BREATHWORK - THE POWER TO BRING LIGHTNESS BACK TO YOUR BODY & MIND
How TO transform your Life through Stress, Trauma and Anxiety Release
Breathwork has become very popular in the world of mindfulness and spirituality in recent years.
There are constantly new workshops, classes, courses and retreats being offered. However I've found that people often don't really know what's behind it, and that there's often a misunderstanding with pranayama practice in yoga.
There is a lot of scattered information about breathwork as it is used today as an umbrella term for a variety of breathing techniques. This can be very confusing and sometimes misleading, as it was for me.
With this post, I want to shed some light on the meaning of breathwork and the power it has to change lives, release trauma, and relieve stress and anxiety.
As a yoga teacher and personal trainer, I have worked on my self-knowledge for years, and I am happy to say that I thought I had made significant progress in understanding myself and my life, …
... until I discovered the power of breathwork and realized how much more I had to discover and unpack about myself.
It helped me gain clarity about thoughts and patterns I was stuck in without even realizing it. And it brought me to a sense of wholeness within myself that I had never experienced before.
Since it can have profound effects on our lives, it's also important to know what to look for before practicing it.
So let’s take an inhale, exhale, and let me explain you a bit its benefits, how it affects the body and mind, how a breathwork session works, and what to take care about.
What is Breathwok and its origins
THE Definition of Breathwork
Breathwork is a range of therapeutic techniques that involves consciously regulating your breathing patterns to enhance your physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
I's not just run-of-the-mill breathing exercises. It can be way more than merely observing one's breath like in meditation or engaging in breathing exercises like Pranayama.
History and Origins of Breathwork
Breathwork has been around for thousands of years and has its roots in various cultures and traditions. Pranamaya, in Sankscrit ‘Prana’ (life force) and ‘Yama’ (Mastery of…), originated from Yogic Practices, and Yoga it’s believed to be around for at least 5000 years ago.
Breathwork has been used in various traditional healing practices through chanting, such as shamanism and indigenous medicine, and in all these traditions, breathwork is seen as a way to connect with the spirit world and access altered states of consciousness.
In the West, breathwork gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s with the emergence of the human potential movement and the rise of new age spirituality.
Understanding the mind - body connection
Our mind and body are not separate entities. The mind-body connection is the undeniable link between our thoughts, feelings, and physical health. It's the idea that our mental and emotional states directly impact our physical well-being, and vice versa.
Emotions get stored in our bodies which ultimately affect the way we think, and experience the world, therefore, our outcome in life.
As above, so below, as within as without!
The mind-body connection works through a complex interplay between our thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. When we experience stress, fear, or other strong emotions, our bodies release hormones and other chemicals that can trigger physical responses such as increased heart rate, shallow breathing, and muscle tension.
You have probably heard before of the flight, fight, freeze or fawn response, also known as STRESS. These are the ways your body has to protect you from any possible threats and dates back to when our ancestors lived in caves and were in constant danger from predators like lions, snakes…
Any threatening experience triggers our sympathetic nervous system stimulating adrenaline and noradrenaline to be released. These hormones help us react quickly to avoid danger and they make our body react.
As we don’t live in caves anymore, we have no lions or panthers trying to eat us alive when we go to work every day, our threatening situations have changed and they no longer evoke a body response.
The threat of losing our job doesn’t have a physical appearance, it’s not an immediate fear, but a prolongued one, that also creates stress. Today our bodies hold this stress for too long, and the body is unable to release it.
It makes us sick, tired, unmotivated and unable to respond effectively to the threat.
This blocked body response is also a reason why exercise and somatic therapy is helpful to fight depression and anxiety, to release trauma AND why also breathwork it’s such an effective way to release anxiety and stress trapped in our bodies.
PHYSICAL & MENTAL EFFECTS OF BREATHWORK
What happens to your body DURING BREATHWORK?
It helps remove toxins from our body by expelling them through the lungs, because about 70% of toxins leave our body through the air we exhale. Deep breathing is a simple and effective way to improve our body's natural detoxification processes and maintain a healthy lymphatic system. It improves immunity, stamina and energy and all organ function including digestion. Deep breathing flushes the excess CO2 from our body and replaces it with a rich supply of cell-energising O2. Oxygenated blood, carries nutrients and vitamins more efficiently, which helps keep your blood clean and your immune system strong.
