The Breath Connection

17/11/2025

Feeling extremely grateful for being in service, and getting to work with such incredible people! 🥰

Thank you! ❤️

16/11/2025

We’re still buzzing after this morning 💙❄️

Up before sunrise for a 6am Sunday start to support our awesome friend Jane and the brilliant Barnsley Hospital Charity – and wow, what a day.

A brave bunch of legends raised thousands for Barnsley NHS Hospital by getting sponsored to take on a proper cold water plunge… and we can confirm, it was a cold one today 🥶💦

Before they stepped into the water, we guided everyone through 5 rounds of our powerful Dynamic Breathwork. None of them had ever done breathwork before, and most had never tried cold water immersion – the feedback afterwards was incredible. They finished feeling calmer, stronger, and ready to face the chill 🙌

They met the challenge with laughter, courage and a huge sense of fun. It’s always such an honour to support work that matters this much. Definitely worth a 6am start on a Sunday. ❤️

To everyone who joined us, Chris and all the Team at Mavers lake to the kind sponsors, to Jane for bringing it all together, and to our AMAZING NHS… thank you, thank you, thank you.

HAPPY SUNDAY
Big LOVE
Sam & Miranda
The Breath Connection

14/11/2025

This morning we finished Week 3 of Back to Balance - our week on micro pauses.

Micro pauses are those small, in-the-moment resets you use during the day, not just when you finally crash at night. Just 1-2 minutes to check in, breathe, and stop stress quietly stacking up.

So far on this round of the course, you’ve:
• Built a simple morning routine that fits real life (Week 1)
• Created an evening wind-down to support better sleep (Week 2)
• Started using micro pauses to steady your system in the middle of busy days (Week 3)

You’re all incredible. The way you’re engaging with the practices, adapting them, and sharing honest feedback - better sleep, feeling less wired, handling stress differently - is exactly why we run this course.

In January we’re running the next round of Back to Balance:
• 4 weeks
• 20 live sessions
• Practical tools you can use straight away
• Downloads and resources you keep and come back to

If you’d like to start the year with a calmer nervous system and more headspace, you’re very welcome to join us.

⸻

Weekend micro pause - short, simple, effective

If things are getting on top of you this weekend, try this very effective micro pause:

1️⃣ Inhale gently through your nose until your lungs feel almost full.
2️⃣ Take a second, sharp inhale through your nose on top of the first.
3️⃣ Then do a long, slow sigh out through your mouth, until your lungs feel comfortably empty.
4️⃣ Repeat 2-3 times.

This helps your body offload built-up tension and signals your nervous system that it’s safe to calm down. Quiet, quick, and you can do it anywhere.

Wishing you a really decent, restful weekend.
Big LOVE, Sam & Miranda 💙

13/11/2025

We’re incredibly proud to be supporting such an amazing Charity! ❤️

Get involved beautiful people, details below. 🥶🧘🧘‍♀️

Need a good pick-me-up and fancy trying something completely new and different? Why not sign up for our Polar Plunge? ❄️

We're teaming up with The Breath Connection this November to bring you a one-of-a-kind experience that blends breathwork, mindfulness and a refreshing cold-water dip that will leave you feeling alive, calm and unstoppable!

🚨 Spots are almost gone — book now to secure your place🚨
📅 Date: Saturday 22 November
📍 Location: Manvers Lake
💰 £25 per plunger
💙 All funds raised supports our Dementia Appeal
🎟️ Sign up here: https://www.therotherhamft.nhs.uk/charity/events/polar-plunge-registration

You’ll be guided through a 40 minute breathwork session before the cold water dip, designed to help you move from stress and overwhelm to resilience and calm.

13/11/2025

Reset Day Retreat · Sunday 30 November · Mellor 💙
A one day reset for your body, mind and nervous system.

This year has been an incredibly tough one for so many of us.
Before December gets busy, give yourself one day to pause, breathe, and come back to yourself.

