What is breathwork?

Breathwork is any breathing technique that changes your breathing pattern.

Why should we be all be doing breathwork?

In short, breathwork improves our mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing.

In a bit more scientific detail …

Breathwork prevents dysevolution and can help to reverse the effects of aging.

• Dysevolution: Since the industrial revolution, our softer diet has stunted our bone development in our dental arches and sinus cavities leading to chronic conjection. This leads to mouth breathing and thus further congestion. Breathwork be one of the toold to prevent this happening!

• Working on nasal breathing through breathwork has been shown to tone the tissues and muscles allowing our nasal passages to be wide and open – preventing the build up on conjestion.
• Our internal organs are malleable and can be changed through our actions at any point in life. Freedivers can train themselves to have a greater lung capacity which has been proven to be one of the greatest indicators of longevity. Herbert Nitsch, a world record holding freediver developed the lung capacity of 14 litres – double that of your average male. You don’t need to take to the oceans, this training can be done through breathwork, whilst exercisig or not! Without training our lung capacity reducing by 30% between the age of 20 and 80.
• The bones in the centre of the face are malleable, they can remodel and grow more dense into our 70s. This means that through breathwork you can remodel your bones so that conjection is decreased.

Breathwork has been proven to prevent illnesses.

• When we train ourselves to breathe through our noses rather than our mouths we filter the airs particles and pollutants. This can only have a positive impact on our health.
• Cancers have been found to thrive in environments with low oxygen levels so learning to breathe to increase the fresh oxygen circulating in the body is a great way to protect yourself.
• Through breathwork Wim Hof was able to make his body strong enough to survive extreme conditions and an injection of E. coli!

Learning to breathe through both nostrils equally can moderate your mood, allowing you to have greater control over the direction of your life.

• About 3/4 of the population have a deviated septum which is clearly visible. This means the bone and cartilage that seperate the right and left is off centre. This can have a massive impact on your life as each nostril is connected to different systems in the body. Thus, if one is more open than the other the systems are out of balance.
• The right nostril is linked to your sympathetic nervous system. If this nostril is more open your circulation will be fast, and your heart rate and body heat will be high. Your fight or flight will be working on high alert.
• The left nostril is linked to the prefrontal cortex. Therefore, if your left nostril is more open your creative thought and negative emotions may be too high.
• Breathing evenly through our nostrils through breathwork by using techniques such as Nadi Shodana/Alternate nostril breathing can balance our moods, aligning the uneven nostrils. Try it for yourself and see!
• Researchers at the university of California have used balancing breath work to reduce hallucinations in schizophrenic patients.

Breathwork has been proven as an extremely beneficial form of training to boost athletic performance.

• Wim Hof through training his breathe has broken 26 outstanding world records.
• By understanding and working on his breath (through breath holding) Emil Zátopek claimed 18 world records and has been named as the ‘Greatest Runner of All Time’.

For more information on how to improve your breathing click here.

For more yoga and breathing tips follow me @calm_collective_yoga on instagram.

For a meditation to help you reach the best rate of breathing click here.