S o u n d  B r e a t h  T o o l k i t   
For Anxiety Relief & Stress Resilience
by Joshua Leeds

The Sound Breath Toolkit (SBTK) has evolved from my study of sound and anxiety abatement. Little did I know in 1997, when I first re-defined psychoacoustics for a soundwork-orientation, as "...the study of the effect of music and sound on the human nervous system," that many years later, I'd be putting together a practice for the use of sound with breath and movement for nervous system regulation.

 

SBTK are easy techniques that can be interwoven into your daily life; a practice of adaptable simple sounds, smart breath, and easy movements to down-regulate and find balance. 

 

The book title is A Practice of Sound & Breath – Exercises for Autonomic Nervous System Balance. The book is a companion to SBTK exercises and music. It will be short and sweet at about 100+ pages! Ebook publication's scheduled for the end of 2025. Below are excerpts from the Introduction. (250815)

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Introduction

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I come into the combined fields of sound and breath with a unique perspective about listening. With music and sound, we actively listen to each other. Combining sound and breathwork,
we must also actively listen to ourselves. 

 

If we choose to use this sound and breath practice, then we must also pay close attention to our bodies. Depending on age, physical conditions, and degree of practice, these exercises for nervous system dysregulation can be a potent remedy. With progressive layers of messaging to the brilliant autonomic nervous system, we passively reinforce the idea that we are no longer in fight or flight mode and that we can relax and restore [1]. This all seems so calming, and it is, but it is also extremely impactful. This is why we must listen to our own bodies.

 

This Toolkit, consisting of theory, exercises, and music, is about down-regulating an often misused symphathetic nervous system. How did we get this way, where a primary human function is overly-fatigued and working at a misguided, perhaps destructive load?

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A Cyclical Time of Significant Change

In the 21st century, we live in a significant time of geopolitical and climatic change. Historically, cycles teach us that humans rotate between up- and down-swings. This seems to be how we evolve. Our current downward spiral centers around disrupted world orders, divisive cultural values, dangerous technologies, and unsettled climate. Our assumptions and expectations all need to modify to live in this new world.

 

Descent can be simply defined as coming down from an ascent. This change is usually laden with uncertainty. Study of the brain shows us that uncertainty often brings uncomfortableness, a lack of familiarity, and breaking patterns. While descending change ultimately moves us further as a species, the process can be quite stressful, even traumatic.
It has a large impact on our nervous systems, especially as a bridge generation having grown up with certain expectations of how life would be.

 

How does this translate to the nervous system?

 

If our nervous systems are diminished – from stress or aging – it means that we must find different ways to deal. The alternative is a powerful lessening of health and a dullness of vitality. 

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When we have chronic stress or unresolved trauma, our highly specific fight or flight SNS mechanism is our physiological rescue. While we’re not running away from a saber-tooth tiger anymore – which is reasonably how the SNS evolved – many of us are chronically overwhelmed with everyday stress, and the SNS is where our overwhelm seems to land and fester. The net result of chronic sympathetic overload takes many forms.

 

For some people, adrenal glands are the first line of defense. With overwhelmed adrenals, many important neurotransmitters get mixed up and before we know it, we have imbalances that wreak physical and mental havoc. For others, sympathetic overload results in hypertension or increased susceptibility to infections. Be it psychological, physiological,
or even chronological, nervous system dysregulation has many results all leading to a hyper-alert, yet exhausted SNS function.

 

The Human Upgrade

The human body has an extraordinary coping mechanism that makes it possible to upgrade itself. Collaboration – usually thought of as teamwork between individuals – can also be viewed in how our bodies team up internally to create physical adaptation.

 

In the 21st century, we need to adapt to different demands. What we did with our bodies 100,000 years ago is different than what we need to do now.  Current times require a remake, a do-over, a refining. Our autonomic nervous system actually could use our help.
It’s been faithfully assisting us for a long time. But it has outworn its mandate. It’s time to give this trustworthy friend some love! 

 

The Sound Breath Toolkit (SBTK) utilizes body teamwork. We’re using one of the body's primary systems, respiration, to remedy an imbalance within the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. We do this by stimulating yet another body system,
the amazing vagal nerve. And we do all this with sound and breath. That’s a lot of systems going to work with each other. What a great team!

 

Autonomics

With four divisions, the human nervous system (NS) is broad, complex, and spread throughout the body. This book focuses upon the autonomic nervous system (ANS), sometimes affectionately called the automatic, for it attends to many vital physical things that we don’t have to think about, i.e., breathing, heart beat, and digestion. Can you imagine if you had to stay up every night, all night, just to make sure you breathe and that your heart doesn’t skip a beat? 

 

The Somatic NS, another of the primary NS divisions, is about sending action messages,
let's say, to our hand to reach out and pick up a cup; it is an action communication. However, the ANS is about important life-giving functions that are performed without us having to be consciously involved. 

 

The ANS is made up of two interweaving sister systems, known as the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The SNS is all about fight or flight and the PNS is about rest and restore.

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The term, Autonomics [2], refers to the idea that we can view our entire life behaviors through the lens of the autonomic nervous system; it is that important and has such a large bearing on everything in our lives. This can also be said about the extraordinary Polyvagal Theory (PVT), discovered by Dr. Stephen Porges. PVT greatly informs the underlying principles of the SBTK practices, as well as the core concepts of Dr. Alfred Tomatis.

