Breathwork as a holistic health strategy

What is Breathwork?

Breathwork  is the practice of using a conscious breathing technique with the goal of improving your physical, emotional, and/or spiritual health. According to Dr. Andrew Weil “ the breath functions as a link between the unconscious and conscious mind, a tool to influence the involuntary nervous system, a technique to decrease anxiety and increase spiritual awareness and development, ground the mind, body and spirit and increase communication pathways between the mind body connection.

I would add that it can also be used to relieve pain and increase creativity and intuition.” For these reasons adding breathwork to your daily routine can be great for both those with existing health conditions as well as those practicing preventative care to manage stress levels and help with certain chronic pain. Breathing is the only function of the human body that can be done both completely unconsciously and completely consciously. As a result breathing is regulated by two completely different sets of muscles and nerves.

When we breathe unconsciously (breathing that occurs while we are sleeping, or throughout the day to day when we are not focusing on the breath) we use our involuntary nervous system (AKA automatic nervous system). The involuntary nervous system controls all of the other involuntary functions of the human body i.e. heartbeat, blood pressure, digestion, etc.

The involuntary nervous system is comprised of two branches: the sympathetic nervous system-which is responsible for our fight or flight reflexes, and the parasympathetic nervous system which has the opposing effect-relaxing the body, lowering the blood pressure etc. These two systems work together to create homeostasis in the body like a balancing act.

Typically when we experience stressful situations the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in allowing us to respond under pressure, conversely the sympathetic nervous system will take over to bring us back to a normal state of relaxation. Unfortunately the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous system are not always balanced. Many people experience an over active parasympathetic nervous system and a much less active sympathetic nervous system. The result of this imbalance is stress and anxiety.

As I mentioned before breathing is the only function of the body which can be performed both consciously and unconsciously. When we tap into our conscious breathing we can manipulate the signals being sent to our nervous system.

For example elongating our inhales, and exhales can help to lower our heart rate which could send a signal to our bodies allowing the sympathetic nervous system to take control having a calming and relaxing effect on the body. This simple act of focusing on the breath to elongate the inhales, and elongate the exhales can be considered breathwork and while it is incredibly simple it can also be incredible effective.

There are many breathwork workshops some hosted by doctors, some by yoga studios and holistic healing centers that can teach you how to use your breath to reduce anxiety, stress, and back pain. There are also a number of online resources that can explain different types of breathwork techniques that you can practice in your spare time.

Good therapy offers a critique of many different breathwork methods as well as an outline of their benefits  breathwork . In addition to traditional breath work techniques you can try using a breathing resistance device like Expand-A-Lung to strengthen your respiratory muscles so that you have a naturally longer inhale and exhale even while your involuntary nervous system is in control.

By strengthening your diaphragm you naturally take deeper breathes and tend to breathe from the belly which has a more relaxing effect on the body.