The Science of Confidence. How Breathing Builds Belief

Richard Edgerton
Oct 22
4 min read

Confidence isn’t luck.

It’s not ego, swagger, or the noise you make before the whistle.

Confidence is control, of breath, body, and mind

Every athlete knows the feeling when that control slips. The breath tightens. The body stiffens. The voice in your head starts asking questions instead of giving commands. In those moments, confidence doesn’t disappear, it hides behind physiology. And the key to finding it again may be simpler, and more trainable, than most realise.

New research is revealing a direct biological link between how you breathe and how confident you feel. The breath, it turns out, is not just for oxygen, it’s for belief.

The Confidence Crisis in Sport

Even at the elite level, confidence wavers. One missed shot can unravel composure.

A roaring crowd can tilt your nervous system into chaos. Sports psychologists describe two types of confidence:

Trait confidence — the baseline belief you carry from training, preparation, and experience.
State confidence — the moment-to-moment belief you can perform right now, under pressure.

It’s the latter that so often decides outcomes. State confidence is fragile because it’s physiological. When anxiety spikes, the body shifts into a sympathetic “fight or flight” state: heart racing, shallow breaths, tunnel vision. Performance tightens. The breath, often the first thing to go, becomes the fastest way back.

The Breath–Confidence Connection

Breathing is the remote control for the nervous system. Slow, deep, and deliberate breathing activates the parasympathetic system, lowering arousal and restoring clarity. This isn’t mindfulness fluff, it’s measurable science.

A 2022 review in Frontiers in Psychology found that slow, controlled breathing directly improves emotion regulation and motor performance by modulating heart-rate variability (HRV) and reducing stress hormones.
Another 2025 study in BMC Psychology linked slow breathing with enhanced psychological flexibility — a crucial trait underpinning resilience, focus, and self-confidence in sport.
Earlier work in The Sport Journal (2009) showed collegiate softball players who practiced rhythmic breathing during pressure moments felt “more in control” and reported higher confidence in competition.

Control. Composure. Confidence. It’s a biological sequence, one that starts in the diaphragm.

Control Creates Confidence

Confidence isn’t about pretending you’re fearless. It’s about regulating your system so fear doesn’t take over.

When you master your breath, you master your state. And when you can control your state, you can perform.

Slow breathing reduces physiological arousal, lowering cortisol and stabilising the heartbeat. It also sharpens attentional control, redirecting focus from intrusive thoughts to actionable presence. This combination builds what psychologists call self-efficacy: the belief that you can execute what you’ve trained to do.

That belief is confidence.

Athletes often talk about being “in control of my nerves” or “in control of the moment.” What they’re describing is a regulated nervous system, one that breathing can actively train.

“Confidence doesn’t come from hype, It comes from physiological coherence, when body and mind move in sync. Breathing is how you build that coherence.”

From Calm to Competitive Edge

The old narrative around breathing, as a tool for relaxation, sells it short.

Breathing isn’t just for calm; it’s for clutch.

Elite performers across sports and the military use breathing as a tactical advantage. Navy SEALs use box breathing (inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4) to maintain control in chaos. Runners and cyclists use resonance breathing (around 6 breaths per minute) to optimise rhythm and endurance. NBA players use pre-free-throw breathing to centre focus and shut out noise.

These techniques do more than lower stress, they prime confidence. By syncing the breath, brain, and body, athletes enter what researchers call “autonomic balance” the physiological sweet spot between intensity and composure.

As Frontiers in Psychology (2022) concluded, “Breathing patterns can modulate emotional states and performance readiness through changes in cortical control and autonomic function.” In simple terms: breathe right, and your brain believes you’re ready.

The Breathing Buddy Approach

At Breathing Buddy, we believe confidence can be trained, and breathing is the foundation.

Our system doesn’t just teach you how to breathe; it learns how you breathe when confident, anxious, or in flow. Using adaptive algorithms, Breathing Buddy tailors breathing sequences to regulate your emotional and physiological state in real time.

Each routine is built on evidence-based protocols, from resonance frequency to tactical reset breathing, but wrapped in a sleek, emotionally intelligent experience designed for high performers.

Where other apps aim for calm, Breathing Buddy aims for control, clarity, and confidence.

Imagine pre-competition breathing sessions called “Find Your Flow” or “Breathe in Power.” Imagine an in-game reset that reads your heart rate and adjusts your rhythm to restore composure. Imagine training confidence not as a mindset, but as a muscle — one breath at a time.

This isn’t relaxation tech. It’s confidence engineering.

Why Confidence Starts With the Breath

Breathing is the bridge between body and mind, the one system you can control that controls everything else. It anchors attention, lowers reactivity, and increases the sense of agency, the feeling that you’re driving the moment.

And that’s the heart of confidence: agency.

When you know you can control your state, pressure stops being the enemy. It becomes fuel.

Confidence, then, isn’t mystical. It’s physiological. Train the breath, and belief follows.

References

BMC Psychology (2025). Enhancing psychological skills and well-being in sport: the role of breathing techniques.
Frontiers in Psychology (2022). Breathing and emotion regulation in performance contexts.
The Sport Journal (2009). Implementing a Breathing Technique to Manage Performance Anxiety in Softball.
PMC (2022). Breath Tools: Evidence-Based Breathing Interventions for Running.