How breathing shapes performance – this was demonstrated by Austrian freediving athlete and FHWien alumna Christin Gerstorfer on November 4 in an interactive career talk at the FHWien der WKW campus. Based on her own journey from burnout to mental strength, she shared practical techniques that help students and graduates strengthen their focus, resilience, and motivation in their studies and careers.
The speaker taught participants important tools for their everyday work and study life:
- Breathing is an important element in controlling focus: how conscious breathing helps to concentrate attention and regulate stress.
- Mental strength can be trained: principles from freediving—calmness, control, clarity—can be directly applied to learning situations, presentations, and everyday work.
- Breathing techniques can be enormously helpful in stressful situations: how to refocus yourself with techniques such as box breathing, vagal humming, coherent breathing, etc. before exams/presentations, in conflict situations, or during long working days.
- Recovery = performance: short regeneration breaks increase performance.
Under guidance, participants practiced correct breathing and took away routines that they could implement immediately—from quickly calming down before a presentation to maintaining concentration in their everyday study and work life.