Breathwork can be described as any breathing exercise or technique. They are often used to improve their mental, physical and spiritual well-being. Breathwork involves changing your breathing patterns.
Breathwork therapy can be done in many ways. Breathwork can be a great way to relax or feel energized. A special breathwork training certification is provided to those who perform this practice.
Breathing to improve focus, awareness, and relaxation
Breathwork can be practised for many reasons. It is believed to improve emotional state and reduce stress levels in otherwise healthy people.
Many people have used breathwork to:
- Encourage self-development
- boost immunity
- Process emotions, heal emotional pain and trauma
- develop life skills
- Develop or increase self-awareness
- enrich creativity
- Improve personal and professional relationships
- Increase self-image and confidence.
- Joy and happiness can be increased
- Overcome addictions
- Reduce stress and anxiety
- Negative emotions should be released
Breathwork can be used to improve a variety of issues, including:
- anger issues
- Anxiety
- Chronic pain
- Depression
- Emotional effects of illness
- Grief
- Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Breathwork techniques
In breathwork training certification there are many breathing techniques. It is possible to experiment with several different breathing techniques to find the one that resonates most and delivers the best results.
There are many types of breathwork:
- Shamanic Breathwork
- Vivation
- Transformational Breath
- Holotropic Breathwork
- Clarity Breathwork
- Rebirthing
Many mindfulness apps offer instructions for focused breathing. UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center offers guided recordings that can be used for personal practice. These recordings can be as short as a few minutes or as long as about fifteen minutes.
Exemplary examples of breathwork exercises
These are just a few breathing exercises that can be used in different practices.
- Box breathing
- Diaphragmatic breathing
- Breathing through the mouth
- 4-7-8-breathing
- Alternate nostril breathing
Holotropic Breathwork
Holotropic breathing is a technique that helps you to improve your emotional coping skills and personal growth. Holotropic Breathwork was first used, founded in 1970 by Dr. Stan Grof (a husband-and-wife duo).
Your goal is to improve your mental, spiritual, and physical well-being.
What happens during a Holotropic Breathwork session?
- Group guidance. Sessions are usually conducted in groups and guided by a certified practitioner.
- Controlled breathing. To achieve altered states of consciousness, you will be instructed to breathe at a rapid rate for a certain time. This will take place lying down.
- Music. Holotropic breathwork sessions include music.
- Meditation and discussion. You might then be guided to draw a Mandala and share your experiences with the group.
Rebirthing breathwork
Leonard Orr, a US citizen, developed the Rebirthing breathwork method. This technique is also known as Conscious Energy Breathing (CEB).
CEB advocates consider unprocessed or repressed emotions to affect the body physically. This could be due to trauma or because the emotions were too difficult and painful to handle at the time.
Unprocessed emotions can be caused by negative thought patterns, behavior patterns, or how a person was conditioned to respond to events.
Goal: To help people deal with blocked emotions and energy, use the breathing exercises to self-heal.
What happens during a Rebirthing Breathwork session?
- Expert guidance. It would be best if you had qualified guidance when doing a Rebirthing session.
- Circular breathing. This is also known as conscious connected circular breathing. This means that your breaths are continuous, and there is no retention or space between them.
- Emotional and bodily response. This time, you might experience an emotional release that is thought to be triggered by subconscious thoughts and feelings. It is believed that inner peace and higher levels of consciousness can be achieved by bringing past trauma to the surface.
