Lately, everyone has been talking about breathwork. It is popular among spiritual individuals seeking deeper connection and sports enthusiasts practising breathwork for workout recovery and endurance.
I practice meditation regularly and have started learning breathwork techniques at home. I had a very eye-opening one-hour breathwork session when I visited the Art With Me Festival in Miami. My body and mind encountered sensations I had never felt before, making me very curious. I have experienced unique tingling throughout, and most of my body became paralysed almost throughout the breathwork practice. Up and down, emotions followed along, from happiness to tears.
My spiritual side is very fascinated by the breathing experience, but my fact-driven brain makes me wonder if breathwork holds all the claimed benefits or if I was just high due to the lack of oxygen.
I want to understand a bit more…
What is Breathwork?
Breathwork is a practice that uses the breath for healing, personal growth, and spiritual development. It is a deep and active form of meditation focusing on your breath. Changing how we breathe can change how we feel, think, and experience life. Breathwork can help reduce stress, improve focus and concentration, increase energy levels, and release emotions.
Historical Context of Breathwork
Breathwork can be traced back thousands of years to ancient cultures, including Hinduism and Buddhism. These traditions considered the breath a vital life force and developed techniques to utilise its power for health and spiritual enlightenment.
In the 20th century, breathwork saw a comeback and further development in the West by integrating ancient techniques with modern practices.
Types of Breath Work Techniques
1. Pranayama is an ancient yogic practice centred around breath control. Pranayama techniques apply various rhythms of breathing developed to purify, energise, and balance your body and mind, from calming and grounding methods like Ujjayi (Ocean Breath) to energising and revitalising practices like Kapalabhati (Skull Shining Breath). Pranayama breathing is practised fast and slow and has three phrases: Inhale, hold, exhale. Pranayama is practised alongside yoga. (1)
2. Rebirthing Breathwork: This technique, created by Leonard Orr in the late 1960s, focuses on releasing suppressed traumatic memories, including birth, through connected and conscious breathing. Breaths are taken in a continuous, rhythmic cycle without pauses between inhalation and exhalation. Rebirth breathwork is practiced in one-to-one sessions with a trained practitioner. (2)
3. Holotropic Breathwork: Developed in the 1970s by Stanislav and Christina Grof, this involves rapid breathing (hyperventilation) supported by music and bodywork to induce altered states of consciousness for therapeutic and spiritual growth. (3) A practitioner ‘SITTER’ supports the session of the ‘BREATHER’, but it is mostly silent. It lasts 1 to 3 hours and ends with mandala drawing and sharing. (4)
4. Box Breathing: a straightforward technique that anyone can do without any preparation or assistance from others. It is used to reduce stress and improve concentration. It involves breathing in, holding, exhaling, and holding again, all for an equal amount of time. (5)
5. Wim Hof Method: This method combines controlled breathing, cold exposure, and meditation to influence the nervous system and immune response. Wim Hof’s breathing technique combines fast breaths with prolonged breath holds (6)
Potential Benefits of BreathworkÂ
1. Physical BenefitsÂ
- Improved Respiratory Function: Enhances lung capacity and breathing efficiency, beneficial for overall health and physical endurance.
- Reduced Stress and Anxiety: Lowers cortisol levels, decreasing the physical effects of stress on the body.
- Boosted Immune System: Promotes a healthier immune response.
- Increased Energy Levels: Optimizes oxygen consumption, increasing liveliness.Â
- Pain Management: Breathwork can help reduce pain perception by releasing endorphins and promoting relaxation.
- Improved sleep: Breathwork can improve sleep quality by helping to achieve relaxation, regulating the nervous system, and reducing stress and anxiety.(7)
2. Mental and Emotional BenefitsÂ
- Enhanced Mood: Breathwork can elevate mood by increasing the production of endorphins ( the body’s natural feel-good hormones).
- Improved Focus and Concentration: Deep, rhythmic breathing enhances clarity and attention.
- Emotional Release and Healing: Facilitates the release of repressed emotions and traumas, contributing to emotional balance and well-being.
- Reduced Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety: Regular practice can alleviate symptoms by promoting relaxation and presence.(8)
3. Spiritual Benefits
- Deepened Connection to Self: Breathwork can facilitate a profound inner journey, enhancing self-awareness and self-understanding.
- Enhanced Meditation and Mindfulness Practices: These practices support deeper meditation and mindfulness, promoting inner peace and connectedness.
- Access to Altered States of Consciousness: Some techniques can induce non-ordinary states of consciousness, offering unique spiritual insights and experiences.
- Sense of Oneness and Connectedness: Participants share experiences of unity with the universe or a higher power, fostering a deep understanding of spiritual well-being.
4. Social and Relational Benefits
- Improved Communication Skills: Increased self-awareness and emotional regulation can lead to more effective and compassionate communication.
- Strengthened Relationships: Breathwork can enhance the quality of personal relationships by working through emotional blockages and fostering empathy.
What does the science say about the benefits of Breathwork?Â
Only There are some proven benefits but also some concerns about bias, concluding that more studies are needed :Â
" While breathwork has become increasingly popular owing to its possible therapeutic potential, there also remains potential for a miscalibration, or mismatch, between hype and evidence. This meta-analysis found significant small-medium effects of breathwork on self-reported/subjective stress, anxiety and depression compared to non-breathwork control conditions. Breathwork could be part of the solution to meeting the need for more accessible approaches, but more research studies with low risk-of-bias designs are now needed."Â (9)(10)
If you want to try breathwork but don’t know where to start, here are the BEST BREATHWORK CHANNELS ON YOUTUBE, you can try out.Â
ConclusionÂ
With holistic practices like breathwork, meditation, and movement therapy, you get what you believe in. If you come to the practice open-mindedly, you will feel the benefits. If you are skeptical and can not let go, the benefits will be less prominent, or it will take you longer to experience them.Â
Is breathwork hyped and commercialized? Absolutely, but everything in the world is, and that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.
Learn about Gratitude practice: Why Gratitude Works: The Benefits and How to Practice It Daily.
If you want to learn about Somatic Yoga, read: WHAT IS SOMATIC YOGA, AND IS IT EVIDENCE-BASED?
To deepen your yoga knowledge, Check out The Best Yoga YouTube channels.Â
https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-is-pranayama
      (5) https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-is-box-breathing
(6)Guided Wim Hof Method Breathing
https://www.wimhofmethod.com/breathing-exercises
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ
(7) https://www.wimhofmethod.com/benefits
(8) How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137615/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36624160/
Silvija Meilunaite PN1-NC, is a certified nutrition coach and a writer in the nutrition and self-improvement field with a passion for exploring science-based knowledge focusing on holistic health and plant-based nutrition.
Featured in the Wellness on Time magazine.
