How Breathwork Can Help You Through Challenging Times

By: Rebekah Prendergast

Just breathe. Sounds pretty simple, right? Breathing is something we do all day, every day, to keep our bodies alive and functioning. While it's something that comes naturally to us, it turns out there's a lot more to breathing than what you might think.

'Breathwork' is a new age term used to describe breathing practices used to influence your mental, physical or emotional health through the conscious control of your breath. It involves following various breathing patterns to calm and regulate your nervous system and lower your heart rate, with many people finding that breathwork techniques help them reach a state of deep relaxation.

There are many forms of breathwork therapy including shamanic, vivation, transformational, holotropic, clarity and rebirthing. While all vary in their methods, what's common is they all involve breathing in a conscious and systematic way to improve your health. 

There are many reasons you might use breathwork; some of these include to heal emotional pain and trauma, increase confidence and self-esteem, reduce stress and anxiety, increase mood, release negative thinking, and for pain management. People also use breathwork to foster creativity and spirituality. 

If you think about it, you might have already used breathwork in your everyday life without even realising it. Wellness activities such as yoga and meditation use breathwork as their basis, while it's also commonly used in situations where you need to manage pain, for example labour.

How breathwork can help to reduce stress and improve your mental health 

If you want to lower stress in your body and improve your overall mental health, you should definitely give breathwork a go.

Think about how you feel when you're under stress – do you notice how your breathing patterns change? When we feel stressed our breathing rate and pattern changes as part of the ‘fight-or-flight response’, and we tend to take small, shallow breaths using our shoulders rather than our diaphragm. This style of breathing can disrupt the balance of gases in our body.

Luckily for us, scientific studies have shown that by controlling your breath you can help to manage stress and stress-related conditions. When you breathe deeply, you're sending a message to your brain to calm down. This message then goes from your brain to your body, telling it to relax which in turn calms your nervous system, reduces tension and relieves stress.

Some of the physiological changes that controlled breathing can influence include:

• lowered blood pressure and heart rate

• reduced levels of stress hormones in the blood

• reduced lactic acid build-up in muscle tissue

• balanced levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood

• improved immune system functioning

• increased physical energy

• increased feelings of calm and wellbeing.

Let's breathe 

Interested in reaping the benefits of breathwork? Here are two simple exercises you can try at home to get you started on your breathwork journey. Find somewhere peaceful and quiet and give yourself 10 to 20 minutes to work through the below.

Box breathing, also known as square breathing or four-square breathing, is a technique used when taking slow, deep breaths. It can heighten performance and concentration while also being a powerful stress reliever. 

1. Sitting upright, slowly exhale through your mouth, getting all the oxygen out of your lungs. Focus on this intention and be conscious of what you’re doing

2. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, counting to four very slowly in your head. Feel the air fill your lungs, one section at a time, until your lungs are completely full and the air moves into your abdomen

3. Hold your breath for another slow count of four

4. Exhale again through your mouth for the same slow count of four, expelling the air from your lungs and abdomen. Be conscious of the feeling of the air leaving your lungs

5. Hold your breath again for the same slow count of four, before repeating this process.

Another breathing technique commonly used to relax, relieve depression and anxiety, and reduce stress is diaphragmatic breathing. This type of breathing is the basis for almost all meditation or relaxation techniques, which can lower your stress levels, reduce your blood pressure, and regulate other important bodily processes.

1. Sit in a comfortable position or lie flat on the floor, your bed, or another comfortable, flat surface

2. Relax your shoulders, and put a hand on your chest and a hand on your stomach 

3. Breathe in through your nose for about two seconds. You should experience the air moving through your nostrils into your abdomen, making your stomach expand. During this type of breathing, make sure your stomach is moving outward while your chest remains relatively still

4. Purse your lips (as if you’re about to drink through a straw), press gently on your stomach, and exhale slowly for about two seconds

5. Repeat these steps several times for best results.

If you're having trouble getting started with these breathwork techniques, there are lots of Mindfulness apps that can help including Calm, iBreathe and  Breathwrk. 

How breathwork can help you take cold showers 

Have you signed up for Ducktober? Well, you've come to the right place as it turns out that breathwork can also assist our bodies in dealing with the cold.

You might have heard of the Wim Hof method where breathing is one of the three main pillars alongside cold exposure and commitment. According to Wim Hof, our breathing patterns can have a significant impact on how our body adjusts to varying conditions and environments.

So, the good news is that breathwork, or conscious breathing, will help your body to deal with the shock of taking a cold shower. Keen to put this into practice? Prior to jumping in a cold shower, follow one of the breathwork exercises above, or simply focus on your breathing while concentrating your mind to focus on the conditions you are entering. This will help to reduce the shock when entering the water.

Conscious breathing will also help with staying power, so you can smash those Ducktober goals of a minute long shower a day. Just focus your mind on your breathing rather than the discomfort of the cold water, and it will help get you through.

Breathe in, breathe out and take like a duck to water!