My name is Sally Howe and I live in Tweed Heads with my husband, 2 children and dog. I currently run a small business called FLOWSTATE Mind – Breath – Motion which offers breath training, surf survival workshops, surf coaching and kinesiology.

I am very passionate about breathing, even though it is something which we tend not to think about very much. It has helped me overcome PTSD, a variety of health issues and makes me feel confident and empowered everyday. 

As it has made such a big difference to my life, I want to share this with as many women as possible, so they too can enjoy the benefits from something which is simple, effective and accessible to all.

We breathe every moment of every day, in fact we breathe on average 20,000 times per day.

​Although we breathe without conscious thought, breathing is complex and affects every part of the body. Understanding how breathing affects the body, especially the women’s body, can be extremely powerful when making changes to the way we live our lives. 

​According to research, women’s breathing patterns are affected by hormones and the menstrual cycle. Women breathe smaller amounts of air than men, partly due to factors such as smaller airways, ribcage, lung volume, and a diaphragm that is around 9 percent shorter. 

During the luteal phase of menstruation, the body produces more progesterone in preparation for a potential pregnancy. When a pregnancy doesn’t occur, the progesterone peaks and then drops. This phase is most commonly connected with hyperventilation. This fact was discovered in 1915 and in 1929 research confirmed that the variation in ventilation is no longer present in post menopausal women. This last fact clearly links breathing with fluctuations in sex hormones’. 

So what does this look like for women?

Menstrual cycles influence mood, mental health, epilepsy, bipolar disorder, migraines, rheumatoid arteritis, endometriosis and adenomyosis. Respiratory symptoms such as breathlessness, coughing and wheezing vary considerably over the cycle. These become worse between days 10 and 22 the mid luteal to mid follicular phase, ‘/due to the influences of hormones changes on the airways.    

These symptoms can be managed by the implementation of regular breath training. 

As a sufferer of Adenomyosis, a painful and sometimes debilitating disorder of the uterus, I understand how much pain, lack of energy and heavy bleeding can impact life. This is why I am passionate to share what I have learnt about how regular breath training can truly make a difference to the quality of life whether you suffer from an illness or not. 

In these current unpredictable times, I feel having access to personal online content is the way to move forward. Functioning online is potentially inclusive of everyone, no matter where they live.

I would like is to create an online platform to host informative breathing workshops, have individual and group breath training sessions and develop a community portal so women can share their experiences and advice about how breathing is improving their health and wellbeing. 

This platform will be a members only website, where each member would pay a monthly or yearly subscription and have access to live workshops and classes, community portal, plus a variety of interesting information relating to mental and physical health and breathing.