During the day you’ll:
🌿 Enjoy gentle yoga and a mindful walk in nature to get you out of your head and back into your body
🌬️ Experience Dynamic Breathwork to both calm and energise you, so you feel steady and strong
🧊 Try a fully supported ice bath experience, to meet your edges safely and discover just how resilient you really are
🥗 Share a nutritious, home cooked lunch, with simple ideas to keep your energy steady long after the retreat
✨ Learn practical nervous system tools you can start using the very next day

You’ll head home with:
🔋 Simple ways to refill your own energy tank (without needing a week off work)
☀️ Go-to practices to lift or soften your mood, depending on what you need
📆 Small, realistic habits that fit into a real life, not an ideal one
🧊 A new relationship with courage, fear and discomfort (yes, including the cold)
😌 Short micropauses to help you breathe out stress and breathe in calm, anytime, anywhere

Retreat details:
📍 Mellor, Church Road, SK6 5LX
📅 Sunday 30 November
💷 £95
👥 Small group, so you feel seen, safe and supported

Come on your own or with a friend. If you’re brand new to breathwork, yoga or cold water, you are so welcome. If you already practise, this is your chance to go deeper. Expect warmth, kindness, laughter and those quiet moments that change how you feel about yourself.

We’re co-hosting with our wonderful friend and facilitator Rachel (Rise and wild ) and we’d love to look after you for the day. 🤍

If your body is whispering “I need this”… this is your sign.

👉 Book your place: www.thebreathconnection.org

Big LOVE,
Sam, Miranda and Rach ❤️❤️❤️

09/11/2025

This morning, like so many across the country, we pause. 🌺

In the photos I’m sharing today you’ll see my dad, who joined the Royal Marines at 15 as a junior bugler and later served in the SBS, and my grandad Paddy Murray and Albert Hall (yes that was his real name! 😊) . Both my grandfathers served in the Second World War. Miranda’s grandparents also served during the war. Their generation knew what it meant to stand together against cruelty, and to protect the possibility of a more decent, humane world.

But today is not about our families. It is about all who served, all who fell, and all who still carry the weight of service.

Remembrance, for us, is simple:
To honour those who gave their today so we can live ours.
To quietly remember what was resisted.
To uphold, in our own small way, the values of courage, compassion and shared humanity.

I remain deeply proud to have served with the Royal Marines - a true band of brothers - and that pride sits alongside my huge respect for all who continue to serve, in every role, in every branch, and in our emergency services. Through The Breath Connection, Miranda and I now try to live and teach in a way rooted in kindness, awareness and support. Our work with veterans and blue light communities is one way of saying: you are seen, and you are not alone.

Today our thoughts are with:
• Those who never came home
• Those who came home changed
• Those living with injuries seen and unseen
• The families who hold their stories and memories

If today feels heavy, we have your backs.

Lest we forget. ❤️🌺

With love - Sam & Miranda ❤️

08/11/2025

Two epic sessions today for us at The Breath Connection 💙

Miranda held space in our gorgeous room at Brabyns Recreation Centre in Marple Bridge 🌳
starting with a Functional and Resilience Breath workshop,
followed by a super powerful Dynamic Breathwork session 💫
and then it was into the ice baths for our brave, beautiful humans 🧊
Held, guided and supported every step of the way.

Meanwhile, down in sunny Cornwall for our Facebook Breathe Don’t Burn Out crew ☀️
I shared a Functional Breathing and Pranayama session,
then, after some fiery Breath of Fire 🔥, we took it to the ocean for the most beautiful sea swim. Pure magic 🌊

Two locations. One community. One shared intention:
to regulate, reset, and remind you that you do not have to burn out to do brilliant things ✨

Have a wonderful weekend, beautiful people.

Big LOVE,
Sam & Miranda ❤️❤️

07/11/2025

We are feeling incredibly grateful for the work we get to do.🙏

To have had the privilege of supporting so many people over the years - from our work with the police to prisons, from the fire service to probation, from the NHS, Curtis Palmer Program Charity Page. and all the amazing charities we work with…never forgetting all the incredible humans who join us at our sessions, retreats and online courses - we are because of you. 🥰

In a world that can sometimes look like it runs on greed and self-interest, we are lucky enough to witness the complete opposite in the community we serve.

We see kindness.
We see compassion.
We see courage, honesty and heart in every single one of you.
And we see these not as weaknesses, but as your greatest strengths - and our community has them in abundance.

This post is to celebrate YOU.
For all you do.
For the way you show up for yourselves and others.
For every time you take a breath, do the work, make a different choice, offer a kind word, or hold space for someone else.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️

They say you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with… well, we must be bloody fabulous, because our community certainly is 😉

“The real secret of life is to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realise it is play.”
• Alan Watts

“After all, we’re all just walking each other home.”
• Ram Dass ❤️

Have a wonderful weekend - be kind to yourself and everyone you meet.

