The Most Essential Ingredient: On Coherence, Breath, and Coming Back to the Ground
by Joe Izzo
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about coherence—what it means, how it feels, and how it relates to both our inner world and the way we build together. To me, coherence is more than an idea. It’s a state of being. A frequency we can tune into through practices like meditation, breathwork, time on the land, or anything that brings us back into presence and flow. Sometimes it’s less complicated than we make it. Sometimes coherence is simply feeling the ground beneath our feet and remembering that we are here.
In my own life, I’ve noticed that when I’m disconnected from myself, I’m much more likely to move from reactivity, overwhelm, or urgency. My thinking fragments. My body tightens. My ability to listen, create, and relate begins to narrow. But when I slow down enough to reconnect—to my breath, my body, the earth, and what’s actually present—something begins to reorganize. There is more space. More clarity. More choice. I become more capable of responding instead of reacting.
Through my own practice, and in the spaces I hold, I continue to see how simple this can be. The breath, especially, has a way of bringing us back—not by forcing anything, but by creating a bridge between where we are and what’s underneath the noise. A return to the body. A return to the ground.
That feels especially important right now. We’re living in a time that feels accelerated, fractured, and uncertain, and it’s easy to try to build new systems from the same dysregulated patterns that created the old ones. But I keep coming back to the feeling that true regeneration begins within. If we want to create more life-giving ways of relating, growing food, sharing resources, gathering in community, and caring for the earth, we have to cultivate coherence within ourselves first.
This is what drew me to join the facilitation team at The Ground. Its ethos isn’t only about regenerative farming, but regenerative living. It’s about remembering that the way we tend the soil is inseparable from how we tend our nervous systems, our relationships, and our communities. The land responds to the quality of care it receives, and so do we. Regeneration isn’t just a model—it’s a way of being in relationship.
I feel grateful to be part of planting, watering, and nurturing this seed, and to support that process through breath, presence, and the spaces we’ll create together. I’m curious to witness the fruit it bears, both in the land itself and in the people it brings together. If regeneration is the goal, then coherence may be one of the most essential ingredients. Maybe the invitation is simple: to begin where we are—with one breath, one choice, one moment of connection, both feet on the ground.
Three Ways to Find Coherence in Your Daily Life
Try a coherence breath: inhale for five counts, exhale for five counts, and repeat for three to five minutes. This simple rhythm has been shown to synchronize the heart and nervous system. You don’t need a quiet room or a special time. You need only your breath and a willingness to return.
Before your next meeting, conversation, or decision, pause for thirty seconds. Feel your feet on the floor. Take one slow breath. Ask yourself: Am I responding, or am I reacting? That single question can shift the quality of everything that follows.
Spend time outside without an agenda, even ten minutes. No podcast, no phone, no destination. Let the land do what it does naturally: regulate you. Notice whether you feel different when you come back inside. Your nervous system will tell you the truth.
