Breath of the Business: How Stress Impacts Entrepreneurs
Most entrepreneurs know the grind: too many hats, too little time, and a mental load that never fully switches off. But what if the biggest threat to your business isn’t your competition or your cash flow, it’s your own unmanaged stress?
In a recent episode of Your Business Unleashed, host Clayton sat down with Spencer DeLisle, former cancer researcher, President of the Art of Living Foundation Canada, and executive coach to organizations like Google, Deloitte, and the Federal Government of Canada to talk about what’s really going on inside the entrepreneur’s mind, and what to do about it.
Is Stress Really a Business Problem or Just a Personal One?
Short answer: both. And the costs are bigger than most people realize.
When you’re stressed, your body floods with cortisol, shuts down the cerebral cortex (your rational, creative “wizard brain”), and hands the wheel to the amygdala, your instinct-driven “lizard brain.” Great for outrunning predators. Terrible for high-stakes client meetings, presentations, or leading a team.
Spencer saw this firsthand as a researcher: “So many of the patients who came in for cancer and cardiovascular treatment, where did it start? It started with stress. And no matter what we did to treat the symptoms, they’d come back because they hadn’t solved the underlying issue.”
The business case is equally stark. Every time your mind switches tasks, interrupted by a notification, a worry, or a wandering thought, it costs roughly 20 minutes of refocus time. If you’re touching 15 files or tasks in a day, you’re not working efficiently. You’re bleeding hours.
Does Breathwork Actually Work? Here’s What the Science Says
Spencer anticipated the skepticism: “Prove to me this isn’t just frou-frou crap.”
He pointed to over 150 peer-reviewed studies from Yale, Harvard, and the University of Toronto validating the techniques taught at the Art of Living Foundation. One standout study showed that rhythmic breathing affects gene expression at the DNA level, turning on health-promoting genes, and turning off disease-related ones.
The mechanism is the vagus nerve. Certain breathing patterns stimulate it, which clears cortisol from the brain and restores clear, rational thinking fast.
What’s the One Breathing Technique Every Entrepreneur Should Know?
It’s called the straw breath, and you can do it in under 5 minutes before a presentation, between difficult meetings, or whenever your mind starts to spiral.
How to do it:
1. Breathe slowly through your nose.
2. Breathe out through pursed lips, as if exhaling through a straw, long and extended.
3. Repeat 9–10 times. Close your eyes if you can.
That’s it. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system, calms the mind, and brings you back to the present moment. Elite tennis players use a version of this between points to reset after a bad shot. You can use it between meetings to reset after a tough call.
“Instead of reacting to whatever trigger someone gives you,” Spencer says, “you start to respond.”
Why Putting Yourself First Is the Best Business Decision You’ll Make
Spencer’s analogy is simple: the oxygen mask on the airplane. You can’t take care of your team, your clients, or your family if you’ve run out of oxygen yourself.
“When your energy is high, a difficult client isn’t that big a deal, you handle it skillfully. When you’re exhausted, you won’t handle it as well.”
Investment? Five minutes a day. As Clayton put it: How much time did you spend doing doomscrolling last week? You’ve got 5 minutes.”
Ready to Go Deeper?
– For businesses and entrepreneurs
– Upcoming: Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living, will be speaking in the Greater Toronto Area this July and hosting a full week of programming at the Art of Living Canada Retreat Centre in Quebec (June 30–July 8).
Visit https://www.artoflivingcanadacentre.org for details.
Start with the straw breath today. Five minutes. See what shifts.
Your business is only as strong as the mind running it.