BIG LOVE
Sam & Miranda ❤️❤️

❤️

05/11/2025

National Stress Awareness Day 🧠💙

Today we delivered an online workshop to 86 professionals from a UK Civil Service organisation working in national security and complex, intelligence-led investigations👩‍💻🛡️🔎

In roles where pressure is constant, simple breathwork can make a real difference. We covered breathwork for performance under pressure 🌬️, better sleep 😴, and how to regulate a dysregulated nervous system 🫁 so people can stay calm, think clearly, and recover well.

On the day we explored:
⏱️ Quick nervous system resets you can use between tasks
🌙 Evening breathing routines to support deeper sleep
🧭 Practical ways to keep your cool under pressure and protect long-term mental and physical health in a demanding environment

We know everyone is under a lot of stress at the moment - we can’t take this away, but we can support you - through our Back to Balance course 🎓, workshops 🧰, day or residential retreats 🌿🏞️, and bespoke programmes for teams and organisations 🧩

For everyone on National Stress Awareness Day:

The fastest way to a place of calm is through your breath. Try this:

• Sit comfortably, one hand on your belly 🤲
• Inhale gently through your nose for a count of 4 - belly rises 👃
• Exhale through pursed lips for 8 seconds - belly softens back in 💨
• Repeat 4–6 times, then relax 🧘

It’s all about the BREATH! 😮‍💨🫁🧘‍♂️

BIG LOVE, Sam & Miranda ❤️

04/11/2025

Reset Day Retreat · Sunday 30 November · Mellor 💙

Take a deep breath. Imagine one spacious day to soften your shoulders, steady your mind, and remember who you are. That’s what this reset is for.

What we’ll do together:
• 🌿 Gentle guided yoga and mindful meditative walk in nature to bring you out of your head and into the moment
• 🌬️ Dynamic Breathwork to calm and energise, ready for the ice baths to meet your edges with courage
• 🥗 A nutritious, delicious home cooked lunch-with simple tips to keep energy steady all day
• ✨ Practical tools you can take home and actually use

You’ll head home with:
• 🔋 Ways to fill your own energy tank
• ☀️ Skills to lift or relax your mood
• 📆 Small, do-able habits that stick
• 🧊 Courage to feel the fear and do it anyway (hello, ice baths)
• 😌 Micropauses to breathe out stress and breathe in calm

Details:
• 📍 Mellor, Church Road, SK6 5LX
• 📅 Sunday 30 November
• 💷 £95

Come on your own or with a friend. Brand new or experienced - this day is for you. Expect warmth, community, and those little sparks of magic that change the way you feel. You’ll leave with new practices, and new friends.

Come and join us, with our beautiful friend and co-facilitator Rachel . We can’t wait to welcome you. 🤍

Ready to book your place? 👉www.thebreathconnection.org

Big LOVE as always Sam, Miranda and Rach. ❤️❤️❤️

03/11/2025

Breathwork & Ice Bath - Saturday 8 November.

What is everyone feeling at the moment? Stressed - overwhelmed, exhausted. 😮‍💨

Functional Breathwork (why it works)
We teach nasal, diaphragm-led breathing - light, low and slow. We practise a steady cadence of about 5-6 breaths per minute to lift HRV and calm the nervous system. Nasal breathing also filters and humidifies air and releases a little nitric oxide to support airways and blood flow. Simple drills you can use before a meeting, on the school run, or to switch off at night. 🫁🧘‍♀️🧘‍♂️👃

Dynamic Breathwork (with breath holds)
We guide 5 rounds of Dynamic Breathwork: conscious over-breathing followed by 2 breath holds. The holds do the heavy lifting - building CO2 tolerance, sharpening focus, and training you to stay steady when air hunger rises. The payoff: better nervous system control, less reactivity, and a calmer baseline you can carry into everyday life. ⚡🧠

Ice Bath - hormetic response
Cold exposure is simple hormesis: a small, controlled dose of stress that prompts adaptation. A brief, safe cold dip triggers a short stress response, then a stronger recovery. Over time it builds resilience, helping you handle everyday pressures better. 🧊💪

Sweet treats and hot drinks to warm up afterwards. ☕🍪

Book your spot: www.thebreathconnection.org

Brabyns recreational centre, Marple Bridge. 11am.

Wishing you all an amazing week ahead -
Big LOVE
Sam & Miranda ❤️❤️

Breathwork