Breathwork

The benefits of breathwork are mood, body, and life-enhancing. It’s an outlet to release repressed anger, doubt, and other emotions. From boosting immunity to enriching creativity, breathwork is a safe tool that can help recovery from trauma, heal emotional pain, and process emotions.

There are immediate physical benefits of deep breathing. By breathing deeply, you can activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which can slow down your heart rate and lower your blood pressure. Making you feel calm. You also rely on your diaphragm instead of your chest, allowing your chest and neck muscles to relax, which engages the abdominal muscles, and helps the amount of oxygen to reach your body’s cells and organs.

When your body is functioning with stress “fight-or-flight” response, it releases a flow of hormones (adrenaline & cortisol) that causes your breathing to speed up, increases your pulse and blood pressure, and puts you in a state of hypervigilance. Deep breathing can help reverse this response and relax your body.

Try this: Next time you practise breathwork, focus on the physical aspects of your breath:

• Watch your chest and belly rise and fall.

• Notice the temperature and moisture of your breath.

• Tune into the muscles and bones moving in your body.

• Observe how your body feels when you shift from shallow to deep breathing.

Mind

Deep breathing can calm and reduce emotional distress in your mind in addition to reversing the physical stress response in your body. 

In fact, research has shown that breathwork is effective in treating PTSD, anxiety, and depression.

You can achieve a deeper state of awareness with breathwork. 

You might be able to uncover suppressed feelings, resentments, and traumas while in this state, allowing you to eventually free yourself from their control over your mental state. 

Breathwork is frequently used to support people with mental health concerns and is regarded as a method to relax and concentrate.

Try this: Next time you practise breathwork, focus on your mind:

• Be aware of the thoughts in your head, but don’t attach to them.

• Feel what emotions come up.

• Notice your inner voice.

• Visualize the intention you set for your breathwork practices.

Spirit

Breathwork can also be spiritual. When you practice, you can move beyond your body and mind, and connect with your core spirit—your Self. In other words, you can remove your ego and connect to your true Self and the Universe. Many people who practise breathwork experience spiritual awakenings or attunements to their inner being.

Try this: Next time you practise breathwork, focus on the spirit:

• Feel the universe filling you with air on your inhalation.

• Experience the life force (prana) flow through you.

• Allow yourself to make space for this energy within yourself.

• Feel how this energy connects you with a deeper part of your Self.

• As you exhale, send the energy to all the living things around you.

Styles of Breathwork

• The roots of breathwork are found in traditional eastern techniques. While some have a stronger emphasis on the altered state of consciousness than others, all can aid in increasing self-awareness and inner tranquility. The following are the top three breathwork techniques:

• Pranayama

• Holotropic

• Rebirthing

1. Pranayama

This breathwork technique is probably familiar to you if you practise yoga. Controlling your breath (prana) for beneficial outcomes is the goal of pranayama. You can overcome emotional and energetic obstacles that obstruct the flow of your life force by managing your breath.

2. Holotropic

Holotropic breathwork is a technique that is frequently taught by an instructor who is guiding a group of participants and is accompanied by powerful music. To bring about an altered state of consciousness, it entails breathing in for the same amount of time and breathing out at varied rates.

Holotropic therapy has its roots in LSD therapy but is the drug-free alternative, where the main intent is to produce mind-altering experiences. People often experience visions, uncontrollable spurts of emotions, and muscle cramps. At the end of the session, you would share your experiences with others in the group and are asked to draw a visual representation of your experience.

3. Rebirthing

The foundation of rebirthing breathwork is the notion that you still harbour stress from your traumatic birth experience. It is thought that you can enable yourself to remove any emotional baggage and trauma from your birth by engaging in this form of breathwork.

The technique uses circular breathing and frequently involves lying mostly underwater to induce a state of relaxation that enables the body to discharge accumulated stress that has been stored there since birth. 

By controlling your breathing, you may use it to move energy rather than just breathing air in and out.

Breathwork can be a potent therapeutic technique that goes beyond simply incorporating breathing into your physical yoga movement. 

If you wish to investigate its advantages, speak with a practitioner and experiment with several breathwork techniques to find the one that suits you the best.

The concept "breathwork" is used to describe the mindfulness practice of conscious breathing technique. To influence our mental and physical state during breathwork, we actively manage the length and depth of our inhalations and exhalations.

Breathwork is an active type of meditation that has multiple health advantages, such as lowered stress and anxiety, improved sleep, and improved mood.

Anxiety & breathing: how are they connected?

It's a common misperception that anxiety only manifests itself mentally. 

How frequently do we hear advice to "think positively" to help us cope with our anxiety? 

Using the power of the breath can be one of the most efficient strategies to promote relaxation because, in truth, the stress response affects our entire body.

What exactly is anxiety, and what triggers it?

Anxiety is a physiological state of widespread unease that can resemble worry or fear. 

It can range from moderate to severe and is a sensation of apprehension about the future. 

The World Health Organization estimates that 1 in 13 people worldwide suffer from anxiety. 

Scientifically speaking, anxiety is a part of the greater "fight-or-flight" response and is the autonomic nervous system's (ANS) reaction to stress. 

The body immediately sets off several physiological and hormonal responses to help “fight or flight” in dangerous situations when the brain senses threat.

What is its relationship to breathing?

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is a vast network of self-regulating functions that keep us alive. These functions include vasomotor activity (blood vessel dilation), cardiac regulation, the digestive system, urination, sexual arousal, and the respiratory system. Anxiety can influence most of these functions. However, the most obvious symptom of anxiety is likely to be a sudden change in breathing pattern, which can be the first indication that something is wrong. Anxiety can cause shortness of breath, faster breathing or hyperventilation, chest tightness, or a feeling of suffocation.

