The Benefits of Breathwork
Introduction
Imagine a pill that reduces stress and chronic pain, improves your immunity, reduces weight gain, increases energy and endurance, improves digestive issues, decreases brain fog and helps you sleep at night, and doesn’t produce any harmful effects.
Would you take it?
Heck yes, you would!
Now, what if I told you that you don’t need a pill to do it? That the answer is right under your nose. That cure-all is something you were BORN to do and is simply inside of every breath you take.
We breathe on average 20,000-30,000+ times a day. Directly linked to our nervous system, our heart rhythm, and immunity, the breath is a vital force to our life and our health. However, as essential as it is, it is overlooked as a skill for health. So, it is pretty amazing that the breath as a system is automatic, yet we can turn our focus to it and allow our mind to speed it up or slow it down, hold it for a long time or even add a rhythm or beat to the breath. It is completely under our control!
100% of the population is breathing but statistics show that 90% of people have poor and even dysfunctional breathing habits. Due to these habits, poor breathing results in a lack of oxygen at the cellular level, meaning that we’re more prone to brain fog, anxiety, frequent stress, poor immune system, low energy, and chronic pain. If you’ve experienced back pain, pelvic floor issues, sleeping difficulties, anxiety, depression, asthma, or digestive issues, chances are you’re breathing poorly. The good news is that once you learn how to optimize your breathing, you can start making some very real and very physical changes!
Some of the symptoms of dysfunctional breathing habits include {1}:
Frequent sighing and yawning
Breathing discomfort
Disturbed sleep
Erratic heartbeats
Feeling anxious and uptight
Pins and needles
Upset gut/nausea
Clammy hands
Chest Pains
Shattered confidence
Tired all the time
Achy muscles and joints
Dizzy spells or feeling spaced out
Irritability or hypervigilance
The feeling of 'air hunger
Breathing discomfort
Low back pain
If you are experiencing these symptoms, I highly recommend scheduling a FREE 30-Minute consultation. During this consultation, you will receive an assessment to begin to understand more about your breathing habits and what EXPAND+BREATHE can do to help.
THE BENEFITS
There are countless benefits to creating a healthier breathing practice. So much so, I could easily write a book solely covering the benefits. When I first started to write this article, the list of benefits was quite honestly overwhelming. For the past decade of my practice, I’ve personally experienced many of these benefits myself as well as my clients. With each passing year, the list of benefits continues to grow. So this is in no way an all-inclusive list of benefits! However, here are the Top 10 Benefits:
#1 - Mind + Body Connection
There is no more divine relationship that you can have with your body than by rediscovering it through the breath. According to Hatha Yoga Pradiypika, "The mind is the master of our senses, but the breath is the master of our mind." It is a mastery tool for the greatest fighters and the most mindful Buddhist, and now even Science proves that conscious breathing has more neurological connection than unconscious. Conscious breathing triggers memory, emotions as well as your endocrine system. On the other hand, unconscious breathing is the breath on auto-pilot, which can still affect your nervous system. Still, when you become conscious of your breathing and know how to drive the response, you can begin to take back some control of how it's making you feel emotional, physically, and mentally.
#2 - Mental Clarity and Focus
Each breath we take directly impacts our cognitive ability through short and long-term memory and our ability to focus in our current state.
A growing number of clinical studies have found that breathing techniques answer non-pharmacological approaches to improving attention. Some researchers have found that the relaxation from peaceful breathing even helped children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder.{1}{2}
#3 - Vibrant Health - Boost Immune System
Healthy breathing releases 70% of the toxins from the body and strengthens the immune system! When we think of Vibrant Health, we usually think; diet, exercise, vitamins, and of course, getting enough sleep, but maybe it's time to look at how you breathe. Studies prove that a person's ability to breathe fully and deeply directly affects their immune system and long-term health.
Don't believe me, here's what the Docs say:
Dr. Albert Wahl, "Simply put, the disease is due to a deficiency in the oxidation process of the body, leading to an accumulation of the toxins. These toxins would ordinarily be burned in normal metabolic functioning."
Dr. Arthur C. Guyton, M.D., author The Textbook on Medical Physiology." All chronic pain, suffering, and diseases are caused by a lack of oxygen at the cell level."
Dr. Harry Goldblatt, Journal of Experimental Medicine "Lack of oxygen clearly plays a major role in causing cells to become cancerous."
#4 - Improve Sleep
Busy mind before bedtime? Too much extra stress in our body from the day? Changing your breathing habits can help to relieve it and get you back to your zzz's.
