Explaining Breathwork V1.0

21 Jan

Everyone: So what do you do?
Me: I’m a breathwork facilitator.
Everyone: What’s breathwork?
Me: Well….

As someone who works with the breath the previous conversation is a regular occurrence.

So this is my attempt at explaining what “working with the breath” actually means. I’ve been doing breathwork myself for about 8 years now and started working more with it more intensely over the past two years.

I’ve noticed that it feels like the Wild West, also for me as a facilitator. “Breathwork” has become a term that’s thrown around, meaning very different things.

I come across posts with strong accusations about how we are breathing “wrong” or how someone will never try “breathwork” again because it was way too intense for them.

The Next Phase

With yoga or therapy, we’ve entered the “What type? ”phase. We have a general understanding of the different approaches.

In my classes I often ask people about their experience with breathwork, most people have heard about it but wouldn’t know what it entails or they describe a one off experience and, understandably, call it breathwork.

My point is: We are finding ourselves at a very exciting point in time when it comes to breathwork. We are discovering it’s absolute power, the scientific world has developed an interest and the best thing: it’s a free tool.

All kinds of different practices are being developed under the same name: Breathwork.

So this is my sense making process, partially for myself, partially because I feel like this is the next phase for breathwork. The phase of understanding the different practices and the one that feels right for you.
Just like we did with yoga and therapy.

Important to notice:
- V1.0 → This is my first attempt, I expect (and hope) that in 5 years from now I’ll look at this and think “Hmm. This doesn’t feel complete / overly complex.”
- It’s a spectrum → nothing is as black and white as I put it here. You can mix and match all elements, depending on the person you are breathing with and their style, philosophy and interests.

Now see and behold:

Everyone: Great…so what does this all mean?

Fundamentally
First and foremost I’ve come to see breathing as a tool. Not to be mistaken for a goal, which I think often happens with tools when they become incorporated in for example a morning routine.

At its essence we are proactively interacting with our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). Our ANS is regulates involuntary physiological processes like your heart rate, digestion etc. Breathing is one of these processes but what make the breath unique is that, unlike, our heart rate, we can also “take over” this process. We can proactively change our breathing at any moment in time.
The ANS can be split into two parts:
- Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)
- Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS)

The SNS helps our body activate its fight or flight response, active when you are experiencing stress, are in danger or working out.

The PNS send our body towards relaxation, rest and digest. This is when we recover from for example stress.
During the day we constantly switch between these two, with every in-(SNS) and exhale (PNS). And this is how it’s supposed to be.
A healthy, regulated, nervous system is never stuck in either.

There is (potentially) more nuance to this if we go into the Polyvagal Theory. Which is why there is mention of the Dorsal and Ventral branches of the PNS. A beautiful theory that intuitively makes a lot of sense to me, but for now is too much to get into.

The best two-way street you’ll ever enter
So what does all of this have to do with breathing?
Through the we can proactively impact the state we are in!
Every state (emotion/sensation) that you are in comes with a certain breathing pattern. When you are scared you breathe differently from when you are feeling happy.

But this is a two-way street.

If we change the way we breathe, we change the way we feel.
All through the Autonomic Nervous System.

When we do a breathing exercise with an emphasis on the inhale we are activating our Sympathetic Nervous System, raising our stress levels and getting ready for action.

Any exercise with an emphasis on the exhale does the opposite. It lowers our stress levels and sends us into rest and recovery.

Fundamentally, any breathing exercise you’ll ever do is stooled on this principle.

Change your breath, change your state. Simple and effective.

As you can see on the spectrum, I differentiate between:
- Functional Breathing
- Breathwork

Let me explain.

Functional Breathing

This type of breathing is often very focused on a specific goal, or as just explained, switching from one state to another using the breath.
In other words, the exercises tend to have a specific function.

In general these exercises seem to be to focused on one of three goals.

