensive breathwork.

If you're working on changing your relationship with alcohol, remember that you don't have to rely on willpower alone. Building a toolkit of healthy ways to respond to stress, emotions, and cravings can be an important part of the process.

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