What is Breathwork? The Top Benefits of Breathwork

Breathwork refers to the conscious awareness of one’s breath, and it is a powerful practice used by many to access their body’s inner intelligence. When you practice breathwork, you increase your body’s oxygen supply, which triggers more brainpower, expands awareness and concentration, and enhances energy levels.

You’d be interested to learn that humans release most of their toxins through breathing. This means that the more you practice breathwork, the more detoxicated your body will be.

Even though breathwork might sound as easy as just breathing, it is proven that it has great benefits to your health, happiness, sanity, and body. While there are different styles of breathwork, all of them benefit our body in many ways.

The following is a detailed breakdown of some of the top-benefits of breathwork;

1. Improves sleep

By now, you know that getting enough sleep is very important for your body and mental health. However, at times we end up depriving ourselves of good sleep unknowingly.

This could be due to excessive use of our phones and social media, too much caffeine intake, and some of the minor stress and anxiety episodes we carry throughout the day. All of these are stimulating factors that negatively impact our ability to sleep.

Fortunately, there is a way around this with breathwork. When we keep practicing deep breathing, it helps calm our nervous system, which reduces our stress and anxiety levels, and allows us to get a goodnight’s sleep.

Also, breathwork plays a major role in quieting our mind, which helps us fall asleep faster and for longer.

“Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.”- Thomas Dekker.

2. Helps alleviate pain

Most of the time, when we have chronic pain, we end up distancing ourselves from our bodies in an attempt to ignore feeling that pain. However, most of us don’t know that when you distance yourself from your body, you deny it the inner ability to heal itself.

Breathwork helps you reconnect with your body which ends up triggering the healing process of your pain. Because of breathwork, your body will also release endorphins which are likely to reduce your sensitivity to any pain.

When you’re in pain, your body’s acidity levels are higher. However, breathwork helps your body change these acidity levels into alkaline. This ends up reducing the stress levels and the feeling of pain in your body.

“Find a place inside where there is joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”- Joseph Campbell.

3. It helps heal past trauma

Breathwork can also act as a much-needed remedy to our past trauma. The trauma in your body is cellular, and when you practice breathwork, it will increase your oxygen and blood flow which ends up jumpstarting your body’s healing process.

Additionally, when breathwork is used with an intention, it can help you dive into past experiences and help your body work through any of the blockages or traumas you might be dealing with.

Breathwork serves as a necessary emotional experience which makes it all-important to work with a qualified breathwork expert.

“Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.”- Peter A. Levine.

4. Improves digestion

Among the many benefits of breathwork is that it helps increase the blood flow in your digestion tract, enhancing your intestinal activity and digestion process in general. Breathwork has also been associated with alleviating the symptoms of gas and bloating in our bodies.

Additionally, breathwork lowers the stress levels in our bodies, reducing cortisol, a stress hormone that leads to gut inflammation.

Also, when you practice breathwork, you’re likely to be in a better state of mind to make healthy food choices. You’re also unlikely to overeat any foods that might cause digestion problems.

“I am convinced digestion is the great secret of life.”- Sydney Smith.

5. Reduces stress, grief, anxiety, anger, and depression

With all the things happening in our current world, more people are dealing with depression and anxiety issues. While this might sound like such an incurable problem, breathwork offers a way out of anger, stress, anxiety, grief, and depression so that they don’t end up taking a toll on our personal and professional lives.

Interestingly, how we breathe often dictates how we feel. Short and rapid breaths are often associated with anxiety and panic attacks, while long and deep breaths help us stay calm, energized, and centered.

The long and deep breaths often jumpstart our parasympathetic nervous system, which gets us out of any stress and anxiety episodes.

By activating the parasympathetic nervous system in your body, you lower your heart rate and blood pressure, which creates a much-needed feeling of calm and composure. It’s important to note that breathwork doesn’t just impact your nervous system.

It goes way beyond and increases your alpha brain waves which fight any symptoms of depression in your body.

“Anxiety can go away through pranayama, knowledge, and meditation, and knowing that someone is taking care of you.” – Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

6. Boosts creativity

Another benefit of practicing breathwork is that it brings great creative spells out of you. Since breathwork helps people get in touch with their authentic selves, it also sets a stage for a deeper understanding of one’s creative path.

So next time you want to explore your full creative potential, ensure that you practice a breathwork session immediately before you get started. It might end up helping you hit new grounds you didn’t think you were capable of.

“Art, freedom and creativity will change society faster than politics.”- Victor Pinchuk.

Conclusion

The above benefits of breathwork are enough proof that it efficiently boosts your spiritual, mental, and physical health.

If you’re looking to explore all the benefits of breathwork, ensure that you work closely with a breathwork expert to help you identify which style works best with your body.