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What if learning to control your breath could help you create space between an impulse and the decision you make next?

In this episode of Breathwork Magic, Amanda Russo sits down with former pastor, recovery mentor, nervous system regulation coach, and Sacred Grit podcast host Jason Lyle for an honest conversation about breathwork, nervous system regulation, addiction, spirituality, and what it means to reclaim control over your choices.

Jason shares his deeply personal journey from adoption and early experiences with shame to becoming a pastor while privately struggling with patterns of sexual addiction and infidelity. After reaching a point where he felt like nothing he had tried could help him change, an introduction to nervous system regulation opened the door to something different. Through cold water immersion, Tummo breathwork, yoga, and meditation, Jason began understanding his behavior not only through his mind, but through his body.

Together, Amanda and Jason explore the connection between the breath, the nervous system, and our ability to respond rather than immediately react. Jason breaks down the science behind nervous system dysregulation in simple terms and explains how practices like Tummo breathing can help widen the space between thought and action. They also discuss the psychological sigh and how something as accessible as stepping back and taking a conscious breath can create an opportunity to respond differently in moments of anger or overwhelm.

Jason also shares why the practice itself is only part of the equation. Breathwork, meditation, yoga, and cold immersion may create powerful shifts, but lasting transformation comes from how we integrate those experiences into everyday life. He introduces the idea of “preloaded decisions” deciding who you want to be before you’re faced with the moment that tests that decision and shares how breathwork has helped him become more aware of his choices in real time.

The conversation also explores parts work and Internal Family Systems, how unresolved experiences can influence our behaviors years later, and why some of the habits we judge most harshly may have originally developed as attempts to protect or soothe parts of ourselves. Jason shares how learning to understand those parts changed the way he viewed his own past and helped him approach healing from an entirely different perspective.

Amanda and Jason also dive into masculinity, spirituality, faith, and why practices like breathwork and yoga can offer men a different way to connect with emotions they may have spent years avoiding or suppressing.

Whether you’ve been practicing breathwork for years or still find the whole thing a little “woo-woo,” this conversation is an invitation to get curious about what can happen when you stop trying to think your way through everything and begin listening to what your breath and body have to say.

Sometimes creating a different life begins in the space between the impulse and the action.

As long as you have your breath, you have options. 💜