10 Ways You Can Benefit From Breathwork (Right Now!)
Take one big inhale that expands in your belly. Hold it for a moment. Now exhale slowly and deeply.
Feel better already?! That’s the power of breathwork.
The term breathwork may feel intimidating or confusing. But really, it’s simply about harnessing the power of your own natural breath to help you to adjust how your body (and mind) feels. For example, different breathing techniques can help you to feel more relaxed and release anxiety or stress. Whilst others can help you to gain better clarity, energy and mental focus.
Most of the time, we don’t take any notice of our breathing—it just happens automatically while we go about our day. While of course this unconscious breathing is vital, it’s the conscious breathing practices that breathwork encompasses that have true benefits and lasting results.
What is Breathwork?
Breathwork is actually thousands of years old. It has been used all over the globe in different cultures for the purpose of physical, psychological, emotional, and even spiritual healing. The practices have since been refined for modern use and supported by evidence-based results.
According to Google trends, searches for “breathwork” have increased 6-fold over the last five years. And when you start to learn about the benefits and the ease of the practice, this is no surprise.
While there are many variations, styles and names, all types of breathwork offer the chance for personal transformation through improved well-being.
We live in a modern world where our breathing is often quite shallow and is restricted to our chest area. Ideally, deep belly breathing is what we are designed to utilise. Shallow breathing actually can trap us in a state of anxiety, or fight or flight and have negative effects on both our physical and mental state of being.
Despite the typical adult respiratory rate of 12-20 breaths per minute. Studies have shown the optimal breath rate to be much slower, at around 6 breaths per minute, or 5.5 seconds in, and 5.5 seconds out. (Ideally through the nose).
Breathwork is designed primarily to slow down and deepen the breath so we can move out of fight or flight and into the parasympathetic nervous system, or the state of ‘rest and digest.’
Simple practices can create huge, noticeable results- quickly. Which is one of the main reasons why it has gained such great popularity. You don’t need an hour to sit down and breathe, all it takes is a few minutes, or as you realised above, even one big deep breath can start to shift things right away.
Essentially, breathwork is a simple yet powerful, at-your-fingertips way, to enhance your wellbeing.
What are the benefits of Breathwork?
Stress Relief
Breathwork offers a very safe way to address stress, anxiety, grief, depression and anger so that we can start to regulate and feel in control of our own emotions – and it forms a core part of our Bali spiritual retreat experience. How we breathe often indicates how we feel. Shallow rapid breaths make us anxious and tired. While long deep breaths that originate in the abdomen can help us feel calm, centered and grounded. This is because deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which takes us out of the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight). Activating your parasympathetic nervous system slows down your heart rate and lowers your blood pressure. It ceates a deep feeling of calm and reducing your overall stress and anxiety.
Reduce symptoms of depression
Changing your breath can change both your nervous system and also your brainwaves. Neuroscientists have made a direct correlation between an increase of alpha brain waves and reduced symptoms of depression. Breathwork is an effective way to shift your brainwaves from beta to alpha and even theta. This can decrease negative thought patterns, stress and depression levels. Meditative breathing’s mood-boosting powers could also be due to its ability to actually decrease the part of the brain that detects fear and triggers the body’s fight-or-flight response.
In 2017, researchers found that people who engaged in breathwork practices for 12 weeks had a measurable decline in depressive symptoms. Results have also found that breath-based meditation can ease severe depression in people who do not respond well to antidepressants.
Sharpen Focus
Having a hard time staying on task? Breathwork has been shown to have the power to boost our attention span. Breathing in a regulated way can balance the natural chemical messenger in the brain that affects attention and certain emotions, and ultimately enhance focus. So often we skip around between tasks, juggling a dozen different things at a time. All of the multitasking and ‘monkey mind,’ means that we feel constantly scattered. Taking a few moments to pause and empty the mind can create a clean slate. This allows you to step back into life with greater focus and mental capacity.
Help with Pain Management
Did you know that deep breathing actually causes the body to release endorphins?! These endorphins can help to reduce sensitivity to pain and boosts pleasure, resulting in a feeling of well-being. Deep belly breathing has a very therapeutic effect on chronic pain. It relaxes the muscles which otherwise tense up as a result of pain and in turn further aggravate the pain itself. Multiple studies have found that slow, deep breathing can reduce the perception of chronic pain or help patients better cope with physical discomfort. If we can balance cortisol and decrease inflammation- which breathwork assists with- the perception of pain can also decrease.
