top 10 benefits of breathwork.
Breathwork is a powerful way to unlock your body’s natural ability to heal and thrive. Breathwork, the conscious practice of deep, rhythmic breathing, is an ancient technique that has stood the test of time. Across various styles and traditions, the essence of breathwork remains the same: it offers a pathway to personal transformation by enhancing your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.
Our breath is our life force, yet many of us spend our days breathing shallowly, which can keep us in a constant state of anxiety or stress. Breathwork moves us out of this fight-or-flight mode and into a state of relaxation and balance by activating the parasympathetic nervous system. It’s often said that how we breathe is how we live, so to truly live life to its fullest, we need to breathe deeply and fully.
Breathwork not only boosts our energy levels and emotional resilience but also bridges the gap between ancient wisdom and modern science. By practicing breathwork, you can raise your energy, enhance your emotional well-being, and tap into your full potential. Come breathe with us at Unearthed and begin to experience firsthand these Top 10 benefits!
Reduces Stress, Anxiety, Grief, Depression, and Anger.
In our fast-paced world, many of us have faced anxiety or depression at some point. Breathwork provides a gentle yet powerful way to tackle stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and anger directly, preventing these emotions from dominating our personal and professional lives. How we breathe often reflects how we feel. Shallow, rapid breaths can make us anxious and fatigued, while long, deep breaths from the abdomen can help us feel calm, centered, grounded, and energized. This is because deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, pulling us out of fight-or-flight mode (the sympathetic nervous system). When you activate your parasympathetic nervous system, your heart rate slows down, your blood pressure lowers, and you experience a profound sense of calm, reducing your overall stress and anxiety.
But the benefits of Breathwork extend beyond the nervous system. By changing how we breathe, we can literally change our brainwaves! Throughout the day, our brains transition through five types of brainwaves: gamma, beta, alpha, theta, and delta.
Gamma Waves: These waves are associated with heightened perception and consciousness.
Beta Waves: Most of us spend our days in beta, where we're attentive, thinking, making decisions, and problem-solving. However, in beta, we can also feel agitated, stressed, tense, hyper-alert, afraid, or obsessive.
Alpha Waves: This state is characterized by relaxation, reflection, awareness, and being present in the moment.
Theta Waves: Theta is an even more relaxed state where we are open, intuitive, receptive, and can have deep insights or 'aha' moments beyond our normal conscious awareness. This state can occur during breathwork, deep meditation, or in sleep.
Delta Waves: Delta waves are our slowest brainwaves, occurring mostly in deep dreamless sleep when we lose awareness of our body.
Breathwork is an effective technique for shifting brainwaves from beta to alpha and even theta states. This shift can help decrease negative thought patterns, reduce stress, and alleviate symptoms of depression.
Increase Self-Awareness, Presence, Happiness and Joy.
In breathwork, we’re breathing through our mouth, which creates an experience of deep presence and self-awareness by giving yourself the space to go within, where time almost ceases to exist. In this expanded space and state, our minds have a chance to slow down from all the thinking and doing, and move into a more dreamlike state of being. In this state of being in the present moment, in the now, no longer bound by the past or the future, people often describe feelings of happiness and joy wash over them, as they experience a shift in consciousness.
Increase Your Energy Levels and Boost Your Immune System.
Breathwork enhances the oxygen capacity in our blood, leading to improved energy levels and greater stamina. The amount of oxygen we inhale directly affects the energy released into our cells. This extra energy can be used by the body to boost immunity or provide a much-needed energy boost on days when sleep was lacking or stress and anxiety are draining your energy. Moreover, it allows you to push your physical workout to new levels by flooding your body with oxygen. A daily breathwork practice can help you consciously control your energy levels and immune system.
Magnify Self-Love.
Many of us struggle with self-love, often feeling unworthy or inadequate. What breathwork does beautifully is help us shift from our mind and intellect into our body, simply by switching from nostril breathing to mouth breathing. While increased self-love may be challenging to measure scientifically, it is one of the most direct experiences of breathwork. When your body is vibrating during breathwork and you are fully immersed in the experience, it's hard not to feel a deeper connection with yourself. By fostering this deeper relationship with yourself, you begin the process of self-love.
Improve Sleep.
With our overuse of phones and social media, reliance on coffee and sugary foods, and the low-grade stress and anxiety we experience daily, there are many stimulating factors that can negatively impact our sleep. Fortunately, the deep breathing in breathwork helps to calm the nervous system, reducing the effects of stimulants and calming stress, leading to a better night's sleep. In addition, the practice of quieting the mind in breathwork helps you fall asleep faster and achieve a deeper sleep.
Help Reduce Pain.
If you're dealing with chronic pain, you've likely tried to disconnect from your body to avoid feeling the pain. However, this disconnection may actually hinder your body's natural healing process. Breathwork effortlessly helps you reconnect with your body, kickstarting the healing journey. Deep breathing triggers the release of endorphins, which not only reduces pain sensitivity but also boosts pleasure, promoting a sense of well-being. Deep breathing alters the body's acidity levels, making it more alkaline, which can help alleviate pain. Additionally, breathwork reduces cortisol levels, thereby reducing stress and the perception of pain. The therapeutic effects of deep belly breathing are particularly beneficial for chronic pain, as it relaxes muscles that may otherwise tense up due to pain, further exacerbating the discomfort.
Release Trauma and Stored Energy Stuck in the Body.
Unprocessed negative emotions, fear, and trauma can become trapped and stored in the body, manifesting as energetic blocks that take a toll on our physical well-being. While talk therapy can help us identify these fears and traumas, it isn't always effective in releasing them from the body. These traumas and blocks, some of which may have been with us since childhood, can hinder us from living the life we desire. Breathwork is a remarkably powerful tool for unblocking, unraveling, and releasing these fears, traumas, limiting beliefs, and negative emotions.
Release Toxins From the Body.
Deep breathing plays a crucial role in detoxifying your body, enhancing lung efficiency, and supporting a healthy heart. More than 50% of the toxins your body stores are meant to be expelled through breathing. The primary toxin expelled through breath is carbon dioxide. Deep rhythmic breathing expands your diaphragm, relaxing the body and stimulating the lymphatic system to eliminate toxins. This practice also strengthens your lungs, aiding in toxin release. By incorporating deep breathing into your daily routine, you can expel toxins more effectively, allowing your cells to receive more oxygen-rich blood. This improved oxygen capacity not only benefits your workout routine but also assists in detoxification. Additionally, deep breathing supports the circulatory system, improving blood circulation, another crucial channel for eliminating toxins.
Support Healthy Digestion.
Breathwork supports healthy digestion by enhancing blood flow throughout the digestive tract and improving intestinal activity. It can also alleviate uncomfortable symptoms like bloating and gas. As breathwork helps to reduces stress, it in turn reduces cortisol levels and gut inflammation. On an emotional level, practicing breathwork reduces overall stress and anxiety, leading to better food choices and reducing the likelihood of overeating or consuming foods that can trigger digestive issues.
Explore Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness.
Breathwork offers a profound space for self-exploration, spiritual awakening, and a deeper connection to yourself, others, and the universe. Similar to plant medicine, a breathwork session can be profoundly transformative, offering a safe and legal way to connect with your spirit or higher self. It's not uncommon to experience a deep sense of oneness, bliss, and a connection with the universe, along with a profound feeling of safety and surrender. Breathwork also affects how our conscious and subconscious minds interact, unlocking creativity in new and deeper ways. This opens the door to greater insights and inspiration, allowing us to access the present moment more directly and create a new reality.
