Learning to Breathe

It’s a word that seems to be appearing more and more but what exactly is breathwork and why would anyone want to take part in a breathwork session or a breathwork course?

Our breath is the most important thing we have. We can survive a few weeks without food and 3 days without water. Although the longest breathhold is 24 minutes, the reality is that after 4 minutes without oxygen we start doing real damage to our bodies and after another 4-6 minutes we will be dead.

Breathing is a bodily function that will happen whether we think about it or not but we can also control our breathing. Breathing is closely connected to our nervous system, both sympathetic and parasympathetic. The sympathetic nervous system carries signals that put our bodies’ systems on alert and the parasympathetic carries signals to relax those systems - the fight or flight response v the freeze response. Taking control of our breath is a way to take control of our lives.

Breathwork is a term that includes many many things. Becoming aware of the breath is a simple first step in any breathwork journey. Being aware of our breath can then allow us to regulate the breath, to use it to control our emotional responses, to change it if we need to for our health and to release things that hold us back. 

When we become aware of our breath, we can identify what happens when we experience different emotions. We can use this information to change our responses. 

Much research has been done on the connection between how we breathe and our overall general health. In James Nestor’s book he describes, in detail, the effects of mouth breathing on our health. How we breathe also affects our overall fitness. People have used this knowledge to improve their fitness and their overall achievement in sport.

Doing deep breathing practices can help us deal with deep seated emotions. Practices like conscious connected breathing move a lot of energy in our bodies and can help us deal with very strong emotions like grief, sadness or anger. It can also connect us with our deepest selves making things clearer on our paths. 

Developing a short daily practice and a longer practice, sometimes in a group and sometimes one to one, once a week has made a huge difference to my own life. Using my breath, I can regulate my emotions. By just focusing on the breath I can respond to situations instead of reacting. Practicing different types of breathing has allowed me to take charge of how I feel physically, mentally and emotionally. Taking charge of my own mental and physical health allows me to control how I react to the events any given day. My days are no longer controlled by people I meet and events that happen during the day. I’m now living my life and not allowing life to just happen to me and it is all rooted in the breath.

My practice includes a 15 or 20 minute breathwork every morning when I practice different breathing techniques. I choose one and spend a week or two working on it before I change to a new technique. My longer session is usually conscious connected breathing.