Rule 4: Breathe.

This is the chapter that's aged the best. Ten years ago I wrote a whole chapter about breathing without having the language for nervous system regulation. I didn't know what I was teaching. I just knew it worked.

When I wrote this, I was talking about stress, and sharing what had happened in the years after my divorce. I thought I was someone who didn't let things bother me. I told everyone I was fine. What I now know is that I was in the freeze response. I was very good at numbing.

Ten years on, this is where I start with every single client who lies on my table. The breath is the doorway. Everything else, the fascia work, the lymphatic drainage, the Reiki, all of it walks you through the door the breath has opened.

If you're a first-born daughter carrying decades of holding it together, breath alone isn't going to be enough. But it's where the work begins. In my 2026 reflections at the end, I talk about what's stored in the body when we've been in survival mode for years, and what it takes to release it.

The full audiobook is available on all the audiobook platforms if you want to jump ahead, or you can get the paperback here: https://amzn.to/4Aw5F6w and the workbook that goes with it here: https://amzn.to/4hfqg63. The exercises are where the real work happens. The exercises need to be done, not just listened to.

As always, I would love to hear from you, what you get out of each chapter, any insights, any thoughts.

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