Cool Hot Flushes Fast: 3 Cooling Breathworks for Menopause
- Daniella
- Mar 8
- 2 min read
If you're in the middle of a hot flush and desperately need relief, breathwork might be the last thing on your mind. But these three simple breathing techniques can genuinely cool your body down in minutes — no medication, no equipment, and no experience needed.
In this short 4-minute video, Dr Daniella Goldberg walks you through three cooling breathworks specifically chosen for menopause hot flushes. Each one activates your body's natural cooling response by calming the nervous system and lowering your core temperature — and you can do all three sitting in a chair, at your desk, or even in the office when a flush strikes.
The three techniques in this video:
Straw Breath — Breathing in slowly through pursed lips as if sipping through a straw draws cool air across the mouth and throat, immediately beginning to lower your body temperature and calm the heat response.
Smiling Breath — This gentle technique uses the natural cooling effect of a soft smile combined with mindful breathing to signal safety to your nervous system, easing the stress response that can trigger or intensify hot flushes.
Sitali Breath — An ancient yogic cooling breath where you inhale through a rolled or slightly open tongue. Sitali is one of the most well-known natural remedies for overheating and has been used for centuries to reduce internal heat and calm the mind.
Why breathwork works for hot flushes
Hot flushes are triggered by your brain's thermostat — the hypothalamus — becoming hypersensitive to small changes in body temperature during menopause. Stress and an overactive nervous system make this worse.
Cooling breathworks work by directly calming the nervous system, lowering cortisol, and resetting your body's heat response — often within just a few minutes of practice.
Research published in the National Library of Medicine shows that yoga and mindfulness-based practices can reduce the frequency and severity of hot flushes by up to 60% when practiced consistently.
How to get the most out of these practices
The key word is consistently. Even two minutes of cooling breathwork a day — practiced regularly — builds your nervous system's ability to regulate temperature over time. Think of it like training a muscle. The more you practise, the faster and more effectively your body responds.
Try doing one of these techniques as soon as you feel a flush coming on. With practice you'll find you can interrupt the heat cycle before it peaks.
Ready to go deeper?
If you found these helpful, our Second Spring Video Library has 5+ hours of symptom-specific yoga and breathwork practices for hot flushes, insomnia, anxiety, brain fog and meno-rage — all designed to be done at home in under 10 minutes.
Or if you'd like live guidance and a supportive community of women on the same journey, join the waitlist for our next 6 Week Yoga for Menopause Course →
Dr Daniella Goldberg PhD is a yoga instructor and menopause coach with over a decade of experience specialising in yoga for women navigating perimenopause and menopause.
Comments