By Zane Josie
Breathwork is entirely focused on breathing. Yes, you guessed it. It is a practice that has been circulating for thousands of years and is growing in popularity presently, deeply rooted in the practice of yoga. Ultimately, the objective behind breathwork is to inhale nourishment to your mind and body while exhaling stress and negativity.
The breath is responsible for supplying oxygen to our thriving bodies. You may have noticed that when feelings of anxiety and stress arise, your breathing is affected. Breathwork is a practice to control the breath and in turn, control the overwhelming feelings of anxiety and stress. The breath has so much to offer, especially when you are mindful of it. So without further ado, let’s get into what breathwork is all about.
How Is Breathwork Beneficial?
Breathwork is a well-researched practice, with the science to back it up. The proven health benefits that accompany breathwork as a practice are inspiring. It has been known to alkalize the pH in your blood, heighten your mood and even have anti-inflammatory effects.
Breathwork is also known to have a magical effect on the central nervous system, which brings us to the topic of stress relief. When we feel stressed, our breathing becomes rapid and shallow. This restricts oxygen from entering the bloodstream, increasing the heart rate and causing your body to revert to fight or flight. Taking deep, slow, conscious breaths reassures your brain that everything is alright, causing your brain to alert the rest of the body that it is alright to calm down. Here are a few of the other benefits of breathwork from The Physical Evolution:
- Feelings of relaxation, balance, and serenity
- Emotional reflection and release
- The ability to let go of past trauma by activating the trauma response
- The ability to reflect on anxiety and depression from an observer’s point of view
- Enhanced feelings of clarity in all aspects of life (aha moments aplenty!)
- Expansion of consciousness and seeing how we show up in the world
- Creation of a deeper awareness of self
- A bottom up approach to therapy, body first
- Incredible support through shared experience in the breathwork group
- An opportunity to find inner peace and build self-love
Conscious Connected Breath
There are a plethora of beautiful techniques in breathwork practice, one of the most powerful being conscious connected breath. “This is a circular breathwork session where the inhale and exhale are equally connected and flowing with no breaks or breath holds in between. It ignites an energy flow and point of focus that can take us away from the monkey mind and into the body” as stated by The Physical Evolution.
Being the first thing we do as we enter this world and the very last thing we do as we leave it, the breath is our lifelong companion. When we pay mind to our breathing, we can master it. To learn more about breathwork as a practice, get in touch with The Physical Evolution.
