Breathwork has seen an incredible rise in popularity in the past five years, with many people calling it ‘the new yoga’. Yet with its growth has come a great deal of confusion. Many people still wonder, what is breathwork. Much of this confusion comes from the term itself, since the word breathwork can be interpreted in many different ways.
Some people take the term literally and assume it refers to improving breathing skills or learning how to breathe more effectively. This often leads to playful responses when invited to a breathwork session such as, “I already know how to breathe, I have been doing it my whole life.” Others think of yogic breathing practices like pranayama or simple breathing exercises for anxiety or relaxation.
The term breathwork was originally coined to describe a specific modality that uses conscious connected breathing. This approach is very different from pranayama, functional breathing, and relaxation based breath practices.However, the term has been reappropriated, and many people now use it to describe all of these practices and essentially any method that works with the breath.
Below I explain what breathwork means in its original form and why this powerful technique is now widely embraced by therapists, healers, and psychonauts around the world.
Table of Contents: Quick Navigation Guide
- What is Breathwork?
- The Breathwork Breathing Technique
- The Typical Structure of a Session
- What Does Breathwork Feel Like?
- Breathwork Benefits
- The Origins of Breathwork
- The Most Popular Breathwork Modalities & Training Schools
- Closing Thoughts on What Is Breathwork
- Invite: Become a Trauma-Informed, Globally Certified Breathwork Facilitator
So What Exactly is Breathwork Then?
Breathwork was originally created to describe a modality that uses connected breathing to enter altered states of consciousness for deep healing and transformation. Contrary to common belief, it does not teach you how to breathe functionally in everyday life. And in contrast to breathing practices that activate the rest and digest Parasympathetic Nervous System to create relaxation, this work intentionally activates the Sympathetic Nervous System in order to charge the system with awareness.
Since the term breathwork is now used to describe all types of breathing practices, I will refer to this specific technique as connected breathwork to avoid confusion moving forward.
The Connected Breathwork Technique
You may sometimes hear Breathwork referred to as conscious, connected breathing (CCB), or circular connected breathing – and they essentially refer to the same thing. With this modality, you breathe a deep connected breath into your belly, without a pause between the inhale and exhale.
In most Connected Breathwork modalities the emphasis will be on the inhale, and you will be encouraged to make your exhale passive. Some Breathwork schools use a two-part inhale where you breathe into your belly and then chest, and then immediately release. While others encourage a more natural approach of deep belly inhales followed by immediate exhales.
What is Connected Breathwork – The Typical Structure of a Session
When the session is led by a well-trained breathwork facilitator, they will spend at least ten minutes in the beginning, explaining not only the breathing technique but all of the things that can happen. This is important, so that the breathers feel safe and do not become surprised or overwhelmed by the potentially strong experience that can arise in a session. The facilitator will also share how you can modify the breath to accelerate or put the breaks on the journey. After that, you will lie down, get comfortable, and close your eyes. This is when the connected breathing pattern commences and the session is typically supported by thoughtfully curated music to support the experience.
Connected breathing sessions can vary in length, however, you ideally want to partake in a class that offers at least 50 minutes of conscious connected breathing. The reason for this is that it takes a bit of time to induce an altered state of consciousness with your breath, and most of the benefits of connected breathwork occur once you’ve exited your ego mind and heightened your consciousness. In this state, you become connected to your subconscious programming, your inner wisdom, and higher consciousness – and this connection is what leads to incredibly profound sessions and deep, lasting healing.
Once the connected breathing part of the session concludes, a skilled facilitator will allow at least ten minutes for the participants to remain lying down. This is important because it takes time to ground back into your body. Ideally, at the end of this ‘coming back’ time, you will partake in some journalling, grounding and a sharing circle before the session concludes. While not all facilitators offer a sharing circle, this communal space represents a remarkable chance for integration and connection. Moreover, listening to others share about their experience can be a valuable gift that conveys essential insights for your own journey.
What Does Connected Breathwork Feel Like?
Connected breathing puts you in touch with your inner wisdom, and it’s your body’s innate intelligence that is the guide – which means the session will be different for every person, every time. As such it’s impossible to fully describe the feeling, however, the best analogy we can give is that it’s like a marriage between plant-medicine and hypnosis. Just like plant medicine you exit your ego mind, reach altered states of consciousness, and your journey can encompass a wide range of experiences. You might feel intense physical sensations, travel to the past or future, process stuck emotions, release trauma, attain a sense of universal oneness, have vivid visions, or encounter entirely unique experiences. However, unlike plant medicine, the depth of your experience is fully in your control and you can return to a normal consciousness at any time.
Connected Breathwork is similar to hypnosis because you bypass the conscious mind and access your subconscious programming which allows for rapid and lasting transformation. However, there is no hypnotherapist dictating your experience, instead your inner wisdom is the guide. We believe this makes it far more powerful and transformative, because no one knows better than yourself, what you need for your highest healing!
The Benefits of Connected Breathwork
The benefits are impossible to fully describe and there are a multitude of factors that combine to create the deep healing and transformations that occur.
- Brainwave Effects: Connected breathing temporarily changes the CO2, oxygen, and Ph levels in the body, which slows down electrical activity in the brain. This slowed activity helps to shut down the Default Mode Network, which in turn, loosens the grip of the ego. It also shifts brainwaves from beta (associated with stress) to alpha and theta (associated with relaxation and creativity). This can result in profound and transformative insights, as well as a remarkably deep meditative state characterized by ‘zero-thoughts’ – an achievement that typically requires years of meditation practice. *For more information on Breathwork & Brain Waves, click here.
- Energetic and Emotional Benefits: Connected breathing helps release blocked energy, and allows the opportunity to let go of things that no longer serve you, to heal your inner child, and release trauma. It also enables somatic and emotional release, fostering a sense of wholeness.