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The Respiratory System

Our human respiratory system, in development for millions of years, involves inhaling oxygen. The magic takes place inside our lungs. Oxygen is used to fuel cellular metabolism.
Air nourishes the body and what we exhale is it’s waste – primarily carbon dioxide. This is some of the function of the respiratory system. This mechanism of Oxygen/CO2 release is what many of us share in common.

 

However, our inhalation/exhalation cycle is quite individual, based on psychological experiences we’ve had in our growing years. If we had a lot of fear, then we probably still breath in a shallow manner. If we grew up with meaningful security and a resultant sense of safety, chances are we breathe deeply.

 

SBTK Exercises are designed to recalibrate how we breathe. This is done with sound, breath and movement for you to integrate into your life.

 

Sound Breath Toolkit (SBTK)

The impetus of the SBTK is a massive increase in general anxiety disorders taking place around the world. Most of this can be traced to the uncertainty from rapid change.
I’ve developed simple exercises to help strengthen the ANS. These easy physical movements center around the breath with the support of sound and movement. All combined, a solution for some.

 

Given that we’re all different, SBTK Exercises are designed for individual adaptability.
Once you learn the exercises and understand the theories behind them, you can fold them into your existing practices, such as relaxing, walking, exercising, making love, falling to sleep and more. What all these behavioral categories have in common is rhythm and cadence.

 

With SBTK,  I’m teaching how to simply put your breath to work tonifying the longest nerve in the body –  the vagus nerve (as in vagabond). By simply breathing in and out through your nose and having a longer exhalation, you can move into smarter breathing practices.
Who knew that a remedy for aging, chronic stress and anxiety abatement is extended nasal exhalation (ENE)? 

 

Sound contributes to ENE through humming, whereby we provide a shelf for a longer exhalation. Humming also serves to release extra amounts of the nitric oxide molecule [3] which among many other positive things helps us think more clearly.

 

We rarely consider that our multi-faceted bodies are equipped with obvious but rarely thought of evolutionary tools. Like a jack and spare tire in the trunk, our bodies use common on-board functions for fixing itself like breathing and humming. We hum because smart breathing is through the nose. You can't sing or tone with your lips closed. Humming is a ridiculously simple, yet potent tool for stimulating the vagus nerve, releasing far more nitric oxide molecules, and serving as a shelf for extended exhalation.

 

SBTK Goals

The focus of the Sound Breath Toolkit is physiological in nature: 
• Maximize vagal nerve (VN) stimulation →
• Activate the parasympathertic nervous system (PNS) →
• Help balance the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). 

 

To maximize this process, we use sound, movement, and rhythm to create ENE - Extended Nasal Exhalation.
 

Amazingly enough, this reconfiguration of the automatic can be facilitated with sound and breath. This self-induced refinement, using one body part (respiration) to remedy another (SNS stuck in overdrive) speaks to the brilliance of an evolving body design. We seemingly morph based on the causes and conditions of the external environment. 

 

Regardless of how we ordinarily breathe, SBTK Exercises are adaptable with varying levels of complexity and fun! This is accomplished through finding your new breath ratio, usually 1:2 inhale/exhale. The SBTK also includes relevant theory supporting breath refinement as a tool for self-management.

 

Very few people like to go to the dentist. This is why we force ourselves, on a daily basis, to wrestle with dental floss. Well, not to be outdone... SBTK Exercises are a form of vagal floss. By using specified breathing patterns to impact the vagus nerve, a smarter breath practice can be done for 6+ minutes a day with noticeable results.

 

What's in the Book?

In this book, we’ll understand the process of Extended Nasal Exhalation (ENE). This is the secret sauce for keeping our Automatic (ANS) in good working order as we live and age.

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SBTK is comprised of three aspects:

1. The Book – A Practice of Sound & Breath

2. Exercises 

3. Music 

 

The book will assist you with your SBTK practice:

• Part I, Foundations of Thought, has ten chapters covering the fundamentals of the autonomic nervous system, breath ratios, vagal nerve, humming, movement, etc. All the things you might want to know that support the actual exercises.

• Part II, Exercises for the Body, demonstrates ten different exercises sthat you can adapt to your breathing patterns and body. There’s also a link to online videos that demonstrate the actual movements.

• Part III, Appendix, is filled with important related information including: Alfred Tomatis, Stephen Porges, Polyvagal Theory, and more.

                                                                                    

Don’t Waste Your Breath 

It’s my hope that the common term, don’t waste your breath, will take on a new meaning.
We have the ability, simply by breathing a little bit differently, to positively impact our automatic (ANS). We’ll learn to breathe smart, and not waste a valuable tool our body has been carrying forever.

 

No wasted breathing here!

 

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Notes

​[1] The distinction between passive hearing and active listening evolves from core concepts of Dr. Alfred Tomatis (1920-2001), found in the Appendix.

[2] Appreciation to Natureza Gabriel, author of The Neurobiology of Connection, 

for the advocation of the term, Autonomics.

[3] Hats off to soundwork colleague, Dr. John Beaulieu, who instigated sound and Nitric Oxide research in conjunction with CUNY. 

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(c) 2025 Joshua Leeds. All rights reserved.