What is Breathwork?

Breathwork refers to any breathing exercise or technique. People often perform them to improve mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. During breathwork, you intentionally change your breathing pattern.

Many forms of breathwork therapy involve breathing in a conscious and systematic way. Many people find breathwork promotes deep relaxation or leaves them feeling energized.

Breathing exercises for better focus, awareness, and relaxation

There are several reasons why people engage in breathwork. Generally, it's believed to boost emotional wellness and lower stress levels in otherwise healthy people.

People have practiced breathwork to:

• Aid positive self-development.
• Boost immunity.
• Process emotions, heal emotional pain and trauma.
• Develop life skills.
• Develop or increase self-awareness.
• Enrich creativity.
• Improve personal and professional relationships.
• Increase confidence, self-image, and self-esteem.
• Increase joy and happiness.
• Overcome addictions.
• Reduce stress and anxiety levels.
• Release negative thoughts.

Breathwork is used to help to improve a wide range of issues including:

• Anger issues.
• Anxiety.
• Chronic pain.
• Depression.
• Emotional effects of illness.
• Grief.
• Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Breathwork practices

There are several breathwork approaches. You may want to try out a few different techniques over time to see which type most resonates with you and brings about the best results.

Types of breathwork include:

• Shamanic Breathwork
• Vivation
• Transformational Breath
• Holotropic Breathwork
• Clarity Breathwork
• Rebirthing Breathwork

Many mindfulness apps include instructions for focused breathwork. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)’s Mindful Awareness Research Centre provides some free guided recordings for individual practice. They range from a few minutes long to about 15 minutes long.

Examples of breathwork exercises

Here are a few types of breathing exercises that are used in various practices:

Diaphragmatic Breathing

Diaphragmatic breathing is a breathing exercise that engages your diaphragm, an important muscle that enables you to breathe.

Diaphragmatic breathing is a technique that helps you focus on your diaphragm, a muscle in your belly. It’s sometimes called belly breathing or abdominal breathing. By “training” your diaphragm to open up your lungs, you can help your body breathe more efficiently.

Diaphragmatic breathing has many benefits that can affect your entire body. It’s the basis for many meditation and relaxation techniques, which can lower your stress levels, lower your blood pressure, and regulate other critical bodily processes.

Let’s learn more about how diaphragmatic breathing benefits you, how to get started, and what the research says about it.

The most basic type of diaphragmatic breathing is done by inhaling through your nose and breathing out through your mouth.

Here’s the basic procedure for diaphragmatic breathing. It may be easiest to practice while lying flat on your bed or the floor when you first start.

1. Sit or lie down on a comfortable, flat surface.
2. Relax your shoulders, shifting them downward away from the ears.
3. Put a hand on your chest and a hand on your stomach.
4. Without straining or pushing, breathe in through your nose until you can’t take in any more air.
5. Feel the air moving through your nostrils into your abdomen, expanding your stomach and sides of the waist. Your chest remains relatively still.
6. Purse your lips as if sipping through a straw. Exhale slowly through your lips for 4 seconds and feel your stomach gently contracting.
7. Repeat these steps several times for best results.

Pursed Lip Breathing

Pursed lip breathing is a breathing technique designed to make your breaths more effective by making them slower and more intentional. You do this after inhaling by puckering your lips and exhaling through them slowly and deliberately, often to a count.

Pursed lip breathing gives you more control over your breathing, which is particularly important for people with lung conditions such as COPD.

Pursed lip breathing should be practiced until it becomes second nature. It’s most effective when you’re focused or relaxed. Here’s how to practice.

 

1. Sit with your back straight or lie down. Relax your shoulders as much as possible.
2. Inhale through your nose for two seconds, feeling the air move into your abdomen. Try to fill your abdomen with air instead of just your lungs.
3. Purse your lips like you’re blowing on hot food and then breathe out slowly, taking twice as long to exhale as you took to breathe in.
4. Then repeat. Over time, you can increase the inhale and exhale counts from 2 seconds to 4 seconds, and so on.

Pursed lip breathing improves the lung mechanics and breathing all at once, meaning that you don’t have to work as hard to breathe well. This is particularly helpful for people who have lung conditions that make it more difficult for them to breathe. These conditions can include obstructive lung disease, such as asthma, and restrictive lung disease, such as pulmonary fibrosis (PF), which is a type of interstitial lung disease (ILD).

Pursed lip breathing is also used as part of treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). People with this condition have severely declining lung function and breathing ability. The disease progresses to overinflated lungs and reduced ability to exhale air. It can make breathing so difficult that it impacts the quality of the person’s life.

There are significant health benefits for people with COPD who practice pursed lip breathing. One study found that pursed lip breathing reduced dynamic hyperinflation in people with COPD. It also significantly improved their exercise tolerance, breathing patterns, and arterial oxygen.

COPD can only be delayed, and the damage can’t be repaired once it happens. For that reason, breathing exercises to improve lung function are essential. They can make breathing significantly easier.

Box Breathing

Box breathing involves a cycle of four seconds of gradual inhalation, four seconds of holding your breath, four seconds of exhalation, and four seconds of holding your breath once again.

Box breathing, commonly referred to as square breathing, is a method for slowly and deeply inhaling air. Another name for it is "four-square breathing."

Anybody can benefit from using this method, but those looking to meditate or de-stress will find it extremely helpful. Everyone uses it, including nurses, police officers, U.S. Navy SEALs, and athletes.

If you have a lung condition like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, you could find it especially beneficial (COPD).

1. Slowly exhale. Sitting upright, slowly exhale through your mouth, getting all the oxygen out of your lungs. Focus on this intention and be conscious of what you’re doing.
2. Slowly inhale. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose to the count of four. In this step, count to four very slowly in your head.
3. Hold your breath for a count of 4.
4. Exhale again. Exhale through your mouth for the same slow count of four, expelling the air from your lungs and abdomen.
5. Hold your breath for the same slow count of four before repeating this process.

4-7-8 Breathing

When breathing in a 4-7-8 pattern, you follow a cycle of inhaling for four seconds, holding your breath for seven seconds, and exhaling for eight seconds.

The 4-7-8 breathing technique is a breathing pattern developed by Dr. Andrew Weil. It’s based on an ancient yogic technique called pranayama, which helps practitioners gain control over their breathing.

When practiced regularly, it’s possible that this technique could help some people fall asleep in a shorter period of time.

To practice 4-7-8 breathing, find a place to sit or lie down comfortably. Be sure you practice good posture, especially when starting out. If you’re using the technique to fall asleep, lying down is best.

Prepare for the practice by resting the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth, right behind your top front teeth. You’ll need to keep your tongue in place throughout the practice. It takes practice to keep from moving your tongue when you exhale. Exhaling during 4-7-8 breathing can be easier for some people when they purse their lips.

1. The following steps should all be carried out in the cycle of one breath:
2. First, let your lip’s part. Make a whooshing sound, exhaling completely through your mouth.
3. Next, close your lips, inhaling silently through your nose as you count to four in your head.
4. Then, for seven seconds, hold your breath.
5. Make another whooshing exhale from your mouth for eight seconds.

Takeaway

A breathing exercise or method called breathwork involves altering your breathing pattern.

Breathwork is frequently used by people to increase their attention or let go of bad ideas, as well as other elements of their mental, physical, and spiritual health. It might aid in easing stress, pain, or irrational rage.

If you are pregnant or have certain medical issues, doctors can advise against doing breathwork.

Try a free breathwork course with the Breath Sensei in the UK to see how breathwork can help with stress, anxiety, poor sleep, asthma, sporting performance, and general health & wellbeing!