Pro tip: Try focusing on deep breaths. Once you can breathe deep, start to scan your body slowly. Starting at the top of your head, down the spine, noticing and observing each part of your body as you slowly release tension with each breath.
#5 - Increased Energy
Oxygen has two primary roles in your body, and one of them is to create energy! When you breathe, oxygen converts to Co2 and H2O in the mitochondria. Mitochondria are the energy supplier inside our cells. This is where nutrients and oxygen exchange for creating ATP- Adenosine Triphosphate (aerobic dissimilation). ATP is essential for any bodily activity, from motion to the transfer of nutrients and waste. Also critical for generating electrical signals to the nervous system. Without adequate oxygen, you can still produce ATP, but it is highly inefficient.
#6 - Increased Athletic Performance
A variety of breathing techniques prove beneficial for increasing your athletic performance. The improved cognitive function helps to focus in competitive situations. Learning how to control your breathing and understanding how to regulate your breath can be a game-changer to increase stamina and endurance. Not to mention, the breath directly affects our ability to strengthen our core, where the primary force of energy generated from our body.
#7 - Reduce Pain Sensations
The way we breathe has a remarkable effect on our bodies' chemistry, emotions, and circulation. Studies show that changing your breathing pattern can have a calming effect on your body that reduces pain. By calming the body through the breath and acknowledging the pain vs. ignoring, it is believed that the brain doesn't have to release as many pain signals to trigger you to notice the problem.{3}
#8 - Improve Heart Health
With each breath we take, a symbiotic relationship between the lungs and the heart sets place. The lungs gently wrap around the heart, giving little hugs to the heart with each breath. Encourage the rhythm of your heartbeat. By simply changing your breathing rate and breathing for your body, you can change the rate at which your heart beats. Studies have found that practicing breathing techniques can not only adjust your heart rhythm but also reduce hypertension {4}.
#9 - Boost Self Confidence
Breathing with your body's mechanics begins to bring your breath down to a lower sense of gravity. Centering you in your 2nd Chakra. This centering breath calms the body and allows you to feel comfortable and more confident, and creates more transparent speech patterns. Confidence comes to you when you can demonstrate to yourself that you can handle any situation without being stopped by fear or thinking about failure. We can start by controlling our breath, preventing our bodies from feeling any unnecessary anxiety, then move our breath to clear our mind of any fear. One great use of breathing techniques is to prepare you for public speaking. If you tend to stutter or get the jitters before public speaking, the breath can help calm and center you, leaving you clear-headed so you can speak with confidence.
#10 - Reduced Stress
Studies show that 60-80% of doctor visits are related to stress {1}. Stress complaints continue to be on the rise as stress management becomes more and more prevalent in understanding its effects on our health. However, the way you breathe directly affects the level of stress that you are feeling! In fact, most people (9/10) are breathing in a way that triggers stress in their bodies. Most often caused by poor habits such as sitting, lousy posture, and social pressures, our ability to breathe in a way that does not trigger stress has become less common. For more about how breathing can help with chronic stress check out our blog “How you breathe is how you live”
BONUS! #11 - Greater connection to SELF + Spirit
The vast majority of breathing exercises that are practiced today are derived from various ancient spiritual practices. The root word spirit in Latin means breath. It's believed in many cultures that each breath we take can connect us with spirit when practiced consciously. In fact, in many languages, the meaning of breath + spirit are intertwined:
WORDS MEANING BREATH:
Origin: Word: Meaning
Hebrew: Ruach: "wind," "breath," or "spirit."
Ancient Greek: Pneuma: "breath," and in a religious context for "spirit" or "soul."
Latin: Spīritus: breath, spirit
Sanskrit: Prana: energy, life, or breath
Ancient Chinese: Ch'i (also spelled Chi or Qi): air, spirit, vital force of life
Japanese: Ki: air, spirit, breath, life force
As you can see, the meaning of the breath is also related to energy, life, or life force. Breathwork is a form of energy work much like Reiki and Pranic Healing. While practicing breathwork, it's common to experience a greater connection to Self, experiencing spiritual awakening, attunement, and even enlightenment. The spiritual connection from the breath can bring a feeling of peace, bliss, emotional and physical release, and a sense of unity and belonging in the universe. More modern breathwork techniques such as re-birthing, holotropic breathwork, effiji breath are also used to relieve emotional blocks and trauma from the body and the psyche.