- Psycho-Spiritual Effects: It allows you to transcend the ego, and aligns the subconscious, conscious, and superconscious realms, which can lead to deep healing and even spiritual awakening. Approximately 10% of breathwork participants will also have a transcendental or mystical ‘peak’ experience which permanently transforms the way they view and experience life.
- Subconscious Effects: It allows access to the subconscious mind. This is profoundly valuable since the subconscious mind wields tremendous influence, governing 95% of our thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. This connection to the subconscious in breathwork can also support people in overcoming addictions and releasing self-sabotaging behaviors and coping mechanisms.
- Physical Healing Effects: Connected breathwork detoxifies the body, enhances blood flow, can leave you feeling energized and refreshed, and releases endorphins for pain relief. Many people with ongoing pain or injuries note a relief of their symptoms after a session. Regular sessions may also enhance overall health including immune, brain, and gut function.
- Vagus Nerve & Anti-Anxiety Benefits: Connected breathwork activates the vagus nerve, reducing stress, anxiety, and depression.
- Nervous System Balancing Benefits: Ongoing sessions can help rebalance the nervous system and get a person out of chronic fight, flight or freeze mode.
- Empowers You to Be Your Own Healer: Connected breathwork connects you to your inner wisdom, helps you listen to the messages that come from your body, and can also provide you with new important insights. An experienced facilitator will not dictate the journey, instead they will hold space and offer suggestions but encourage you to listen to your inner wisdom first and foremost. This is incredibly empowering, as you become your own healer and realize that everything you need and all the answers you seek are already within you. It’s often said that one breathwork session can be more powerful than years of talk therapy and some describe breathwork as being ‘re-born.’
The breath meets you at your current state and guides you to where you need to be, serving as an unwavering ally on your path of healing and personal growth. Every session is different for every person, and the best thing to do is to let go of expectations and resistance, remain open to whatever wants to arise, and trust that the breath will take you exactly where you need to go!
The Origins of Connected Breathwork
Breath-centered practices and meditations can be found in many ancient cultures and religions and the terms ‘breath’ and ‘spirit’ share common linguistic origin in numerous languages. However, modern connected breathwork, which employs circular breathing to induce altered states of consciousness, primarily emerged from two modalities in the 1960’s – Holotropic and Rebirthing.
Holotropic Breathwork was created by psychiatrist Stan Grof who was using LSD to successfully help PTSD patients heal. When LSD was banned in the U.S., Grof discovered connected breathing could induce altered states of consciousness similar to LSD and support the same rapid healing in his PTSD patients. Leonard Orr developed ‘Rebirthing’ around the same time (which also uses connected breathing), after experiencing his own rebirth while spontaneously breathing this way during a warm water bath. The popularity of connected breathwork waned after the 1970’s, however in the past 5 years it has experienced a major resurgence.
What Are the Most Popular Connected Breathwork Modalities & Training Schools Around the World?
There are now thousands of variants of connected breathwork and some of the most well-known include Make Some Breathing Space, Transformational Breathwork, Unity Breathwork, Owaken, Integrative Breathwork, Radiance Breathwork, Alchemy of Breath, Biodynamic Breathwork, Neurodynamic Breathwork, Clarity Breathwork, Liberation Breathwork, Quantum Light Breath, and Breath of Bliss.
The Differences Between the Various Modalities
While all of the above breathing modalities share the common ground of using circular breathing for the purpose of healing and transformation, there are differences between them. Some modalities have the participants breathe through their mouths, while others instruct them to breathe through their noses. Some include breath holds in their sessions, whereas others, such as Unity Breathwork firmly discourage breath holds due to its potential danger and the fact that it can undermine the depth and effectiveness of the journey.
Some connected breathwork companies focus only on group sessions, others only offer one-on-one sessions … and some offer both. Some offer sessions fully online, while others offer sessions in-person. Some variants are trauma-informed and others are not. Some completely steer clear of catharsis, whereas others incorporate it as a functional reference point. The length of the sessions can also vary – anywhere from 30 minutes to 6+ hours. Finally, the pace of the breath, the primary objective, and the external elements such as the location, the music, incense, or instruments can also differ significantly.
Closing Thoughts on What Is Breathwork
With so many variants on offer around the world you may be left wondering, but which one is the best?!
There is no ‘best’ Breathwork. All variants of connected breathwork have a great deal to offer, with two caveats. Firstly, the Breathwork session should be led by a GPBA-certified facilitator who subscribes to a clear code of ethics. Secondly, the facilitator should have undergone a minimum of 300 hours of training. Some new schools are offering shotgun trainings, with facilitators getting certified in as little as two days, which is not nearly enough time to prepare a facilitator to hold space safely and effectively.
There is a lot that can happen in connected breathwork! We are working with people’s subconscious minds, nervous systems, and traumas and this makes the participants extremely vulnerable. A poorly trained facilitator can inadvertently cause retraumatization to their breathers, and cause their participants to leave worse off than when they came in. So when searching for a breathwork facilitator (click here to find a breathwork facilitator near you) or a breathwork facilitator training please look for a trauma-informed, and comprehensive training that is certified by the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance (GPBA).
Blessings on your Breath Journey!
Want to Become a Globally-Certified, Trauma-Informed Breathwork Facilitator?
If you’re considering becoming a Certified Breathwork Facilitator, we invite you to explore our dually accredited, trauma-informed breathwork training. Our internationally recognized school provides an extensive 450-hour curriculum designed to offer deep insights and practical skills in breathwork facilitation. Our training is certified by the GPBA and we will make it our mission for you to graduate with exceptional expertise, skill, and intuition, so you can go out and improve countless lives with the power of connected breathing!!
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