Let’s dive into what breathwork therapy is and how it can help.
What is Breathwork Therapy?
Breathwork therapy is a blanket term that refers to any breathing exercise or breathing technique. Specifically, breathwork therapy refers to breathing exercises undertaken to improve mental health and general wellbeing. These exercises teach you to breathe mindfully.
There are many different types of breathwork, and different types of breathwork therapy may help tackle different problems or create different feelings.
Types of Breathwork Therapy
There are so many different types of breathwork therapy, but these are the basics. If you’ve ever explored breathwork therapy, you’ve probably heard of at least one of these styles.
• Pranayama. This style of breathing control is popular in yoga. Controlling your breath in this style can help you overcome blocks in your energy and emotions when used correctly. This is the most common form of breathwork therapy.
• Holotropic. Holotropic breathwork is a little more complicated, and usually conducted in group settings with fast-paced music. The techniques and controlled breathing practices of holotropic breathwork therapy are meant to help improve psychological and spiritual well-being, as well as assist with personal growth.
• Rebirthing. Rebirthing breathwork therapy is often utilized to help individuals deal with unprocessed emotions. These techniques are usually undertaken by a qualified instructor and are difficult to perform without help. These intense techniques focus on circular breathing and helping someone work on blocked emotions, usually those resulting from trauma.
How does Breathwork Help?
We’ve all heard that even a few deep breaths can calm your emotions. Deep breathing exercises can even lower your blood pressure. But breathwork therapy takes this a step further. Just as breathing deeply can help alter your emotions, breathwork uses a variety of techniques to manipulate how you feel.
This type of meditation is useful for just about anyone, and especially when it comes to stress and anxiety.
Breathwork and Stress
Stress is necessary, but too much of it works against us. In some cases, stress can be like poison to our minds and bodies. Breathwork therapy techniques can calm your body, relieving the tension that stress causes. Teaching your mind to refocus on breathing can help reduce our negative feelings toward stressful events.
Plus, it is accessible. You can use breathing techniques wherever you encounter stress to help deal with the negativity it causes. This can help you deal with it in the long term and decrease the impact of too much stress.
Breathwork and Anxiety
When it comes to anxiety, breathwork therapy is an excellent method to overcome seemingly overwhelming feelings. Studies have shown that breathwork therapy decreases beta brainwaves – the brainwaves that increase when we are feeling depressed or anxious.
By reducing this brainwave, our brain calms. During anxious periods, certain areas of the brain become agitated. Using breathing in a therapeutic capacity – like in breathwork therapy – helps calm those sections of the brain.