What is breathwork?
Breathwork is an accessible way to unlock a greater sense of control over your mind and body through conscious, connected breathing.
If you’re sitting there thinking that all you need to do is breathe, well – you’re right. It’s simple – and, because it’s simple, it’s an incredibly powerful tool. Anyone can do it. And for some people, it really can change their life.
But before that, it’s important to understand exactly what we mean when we talk about breath ‘work’ – and what you can expect to experience.
Don’t be put off by the odd technical word or phrase you’ll see in here, either – I’ve tried to strip back all the industry terms to make this as easy to digest as possible.
An altered state of consciousness
In a guided session, we achieve this by keeping the breath connected – removing the gap between inhale and exhale – and allowing us to drop into the body, then enter a state of deep relaxation.
From there, the conscious mind quietens down to give space to the subconscious and in turn those suppressed emotions, or past traumas.
It gives us an opportunity to engage with them in a different way, unlocking deeper insight into why we feel the way we do, or are stuck in patterns and behaviours we find difficult to change. It’s here where the treasure really lies.
Intentional release of emotion and trauma
Some days, even the simplest tasks can feel like climbing Everest. But could you imagine doing it with a bag of bricks on your back? That’s how I’ve come to see the emotional baggage we carry, a constant weight we look to avoid confronting. It’s easier not to climb the mountain, after all – but only for so long.
In day-to-day life, it’s our body that stores that bag of bricks: emotions left unaddressed because they’re too uncomfortable, or too painful, to deal with. It’s no surprise that we can slip into negative thought or behavioural patterns as a result.
Targeting these feelings through breathwork means anything trapped, stored or stagnant has an outlet for release, and allows us to lighten our load – one brick at a time.
Embodiment
Where detachment of mind is about freeing up the head, embodiment is about focusing on our physical bodies. It may sound like they’re just opposites, but they’re not – in fact, they are linked together closely.
Think of embodiment like coming out of your head, and down into your body. By doing so, you start to link the physical and the emotional together, and develop the connections that help us feel grounded.
This helps create a way of understanding the triggers that cause us to react in the way we do. It allows us to access the parts of ourselves that may have become hidden away – and frees them to become our teachers and guides.
Detachment of mind
Let’s be real: our brains can be loud places. Today’s world is always-on – and we rarely get a time to truly switch off.
Creating a space free from distraction isn’t just a case of putting our phones away for a few hours. It’s about allowing our minds to slow down, and those thoughts that bounce around our heads to fade into the background. And that’s where conscious breathing comes in.
Conscious (or intentional) breathwork focuses on existing in the present moment, through deep, continuous breathing into the lower abdomen, up into the chest, using the whole of the lungs. From here, you can free up your head from noise, and unlock the new perspectives that come from this renewed sense of space.