Using breathwork to help

The majority of the ANS is made up of involuntary functions. It goes without saying that one cannot wilfully decide to begin digesting their food differently or expand their blood vessels. Of course, breathing is the one significant exception. The respiratory system is the only way we can enter the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and while it does it on its own, we do have control over how quickly and deeply we breathe.

We can deliberately activate our parasympathetic nervous system due to our deliberate control over how much oxygen we take in and carbon dioxide we exhale. By doing this, we can allow our rest and relaxation response to take precedence over our stress reaction by using the breath to signal that we aren't in danger. Breathwork has the potential to influence several bodily functions, including blood pressure, heart rate, libido, and digestion.

Best anxiety breathing exercises

Healing anxiety through breathwork has been practised for thousands of years all over the world. Some methods are straightforward, while others are far more complex. Here are a few simple breathing techniques for anxiety that are a great place to start:

·        Deep breathing or belly breathing

·        Yoga breathing

·        Box breathing

·        Alternate nostril breathing

·        Humming bee breath

·        Buteyko breathing

·        Victorious breathing

·        Lion's breath breathing

Deep breathing or belly breathing

This is the one that most people are already familiar with- "Just take a few deep breaths," something we've all heard before, and its good advice. This powerful breathing technique for anxiety, however, contains a few more specific details.

Reduce your breathing rate. Longer, deeper inhalations and exhalations should be preferred over short, quick breaths.

Inhale and exhale through your nose. This helps to slow the breath and allows the body to absorb more oxygen.

Consider breathing deeply into your lower torso instead of your chest. Yes, we're really breathing into our lungs in our chest, but imagining breathing into the belly helps drop the diaphragm and pelvic diaphragm, making more room in our body for the lungs to expand. Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly and make a conscious effort to direct your breath to the hand on your belly rather than the hand on your chest.

Yoga breathing

Many people's introduction to using breathing techniques to adjust the body or mind, whether for reducing anxiety, improving physical performance, or as a form of meditation, is through yoga classes. Pranayama (yogic breathing) is another name for it. "Prana" means spirit or life energy in Sanskrit, and "Yama" means control. There are several techniques within Pranayama that can be used to find calm and mental clarity, and each has multiple benefits that go beyond simply relieving anxiety.

Box breathing

This technique, also known as square breathing, is a popular type of breathwork. In case you needed proof of how quickly it can reduce stress, Navy SEALs, police officers, and nurses all commonly use box breathing for anxiety as part of their training, and it's safe to say that knowing how to manage anxiety is critical in these positions.

It's also quite simple to do and can be done at any time and in any place. 

Simply follow these steps:

Exhale slowly all the way to the end of your breath while seated in a comfortable position with your feet flat on the floor.

Inhale slowly on a four-count until you've reached your maximum lung capacity.

Hold the breath at the top of your inhale for an equal count of four.

Exhale completely until your lungs are completely empty on another count of four.

Hold your breath on the exhale for another count of four.

Repeat for as long as necessary, or until you feel better.

Alternate nostril breathing

The practice of gently plugging one nostril at a 

time while slowly inhaling and exhaling is known as alternate nostril breathing. 

It extends the benefits of nasal breathing by assisting in sinus unblocking and assisting the 

practitioner in focusing their intention on the breath.

The basic technique is:

Exhale completely through the nostrils while sitting comfortably. 

Then, close the right nostril with your right thumb and inhale through the left.

At the top of the inhale, release the right nostril and block the left nostril with the left forefinger. 

Exhale out of the right nostril.

Inhale through your right nostril, then switch back to blocking your right nostril while exhaling through your left.

Repeat this pattern for as long as it is necessary.

Humming bee breath

Bhramari, or Humming Bee Breath, is a meditative breathing technique in which one closes their eyes, inhales, and gently plugs their ears with their fingers on the exhalation while loudly humming. The cranial vibrations are thought to be physically soothing, while the sensory deprivation and noise from humming aid in drowning out any distracting thoughts.

Buteyko breathing

The Buteyko method of breathwork is named after Ukrainian Doctor Konstantin Buteyko, who believed that most people were over-breathing. Whereas many people believe that taking in more oxygen equals better breathing and health, Buteyko's methods are based on gradually reducing one's oxygen intake to improve the body's ability to absorb oxygen, prevent hyperventilation, and trigger the ANS's "rest and digest" state by mimicking our resting breath patterns.

Victorious breathing

Ujjayi, or Victorious Breath, is the practice of breathing through your nose while constricting your throat to make a whooshing sound. This practice serves a dual purpose in that it both slows down the breath and helps one focus on the breath, driving out distractions and achieving a meditative state through engaged muscle activity and sound.

Lion's breath breathing

Simhasana, or Lion's Breath, has unique anti-anxiety properties; stress can cause a lot of muscle tension throughout the body, but it's easy to forget about how we're clenching our jaw, pursing our lips, or furrowing our brow. 

Releasing some of this tension can help with relaxation and headache relief. 

It also has the added benefit of making us look and feel silly, reminding us not to take things too seriously for a moment. 

To practice Lion's Breath, do the FOLLOWING:

If you have the option, kneel in your seat resting on your feet. 

If not, sitting cross-legged or in a chair will suffice. 

Sit up straight and breathe deeply through your nose.

On the exhale, open your mouth and eyes as wide as possible and stick your tongue out all the way, exhaling strongly and making a "ha" sound with the breath. Some people recommend crossing your eyes and focusing your gaze on the tip of your nose.

On the inhale, relax your face by closing your eyes and mouth. Rep 3-4 times more.