Everything You Need To Know About Breath Work
80% of us have dysfunctional breath patterns. We simply are not using the full capacity of our lungs. When you think about the fact we take over 23,000 breaths a day, that’s a statistic that matters. Unconsciously our breath continues to change, when we sleep, when we’re working out, when we feel safe, and when we feel scared. But how often are we in control of our breath and our emotions?
What is breathwork?
Breathwork is the practice of altering our breath consciously, bringing awareness to the breath, how it links with our emotions, and how we can change it to manage our mental, physical, spiritual selves, and truly enhance our lives. Every breath is having a little conversation with our brain and the brain responds accordingly. Breathwork is an ancient tradition across many indigenous communities but only recently has research in the West led to its rise in popularity here.
How does it work?
The mind and the breath are in a two way conversation. So yes, your mental activity shapes your breath. For example, if you receive a passive aggressive email at work and feel stressed out by it you may notice your breath gets a little shorter, shallower and sharper. But the cool thing is it's a bi-directional relationship. You can change your breath and in turn alter your emotional state. Knowing this means despite feeling in a state of anxiety or anger, you can hijack your system by changing your breath which in turn will calm down your mind and can eventually take you to a state of deep transformation. You have the ability through your breath to reset your nervous system and release hormones that increase feelings of love, safety and trust in turn taking you out of a dysregulated state.
What do you love about breathwork?
It’s so simple and sounds too good to be true but once you understand it, experience breathing techniques and feel the shifts within you, you’ll feel so empowered and ready to make it a non-negotiable in your life.
What’s your favourite breathing technique?
For energy, kapalbhati (forehead shining breath) is absolutely incredible, gets me feeling very trance like and in a high state. For anxiety, bhramari (buzzing bee breath) is wonderful to feel more grounded and present.
What breathing technique is good for sleeping better?
All you have to do is remember the numbers 3 and 6. Inhale for 3 counts, exhale for 6 counts. Close your eyes, keep your breath steady and be patient. Repeat until you start feeling drowsy and less stimulated. If we can’t sleep it’s often because our minds are overstimulated, this breathing technique will de-excite your mind naturally. What this means is a release of oxytocin (the love, happy, trust hormone) and melatonin (the hormone that tells our body it’s time for sleep). How cool that we can naturally release melatonin by altering our breath!
How does the breath affect fitness training?
You can, and absolutely should be, using breathwork for peak performance. It depends on what your goals are, but for optimal respiratory performance and health, nasal breathing (breathing in and out of your nose) will balance oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. If you’re looking to improve endurance, nasal breathing will also help you do that. Our noses are amazing filtration systems and produce nitric oxide, which improves your lungs’ ability to absorb oxygen. Often when working out we expel too much carbon dioxide by breathing with our mouths and this can lead to feeling more fatigued after training.
Remember altering your breath can feel tricky at first, especially if you’ve never done it before. Take your time and remember it takes practice. If you’re interested in breath work coaching, get in touch for your 15 minute complimentary call.