Are You an Exhaler or an Inhaler?

Why Sensitive Souls Struggle with Money — and What Breath Has to Do With It

As sensitive souls, we exhale way more than we inhale.

We give, give, give, and give some more. . . and then wonder why we end up feeling depleted, exhausted, fatigued, and extra short on cash.

This is a lesson the entire state of Minnesota is learning the hard way right now.
As a culture, we are over-givers, and now with the ICE invasion, we are learning how to RECEIVE in the form of support and mutual aid from across the globe.

We gotta inhale!

As sensitive soul “exhalers” we pour ourselves out — care, time, energy, devotion — and somehow we keep pouring even when we have very little trickles filling ourselves back up. The abundance we create for others somehow doesn’t flow back to us in the same way. Magickally, emotionally, spiritually, financially... we’re all-giving, all-generous, and very little receiving.

We are so flippin’ bad at receiving that even when people offer generosity back to us in kind, we turn it down!

“Let me buy your dinner.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t accept that.”

🤦🏻‍♀️

What if I told you this is giving generosity is one of the biggest roots of your money struggles?

And, it can be rewired through your breathing habits.

Exhalers vs Inhalers: A Metaphor That Explains Everything

Scientists have discovered that your breath has a signature, like a respiratory fingerprint. They can identify you with 97% accuracy just by watching how you breathe over time. The ratio of your inhales to exhales, the tiny pauses between breaths, the rhythm your nervous system creates — it’s uniquely yours.

It’s also incredibly revealing.

Here’s where the woo-woo comes in. Your breathing habits reveal how you move through the world.

The Exhalers — that’s us, the sensitive souls. Deep, generous out-breath patterns. Nervous system tuned to parasympathetic states, to connection and care. We’re the nurturers, healers, teachers, therapists, the people who show up with hot-dish when someone’s world falls apart. Our default setting is outward. We dispense love like it’s our job (because often, it literally is).

The Inhalers — the deal-makers, the executives, the people who seem to magnetize money and opportunity without guilt. Their breath patterns lean toward inhalation. Nervous system alert and acquisitive. They’re wired for intake, for gathering resources, for claiming space.

Neither is better.

But, the painful truth is that in an economic system designed by and for inhalers, we exhalers are playing a game with different rules and wondering why we keep losing.

Right now, stop and take a deep breath.

Was it easy to inhale, or was it easier to exhale?

If your nervous system tilts toward exhaling — toward giving — you’re probably carrying an invisible set of beliefs that sound something like:

• I give first.

• I nurture first.

• I support others before myself.

• Connection matters more than money.

• My worth comes from how much I can offer.

In real life, this shows up as beautiful generosity and devastating self-abandonment:

We can end up chronically undercharging for our work. (I’m totally guilty of that.) We say yes before we can even contemplate the possibility of saying no. We give and give until we’re running on fumes, wondering why the universe doesn’t reciprocate. We feel guilty — actually guilty — when someone pays us well for what we do.

It’s not that we’re bad with money. We’re not irresponsible or naive. Rather, we’re wired for outflow, and our bodies haven’t been taught how to receive.

The parasympathetic nervous system — that rest-digest-receive part of your physiology — is intimately tangled up with unconscious beliefs about worthiness and safety. When our breath patterns prioritize exhaling, when our nervous systems default to giving, our internal systems aren’t calibrated for claiming abundance.

The Body Holds the Key (And the Lock)

Most money mindset work focuses on thoughts, affirmations, shifting beliefs from the neck up. But your relationship with abundance lives in your body. In your breath. In your nervous system’s automatic response to receiving.

And, your breath can be retrained.

Studies show that intentionally changing your breathing patterns — especially the relationship between inhalation and exhalation — can rewire autonomic states, enhance emotional regulation, and literally change how safe your body feels in the world. Breathing practices are already used clinically for trauma, anxiety, and stress resilience.

Why not apply them to your relationship with money?

Sensitive souls carry a sacred gift: we bring compassion into the world, we heal, we hold space, we give with open hearts and steady hands. The world desperately needs what we offer.

But the cycle can’t complete if we don’t inhale enough, if we don’t learn how to receive.

Money, in both psychological and spiritual terms, is simply the form energy takes in our economy. To block receiving is to block the flow that sustains your gifts. When you refuse the inhale, you’re not being noble — you’re choking off the very thing that lets you keep giving.

Your generosity is sacred. Your receiving is equally sacred. One cannot exist without the other.

If you’re reading this and you felt your body quietly nodding… I want you to know: you’re exactly who we built Abundant Money Mindset for.

AMM is a 9-week container where sensitive souls learn how to inhale again—without shutting down, overthinking, people-pleasing, or spiritually bypassing their way around money. We work with the nervous system and with real-world tools, so receiving starts to feel safe, clean, and honest in your body… and your bank account gets to come along for the ride.

Come as you are. Bring your generous heart. We’ll help you build a relationship with money that can love you back.

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Bibliography

Van Diest I., et al. Inhalation/Exhalation Ratio Modulates the Effect of Slow Breathing on Heart Rate Variability and Relaxation, Applied Psychophysiology & Biofeedback, 2014.

Bae D., et al. Increased Exhalation to Inhalation Ratio Enhances High-Frequency Heart Rate Variability, Psychophysiology, 2021.

Russo M.A., et al. Physiological Effects of Slow Breathing in Healthy Humans, PMC, 2017.

Giorgi F., et al. The Science of Slow Breathing and Heart Rate Variability, PubMed, ongoing research.

Breathing Patterns Show Differences Between Individuals, Psychology Today, 2025.

Balban M.Y., et al. Breathwork and Mood Improvements, PMC, 2023.

Bentley T.G.K., et al. Breathing Practices for Stress and Anxiety Reduction, PMC, 2023.