Relaxation:
I.e. to become more focused or productive at work, sleep better or lower our anxiety.

Activation:
I.e. to get a little energy boost, improve our stress tolerance or boost our immune system.

Awareness:
I.e. to become more aware of how we breath, improve our general nervous system regulation to stay in flow or to decide if we need some activation or relaxation.

Most of these exercises tend to be short (5–20min) and effective when done properly. Very suitable for those who want to do exercises alone or for those who want to improve their quality of work and lower the risk of burn out.

They mostly use very down to earth language (with the exception of Pranayama, yogic breathing), are very focused on the physical body (as opposed to emotional body), and tend to have a lot of science backing the practice.

Breathwork

Which leaves us with breathwork. For me, the emphasis, and with that the differentiation from functional breathing, is on the “work” part of “breathwork”. I’m not saying that all functional breathing exercises are easy in terms of their execution and sometimes they do bring up emotional difficulties. Like I said, it all lives on a spectrum.

What I mean by the “work” is the more emotional, process, side of it all. Where we step more into the unknown, not sure of what the outcome will be. Potentially we encounter some stuck tension, that could be related to a trauma. Or, by design, we could enter a more non-dual psychedelic state.

Fun fact: Holotropic breathing was designed by Stan Grof to replicate an LSD trip.

Personally I work more with “interoceptive” practices, where we go into the body, rather than take off. In a safe way, we gently explore what is alive in our nervous system, listen to what it needs and follow it.

These sessions tend to take a lot longer (45–90min) and can be a more difficult journey in terms of what is being brought up. Although sometimes nothing might happen, which is also perfectly fine. Or we simply have a very calming, relaxing, experience. It’s important to except it for what it was. The nervous system rarely takes on more than it can handle in this kind of setting.

I see these sessions as an attempt to broaden ones experiential spectrum. To “improve” tolerance to more difficult feelings and be more capable of experiencing happy/pleasurable feelings. This in itself has a massive impact on how one experiences life, the choices we make and the individuals sense of freedom and authenticity.

Some might describe it as the process from “personality” to “individuality”.

Breathwork is ideally done in the presence of one or multiple space holders. It sometimes requires a lot of emotional work and readiness to engage with the sides of us that are maybe more painful. Integration is also a very important part of this work.

For this type of breathwork we often use what is called the “Conscious Connected Breath. A continuous flow of breathing without breaks, often done through an open mouth, with an emphasis on the belly.

Often this is combined with other somatic modalities, like movement and bodywork which can be very supportive.

On this side of the spectrum you also tend to encounter more spiritual language, but this very much depends on your facilitator.

Going Forward

There is A LOT more to say about breathing but hopefully you’ve now got a bit of an understanding what breathing is all about and the “why” of breathwork.
And as you can see, proactive, conscious breathing can take many shapes and forms. No matter which type of breathing you engage with, all have their pros and cons.
So just like you want to find the right therapist or yoga practice, you want to find a type of breathing practice that feels good to you.
This might take some time and openness to new experiences.
So my advice would be to follow your initial interest and go explore.

The breath is a powerful tool and I do believe there is a practice for everyone.

It’s important that you feel safe and trust your facilitator or space holder.
Without safety there’s no change or growth.

How I personally work with all this

I like to think of myself as a facilitator who “meets people at their bus stop”.
I help corporates, scale ups and start ups with the more functional side of it all to help people with their nervous system regulation, improve focus and productivity and lower the risk of burn out, anxiety and depression.

With other people we simply focus on starting to feel again or the mechanical side of breathing, which in itself can be enough of a challenge.

On the other side of the spectrum I offer 1:1 somatic breathwork sessions and group breathwork classes, where we explore the nervous system and stuck tension that you feel ready to let go off. Often combined with calm music, bodywork and movement.

If you want to explore some practices you might want to check out this card deck that I’ve created to help people start off their breathing journey.
https://www.breathlife.co.uk/breathe-card-deck