Most people think of intention as something you set at the beginning of a breathing session. “What do I want?” “What am I working on?” “What do I want to heal, change, release, create, or experience?” We form the intention, say it to ourselves, and then begin breathing. But there is a much more powerful way to work with intention.
Instead of setting an intention once and then forgetting about it, we can breathe the intention. We can use every conscious breath to form it, energize it, deepen it, release what stands in its way, and experience its fulfillment. Think of each breath as a prayer. The inhale forms the prayer. The exhale receives the answer. And then we do it again. And again. And again.
Intention Needs Repetition
You can’t form an intention once and expect it to displace a lifetime of habit. Old patterns have been rehearsed thousands—maybe millions—of times. They have been reinforced through thoughts, emotions, behaviors, reactions, posture, and breathing patterns. The longer we have lived a certain way, the more established those structures become. So repetition matters.
Think about painting a car. You don’t apply one enormous, thick coat of paint. You put on a coat, let it settle, apply another, and then another. Or think about the traditional process of dyeing cloth. The cloth is dipped into the dye, sun dried, dipped again, sun dried again, over and over until eventually the color becomes part of the fabric itself. We can work with intention in the same way. Breath by breath, we create the impression. Breath by breath, we deepen it. Breath by breath, we embody it.
The Inhale: Form the Intention
Use the inhale to gather your energy and attention. Bring the intention alive with words, images, emotions, sensations—whatever makes it real for you. Don’t merely think about the intention. Feel it.
If your intention is freedom, what does freedom actually feel like in your body? If your intention is forgiveness, what would it feel like if the burden were already gone? If the intention is courage, love, abundance, healing, connection, or peace, can you begin to experience the quality of that state right now? The long, conscious inhale gives us time to conjure up that feeling and gather ourselves around it.
There is something childlike about this. Think of a little child who wants to be picked up. The child doesn’t make a halfhearted request while simultaneously thinking about six other things. The whole being participates. The arms reach up. The eyes speak. The voice speaks. The body speaks. There is totality. Bring some of that totality to the inhale. Not strain. Not force. Totality. Let the inhale become a wholehearted YES to your intention.
The Exhale: Experience Fulfillment
Then comes an equally important movement. Let go. Soften. Relax. Receive. If the inhale expresses the longing, let the exhale carry the feeling of fulfillment. Instead of thinking, “Someday I will have this,” experiment with feeling, “It is here.” The prayer has been answered. The dream has arrived. The work is done. There is nothing to chase at this moment. The inhale forms and energizes the intention. The exhale gives us the felt experience of its fulfillment. And then we begin again. Intention. Fulfillment. Intention. Fulfillment. Breath after breath. Eventually, we begin closing the distance between wanting something and experiencing it.
Don’t Just Change the Mind—Include the Body
Working with intention is not merely a mental exercise. It is a mind-body-breath practice. We can consciously decide that we want something new while the body is still holding tightly to something old. That matters. If the body is filled with contraction, resistance, fear, or deeply ingrained patterns, a new intention may have nowhere to land. You can’t pour more water into a glass that is already full. So while we are breathing in the new, we are also breathing out the old.
Micro-movements can help. Sound can help. Softening can help. Visualization can help. Notice little places of tension and allow them to release. Let the jaw soften. Let the belly soften. Let the chest open. Let the bones breathe. Imagine every cell, every organ, the entire mind-body system expanding and relaxing with the breath. We are not trying to hammer a new program on top of an old one. We are creating space.
Connected Breathing: Closing the Gap
This is one reason connected breathing can be such a powerful way of working with intention. Notice the transition between inhale and exhale. Can you remove the hesitation? Can the inhale simply become the exhale? And can the exhale become the next inhale? The inhale and exhale are not really two separate things. They are two phases of one movement.
I remember working in the Navy with a P-250 pump, a gas-driven, two-cycle pump. During one phase it sucked water in; during the other phase it reset. There were two distinct phases, but what came out was a continuous stream of water with rhythmic surges.
Breathing can have that same quality. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Two phases. One continuous flow. This becomes a beautiful meditation when working with intention because we are also closing the psychological gap between forming the intention and experiencing its fulfillment. We stop reinforcing the idea that what we want is somewhere far away.
Use Your Imagination
Be creative. Sometimes I imagine the inhale rising from deep inside the body, moving upward through me and out through the top of the head. Each breath brings another layer of resistance to the surface. Sometimes I imagine the exhale as levitation—as if I am breaking free of density and floating upward.
Another practice is to imagine the body expanding 360 degrees with the inhale—and then, instead of collapsing with the exhale, continuing to expand beyond the physical boundaries of the body. Expansion upon expansion. Wave after wave. Pulse after pulse. Use whatever image makes the intention come alive. Visualization, symbolism, sound, movement, emotion—all of these can become expressions of intention.
There is no need to become rigid about the technique. Sometimes small breaths help. Sometimes long, slow breaths help. Sometimes breathing through the nose changes the quality of the experience. Sometimes breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth creates another useful expression. Be childlike. Play. Experiment.
When Intensity Becomes Tension
Totality does not mean force. During an intense connected breathing session, the system can sometimes begin producing tension, contraction, or tetany. Whatever interpretation we give these experiences, they are a signal to pay attention to what is happening rather than simply pushing harder or backing away and stopping.
When the breathing becomes strained, soften. Relax the inhale. Open the body. But keep the breath moving. Let the breath spread through more of the system rather than forcing more intensity into one place.
This is why I keep coming back to one of the fundamental principles of breathwork: Breath doesn’t open under pressure. It opens under presence. Intention works the same way. We don’t need to force it into ourselves. We create the conditions in which it can be received.
Working with Intention in Groups
There is another dimension to this practice when we breathe together. A group can support an individual’s intention through attention, presence, and shared breathing. As facilitators, we can quietly breathe with the intention of the person we are supporting.
We don’t have to impose anything on them. We simply add our presence to theirs. One person’s intention becomes supported by a field of attention. This is one of the beautiful possibilities of conscious group breathing: we don’t necessarily have to do everything alone.
Eventually, Let the Breath Do the Work
At first, working with intention can seem complicated. We are paying attention to the inhale. The exhale. Relaxation. Connection. Imagery. Feeling. Sound. Movement. Intention. Fulfillment. But we practice each element until eventually they begin to come together naturally.
And then something changes. We get the breath into a beautiful, resourceful pattern, the breath begins to do the work for us. Our job becomes simpler. Keep the intention alive. Stay present. Stay soft. Keep breathing. Wave after wave, the old pattern is being met while the new possibility is being experienced.
This is why conscious, continuous, intentional breathing can become such a powerful practice for change. We are not simply thinking about the life we want. For the duration of the breathing session, we are practicing being the person who is already living it.
Every inhale is the prayer. Every exhale is the prayer being answered. And breath by breath, we make the intention real—not someday, not somewhere else, but here, in the living experience of the body. That is where intention stops being an idea. It becomes an experience. And ultimately, a way of being.
Wishing you much luck in your practice and many blessings on your path.
September, 2026
Breathmastery.com