Breathwork triggers the nervous system in a positive and non-stressful way.
Fast breathing activates the sympathetic nervous system and slow, deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
In a breathwork session we titrate between these two. During the buildup, we activate the nervous system intentionally, for a healing effect. When we slow our breathing, the brain and nervous system can relax and regulate the heart rate. Endorphins (feel-good chemicals) are released, which also help relieve physical pain.
You may experience physical sensations such as tremors and twitching, temperature changes, and tetany (cramps in the fingers). This is normal and a sign that there is something moving in your body.
Important for you, you have always the control about what’s happening. When it feels too overwhelming, you can soften or slow the breath at any time and also return to your nose breathing for a moment and the symptoms will disappear.
What happens to your mind during breathwork?
Mindfulness research shows that focusing on our breath activates all three parts of our brain and increases neuroplasticity (the ability to create new neural pathways or connections in your brain).
Bringing awareness to our breath strengthens and stabilizes our mind, giving us greater freedom and adaptability.
In a breathwork session, we may gain new perspectives on situations in our lives, potentially leading to healing from trauma.
Breathwork moves us into an altered state, where we experience a sense of presence and timelessness. During this altered state, the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain that governs decision-making, social control, and survival instincts) goes offline, allowing us to enter into different brainwave states.
Relaxation and deep breathing also trigger the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine and oxytocin, which can enhance our mood and overall well-being.
You will be guided to going deep into yourself. It means it may happen that any kind of emotions come up, that you will become awaree of hidden blockages and limiting believes, hidden desires, ideas, visions.
Anything is possible, and that's the beauty of it. Whatever it is, in the end it always feels like a liberation. When we strip away all the layers that cover us and hide our true selves.
How does a Breathwork session work?
The method that has inspired me most and in which I specialized in, is the Conscious Connected Breath. Let me explain a bit how it works and what you can expect.
One of the most important things you should do through a session is to relax and let go of any expectations. Keep a sense of curiosity to whatever may present to you.
Every breath is different, and every session will be different, no matter how experienced you might be.
What ever comes up you're always in control of your session. If you feel overwhelmed, you can always adjust the breath intensity by slowing down and coming back to your nose breathing for a moment.
A normal breathwork session lasts about 60 - 90 min.
The Breathwork itself is around 45 min with enough time to prepare and settle before and to integrate the experience after.
The session will be guided by music mostly and also by your facilators voice. Touch will be offered optional to support you and your breathing.
The Conscious connecting breath is a circular breath without any breath holding. It’s an active breathing in and a soft, releasing breathing out. It does not mean a forced hyperventilation!
Your breathing rhythm resembles an arc. You always start slowly, by breathing consciously through your nose, to ground and to allow you to arrive fully in your space and at some point you will be asked to breath both ways, in and out, through the open mouth.
The rhythm and pace of the music will change and build up and so your breath until you reach a peak and just after that, it will slow down again.
At some point you will return to your very gentle nasal breathing. You are allowed to let your breath soften and float into a relaxation phase that gives you time to integrate your experience.
Is Breathwork for me?
Anyone that’s open to explore and become aware of themselves can benefit from breathwork. It’s an incredible tool to reduce and release tension, stress and trauma caused by blocked emotions and energy in your body.
And honestly who hasn’t felt any of those emotions nowadays?
Our busy schedules, our daily to-do’s, our obligations, family and work pressure.
There are only a few contraindications you should be aware of. In case of pregnancy, diagnosed bipolar, schizophrenia, heart-diseases or untreated high blood pressure it’s recommended to talk to your doctor before joining your first session.
However you are welcome in any case, but the session will be adapted to your needs, preferably breathing only through the nose to make it more gentle.
BREATHWORK - YOUR POWER TO FIND YOUR INNER HOME
Breathwork can help you know yourself better and identify your strengths and limitations.
It’s through this process that you can accept yourself for who you are. In that space you feel that you’re good enough, you step away from comparisons and expectations, and you start puting yourself first.
The power of breathwork will help you consciously choose people and situations that bring inner peace. It gives you the opportunity to see things from a different perspective and step out of negative thought spirals so you can immerse yourself in the magic of small moments and find your way back home to your true self.
