TThe promise of breathwork is attractively simple: that the key to physical health, inner peace, improved performance, and self-actualization is something we already roughly do 20,000 times one day. According to his supporters – including Simone Biles, Michael Phelps, Gisele Bundchenand a woman I met at a party last weekend – by manipulating your breathing you can better regulate your body and mind.
But which breathing technique works best? I’ve heard that breathwork can give me a psychedelic trip. Is that true? And if breathing exercises can help us feel better, why don’t we do them all all the time?
What is breathwork?
“Breathwork is any form of regulation of breathing,” says Dr. Sundar Balasubramanian, a researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina and the company’s founder. PranaScience.
As Balasubramanian notes, breathwork has been around for thousands of years, and cultures around the world have developed their own practices: Chinese Qigong, Hawaiian piko piko, Indian yogic breathing, also known as pranayama. Over the years, more techniques have been added, such as holotropic breathwork, box breathing, Buteyko breathing and the Wim Hof method (developed by Dutch motivational speaker Wim Hof, also known as the ‘Iceman’, who dubbed Justin Bieber once described as ‘a G”). These methods vary in intensity, speed and outcome. Are you trying to feel more energetic? More relaxed? Is this exercise spiritual or are you just trying to calm your nerves?
“I always think (breathing techniques) are like chocolates,” says Balasubramanian. “There are so many different types.”
When it comes to choosing one, he says it depends on how you’re feeling and what you’re trying to achieve at any given time. For example, if your nose is runny, you can skip alternate nostril breathing. If you want to feel energetic, try an exercise with shorter, sharper breaths, and if you want to feel calm, try an exercise with longer, deeper breaths.
How does breathing affect our health and well-being?
First and most importantly, our breath keeps us alive.
In addition, slowing the rate of our breathing to around six breaths per minute can have numerous physical and mental health benefits, explains Dr Alessandro Colasanti, Reader in Psychiatry at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and Consultant Psychiatrist at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. “These effects include relaxation, well-being and stress reduction.”
Balasubramanian adds that we can improve blood circulation in the body by fully expanding our diaphragms when inhaling and exhaling. “Most problems related to the deterioration of tissues with age are due to a lack of proper circulation,” he explains. “This is easily changed by your breathing.”
What does breathwork feel like?
On a Wednesday afternoon, I joined more than 200 other participants in Sylvie Horvath’s Zoom breathwork class. Horvath is a yoga instructor, breathwork counselor and company founder Soul dimension. She started teaching free weekly breathwork classes on Zoom during the pandemic and attendance quickly grew. “I wasn’t sure how it would work online,” she said during a phone call later that week. “But I’ve noticed that you can really dive into it. You feel the energy, even online.”
I was in a bad mood when I started the class, which seemed perfect. What better way to see if breathwork is helping you feel good? Horvath led us through three breathing cycles, inhaling and exhaling through our mouths 40 times. This, she said, would manipulate the oxygen level in the blood – the oxygen level would rise, the carbon dioxide level would fall. “You might get hot. You could be cold. You could feel emotions,” she said. At the end of each cycle, we held our breath for a minute while exhaling, although she added, “If you need to inhale earlier, you can do that too.”
During the first round I found the feeling of breathing through my mouth unpleasant – my mouth and lips felt cold and dry – and holding my breath while exhaling made me tense with panic and I had to take a deep breath long before the minute was up .
As the class progressed, I got used to breathing with my mouth open. Each cycle I held my breath longer. At the end I felt pleasantly dizzy. My thoughts and movements felt slow, as if I were floating through water. I wasn’t in a bad mood anymore. I scrolled through the comments to see how other participants felt. “I actually felt a tingling sensation and I cried,” someone had typed.
Can breathwork really give you a ‘high’ feeling?
A recent one New York Times This story looked at the potential therapeutic applications of holotropic breathwork, a practice that can transport practitioners into an “altered state of consciousness.”
I couldn’t help but be curious about this more transformative experience. Over the next few days I looked for practices that were trippy (but also free). I found a breathwork video on YouTube that promised a “NATURAL HIGH” but just left the inside of my nose feeling cold. The free meditation app on my phone offered a pranayama exercise that promised a “transcendental experience” but only made my arms and legs tremble and gave me a bit of a headache.
However, can someone really have a psychedelic experience through breathwork?
“Some elements of it,” says Colasanti. He says studies have shown that certain rapid techniques have produced results comparable to psychedelic experiences, “particularly with regard to the feeling of being in a mystical experience, of being in a dream-like or blissful state, and of feeling like self and the environment are blurred. ”. As for why this is happening, Colasanti says: “Short answer: we don’t know yet, but we are looking into it.”
Is there anyone who shouldn’t be doing breathwork?
Although everyone breathes, intensive breathing exercises are not suitable for everyone. Because breathing exercises can constrict or dilate blood vessels, Balasubramanian urges individuals who have had a stroke or who have cardiovascular problems to proceed with caution and only practice breathing exercises offered by individuals trained to manage these conditions to go.
Horvath also warns that individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma, or pregnant women, should talk to a doctor before doing specific breathing exercises.
Trauma survivors also need to proceed with caution when it comes to breathwork, as some may do not feeling comfortable focusing on physical sensations. In these cases it is best to do so start slowlyor focus on finding other coping strategies, ideally with the help of a professional.
What’s the best way to start with breathwork?
As with any new practice, experts recommend starting slowly.
“First you need to become aware of how you breathe throughout the day,” says Guy Fincham, a breathing researcher at the University of Sussex. From there, he suggests switching to nose breathing most of the time if you’re not already doing so, and then trying slow exercises like box breathing (where you inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, and exhale). four counts, hold for four counts and repeat) or coherent breathing (inhaling for six counts and exhaling for six counts). Techniques involving hyperventilation, he cautioned, should always be performed in a safe environment, that is, an area where one can lie down safely and comfortably, away from water and hard surfaces.
How often should you do breathwork?
As for how often you should do breathing exercises, some are generally better than none, says Balasubramanian, although he cautions, “This applies to slow breathing exercises as well.” Meditative exercises, he says, can be done for longer because they are slow, but fast-breathing hyperventilation exercises must be done carefully with adequate rest intervals.
The traditional slow pranayama practice, Balasubramanian explains, involves 24 minutes of breathing in the morning, afternoon and evening. But he realizes that this may be a lot at first. “Even five minutes of breathing exercises before each meal is good enough to bring about some change.”
BOTTOM LINE
How much did it cost? $0.
Did it work? Unfortunately, I didn’t have a psychedelic trip, but I did feel generally more relaxed after my breathing sessions.
Would I do it again? Yes.
Did it fix me? Small, easily overcome discomforts can still throw me into a tantrum at any time, but several times a day I will try to take a few slow, deep breaths into my belly, and that often helps a little.
Overall rating: Four (breathes in) out of five (breathes out).