Increase Energy Levels And Boost Your Immune System
Breathwork improves oxygen capacity in the blood which leads to overall improved energy levels and stronger stamina. The body can use this extra energy to support your immunity and help ward off stress. Diaphragmatic breathing helps expand the lungs and increases efficiency in oxygen absorption and supply. It strengthens the muscles of the chest, improves digestion and quality of sleep, and strengthens the immune system by reducing stress. With a daily breathwork practice you can begin to learn to consciously control your energy levels and continue to boost your immune system at the same time.
Increase Self-Awareness and Boost Mood
In breathwork, we create an expanded space and state of being. Here, our brainwaves have a chance to slow down from the thinking and doing state of Beta and Alpha, to a more dreamlike state of being, the Theta brainwave. When we can exist in the present moment, without worrying about the future or reflecting on the past. People often describe feelings of happiness wash over them here. This shift in consciousness is quite profound and over time, it becomes easier and easier to exist in the present moment- which is where we find the real joy in life. Learning how to let go and simply be in the moment may sound simple, yet it is quite profound and life-changing.
Improve Sleep
Stress, diet, caffeine, stimulants, work, technology- there is so much in modern life that interferes with our sleeping patterns. Breathwork helps to calm the nervous system. In turn, this reduces the effects of stimulants and calms stress, allowing you to get a better night’s sleep. Additionally, quieting the mind before bed allows you to fall asleep without the loop of thoughts that often come to greet us when the lights go out! Over time, enjoying a short breathwork practice before bed can be a powerful way to get much more restful sleep. Waking up feeling refreshed is something we can all benefit from! Furthermore, some breathwork and meditation techniques have been found to have the same benefits of sleep for the body! 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra, which incorporates breath techniques and relaxation, has been said to have the same benefits as 2 hours of sleep.
Release Toxins
Interesting fact- over 50% of the toxins in your body are meant to be expelled through breathing. The main toxin that’s being expelled through the breath is carbon dioxide. Through the practice of deep rhythmic breathing you’re expanding your diaphragm which massages your lymphatic system and helps eliminate toxins. You are also strengthening your lungs, which directly affects your toxin release. Deep breathing also assists the circulatory system, improving blood circulation, another major channel of elimination and detoxification. Deep breathing is certainly less expensive than a slow-pressed green juice each day!
Improve Digestion
Breathwork can help the digestive process by stimulating and increasing blood flow throughout the digestive track and also improving intestinal activity. Breathwork has also been shown to reduce the uncomfortable symptoms of bloating and gas. Additionally, breathwork creates a positive feedback loop by reducing stress. Stress greatly inhibits the body’s ability to digest, because digestion is placed on hold when we are in a state of fight or flight. Breathwork switches the body back to the parasympathetic nervous system which is where digestion can happen with ease. Even just taking a few deep long breaths before you begin a meal can help signal to the body that it’s time to digest!
Spirituality and Creativity
Breathwork creates a powerful space for self-exploration, spiritual awakening and a deeper connection to yourself, others and the universe. It is not uncommon to experience a deep sense of oneness, bliss, a connection with the divine or feelings of deep safety and surrender. Breathwork also impacts the way our conscious and subconscious minds interact, allowing our creativity to be accessed in new and deeper ways, providing greater insights and inspiration. So infrequently these days we have the ability to rest in ‘white space’ seeing as our days are so full and our ‘free time’ is often spent with technology. This white space is so important for our minds to wander, creative ideas to spark, and deeper meaning and ponderings to greet us.
How can you start Breathwork?
While breathwork is simple, it’s always good to have a guide or teacher to help you learn the practices. Luckily, we have two amazing breathwork teachers at Escape Haven. If you join us on a Bali retreat, you will be able to practice breathwork in person. However, if youre at home, you can also join us for a 5 day Breathwork Challenge.
Over these 5 days you will learn how to introduce breathwork into your daily life and learn 5 easy techniques that will create a huge shift in your state of being and physical and mental health. All you need to do is join here and we will email you the practices over the 5 day challenge.
As more people search for simple, effective self-care techniques, it’s no wonder that breathwork has surged in popularity. Not only does it have the science to back up its benefits, but it’s something we can practice anytime, anywhere, and at absolutely no cost.