Humans are naturally inclined to breathe poorly, particularly under emotional or physical stress. Attending to your breathing pattern can support your energy, focus, and sleep quality throughout everyday life. Understand the basics of breathwork for beginners before joining a breathwork practice at Open.
Key takeaways
- Breathwork guides your breathing pattern to support your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
- Poor breathing habits may be inadvertently affecting your health.
- Breathwork has been associated with several health benefits, including improved sleep quality, focus, and energy, as well as reduced stress and anxiety.
As a beginner in breathwork as a mindfulness practice, familiarizing yourself with the basics is a natural place to start. As with any new wellness regimen, technique and consistency with your breathing are foundational to getting the most from it. Discover the basics of breathwork, the life-changing benefits of attending to your breathing pattern, and essential practices for beginners.
What Is Breathwork?
Breathwork is the practice of intentionally changing your breathing pattern to support different mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits. Many people explore breathwork practices for a variety of concerns, including:
- Stress and anxiety
- Sleep quality
- Energy
- Focus
- Athletic performance
- Meditation
Modern life brings many of these concerns to the surface. Breathwork practice is one way to support your well-being when stress disrupts your nervous system. The quality of your breath influences the quality of your life. Incorporating short, guided breathwork techniques into your everyday routine supports your overall health.
As a mindfulness technique used for centuries, breathwork supports the release of tension and stress with each exhale and nourishes the body with each inhale. Breath is directly connected to the nervous system, meaning that how you breathe affects your physical and mental state.
Why Do We Breathe Poorly?
Poor everyday breathing stems from many factors, most notably chronic stress. Societal pressures add stressors that affect how we breathe. Unrealistic beauty standards can make it difficult to release the belly for deep breathing, encouraging shallow chest breathing rather than the diaphragmatic breathing that naturally stimulates the vagus nerve. Research shows that efficient diaphragmatic breathing is associated with improved sleep quality, better posture, and reduced digestive disorders.
Evolutionary changes have also contributed to narrower nasal airways and a smaller jaw structure than those of our ancestors, shaped by adaptations to climate and dietary changes. This is one of the many factors that have made habitual mouth breathing more common.
Some signs that your dysfunctional breathing may be working against you include:
- Mouth breathing (while awake and asleep)
- Breathing that is concentrated in the upper chest and shoulders
- Audible breathing at rest
- Fast breathing
- Frequent yawns or sighs throughout the day
Consciously shifting your breathing patterns through breathwork practice may help support healthier respiratory habits over time.
Top Six Benefits of Breathwork
Reduce Stress Levels
Incorporating down-regulating breathwork practices, such as slow, deep belly breathing, supports the heart, lungs, and nervous system in working together. Gas exchange in the lungs improves, and heart rate variability, a widely studied indicator of nervous system health, can benefit from regular practice.
Improve Sleep Quality
Down-regulating breathwork is also associated with improved sleep quality. Practicing deep, slow breathing with long exhalations before bed invites a sense of equilibrium throughout the body by encouraging more time in the parasympathetic state.
Elevate Meditation
Conscious breathwork techniques can deepen a daily meditation practice. Down-regulating practices quiet the mind and settle attention, creating more space to rest in the stillness of meditation.
Increase Energy
While down-regulating breathwork practices support calm, up-regulating breathwork practices support increased energy levels.
Because breathwork is a natural and sustainable practice, up-regulating breathing techniques may support energy in a way that reduces reliance on caffeine supplements like coffee or energy drinks.
Enhance Athletic Performance
Breathwork techniques may also improve athletic performance for full-time athletes or individuals who incorporate exercise into their lives. Bringing breathwork into your physical fitness practice may slow the onset of breathlessness by supporting oxygen uptake and recovery. Breathwork before, during, and after physical activity is associated with increased muscle endurance, lung capacity, and overall performance.
Cultivate Emotional and Spiritual Health
Breathwork practices support mental and emotional well-being alongside physical health. Transformational three-part breathwork exercises are designed to improve emotional healing, spiritual growth, and self-discovery. When you prioritize these practices and improve your emotional and spiritual well-being, you may experience altered states of consciousness, euphoria, or deep relaxation.
Begin With the Fundamentals of Breathing
Stress-driven habits like chest breathing and mouth breathing deplete your vitality over time. Practicing down-regulating and up-regulating breathwork patterns supports your relationship with your nervous system. Attending to your sleep, spiritual connection, and physical capacity begins with a single conscious inhale.
Begin your free trial when you join Open.
*Never practice while in water, at heights or while operating a vehicle. Before doing breathwork, please consult a doctor if any of these apply to you. Remember, you are safe and in control of your own experience.
Author Bio
Through mindfulness & meditation, our co-founder Manoj, has helped thousands of people around the world trade mania for pause, so that they may live fearlessly in honour of a happier and more meaningful life. He is a proud father, writer, lululemon global ambassador and founder of Australia’s first drop-in meditation studio. Whether he’s teaching through words or the silence in between them, Manoj’s great love for Buddhist wisdom and contemporary science is present in every encounter.