Breathwork: What Is It And How It Works
| Pranayama Breathing Techniques | Pranayama Definition | Pranayama Exercises | Pranayama Alternate Nostril Breathing | Meditation |

Here at peaceinside.me, we offer cosmic breathing as one of the practices in our online retreat. It is designed to help you reach a non-ordinary state of consciousness. A flow state where you will experience a deep connection to the world around you and enjoy a crystal clear sense of thought and mindfulness.

Cosmic breath stirs up blocked emotions and helps release tension held in the body. The technique comes from stacking multiple modalities of breathing techniques, from ancient pranayama to modern holotropic breath that stimulates a natural DMT release from our lungs. By doing this practice you can get out of your thinking mind and surrender to a deeply relaxed state of consciousness.

But what is breathwork in general you might ask? Breathing is an unconscious natural process. And if you don’t know much about breathwork, you may wonder how this practice works and how controlling your breath has positive effects on your physical and mental health.

As breathwork becomes more and more popular in recent years, let’s learn about this concept. In this article, we will cover all the breathwork basics to help you get started with this practice. Continue reading to learn about common types of breathwork and breathwork exercises, as well as the benefits of this practice.

What Is Breathwork And How Does It Work?

Breathwork is a general term for a number of breathing techniques and exercises. It implies regulating your breath for improved physical and mental well-being.

The idea behind breathwork is controlling how you breathe and focusing on the process of inhaling and exhaling air.

We always breathe. But when we do it consciously, it brings a sense of relief. Depending on the type of breathwork technique, this practice may have different physical and mental benefits.

What Are The Benefits Of Breathwork?

People have been practicing breathwork for thousands of years already. This clearly means that this practice has a lot of benefits as more people start getting into it day by day.

Here are some of the benefits of breathwork:

• Activating the vagus nerve, breathwork exercises help overcome anxiety and stress.
• Inducing your body’s relaxation response and helping you breathe deeply, breathwork can be an efficient way to reduce blood pressure.
• Paired with other treatments, breathwork exercises can be successfully incorporated into depression treatment plans.
• Practicing breathwork consistently improves focus.
• Slow and deep breathing exercises can help with the physical perception of pain, making breathwork a helpful practice for people suffering from chronic pain.
• Certain types of breathwork can be involved in therapies for treating addiction.
• Regular breathwork practices also teach you how to process your emotions. They also help with self-esteem and self-awareness.

In addition to these benefits, breathwork also comes with a risk of hyperventilation. To avoid this problem, we recommend you practice it through trusted sources or guided recordings of breathwork professionals.

Types Of Breathwork

If you have tried practicing breathwork but don’t feel like it’s something that works for you, you just haven’t found the right type.

You can try out different styles of breathwork. Here are a few of them:

• Holotropic breathwork
• Rebirthing
• Shamanic breathwork
• Vivation
• Pranayama

Examples Of Breathwork Exercises

There are various breathing exercises you can do while practicing different types of breathwork. Here are a few common breathwork exercises to learn about.

• Box breathing. Also known as square breathing, this breath exercise implies taking slow and deep breaths. To do box breathing, you need to breathe in for a count of 4. Then hold your breath for a count of 4, and exhale slowly for a count of 4. Hold your breath again for a count of 4 before doing another round of this exercise.

• 4-7-8 breathing. This exercise is known as the ‘relaxing breath’ exercise. To do it, you need to breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and then exhale for 8 seconds.

• Alternate nostril breathing. As the name implies, you need to breathe through one nostril at a time for the alternate nostril breathing exercise. For this exercise, you need to press on your right nostril with your finger first and breathe in through the left one. Then press on your left nostril and breathe out through the right one. While doing this, both nostrils should be closed at the same for a second.

• Diaphragmatic breathing. This is a breathing exercise that strengthens the diaphragm, the muscle that helps us breathe. To perform this exercise, you need to breathe in so deeply as to feel your abdomen and chest rise. Then hold your breath for a few seconds, and exhale. You can find suggested comfortable positions for performing this exercise.

Getting Started With Breathwork

Learning a lot of information about a new practice can be overwhelming. But it shouldn’t be a reason to not start it.

Here are four tips to help you get started with breathwork without feeling stressed about getting everything right.

1. Define Your Reason
It is a lot easier to go into something new when you know why you are doing it. Knowing the benefits of breathwork, you can define for yourself what is the reason you want to start practicing breathwork.
Having a clear objective will motivate you and help you continue what you have started.

2. Be Consistent
If you have started practicing breathwork and feel like you are having doubts about this practice and things aren’t going the way you expected, don’t give up.
Instead, keep practicing consistently and you will certainly start feeling the benefits of breathwork. And remember that there different types of breathwork. If one doesn’t seem to work for you, you can always try other breathwork styles.

3. Add It To Your Existing Routine
For beginners, we would recommend making breathwork part of your existing mindfulness routine instead doing it as a standalone practice. This makes it easier to stick with a new practice.

4. Be Open-Minded
It is important to go into a new practice with an open mind. You may think that trying out various breathing techniques will only have physical effects on you. However, you should also be ready for experiencing various emotions, both negative and positive.

As we have mentioned earlier in this article, breathwork helps with anxiety and stress. It can make you feel joy and positive emotions. However, breathwork also makes you dive into your consciousness. This may bring back negative memories, traumas, painful experiences, etc. Know that this is normal process of healing and letting go. Keep going as is truly a transformational experience.