Breathing techniques have been known for centuries.
In many cultures, religions and practices the word uses to speak about the breath has a double meaning: It’s associated with the breath, the air, the wind, but also with the spirit, the soul, the energy, movement and life itself. Even the Latin verb “spirare” that designates the wind and the air also designates the spirit. At the same time the Latin word “spiritus” means breath or wind.
The word “spirit” in the New Testament of the Bible translates the Greek word “pneuma” (literally “breath”). That is why the study of the Holy Spirit is called pneumatology!
Among the Sufis, there are many rituals where the breath is used to connect yourself to the world around you and in shamanism, it allows you to enter a trance and connect with the spirits. In Yoga breathing is one of the essential pillars of a successful practice, as it is in Chinese traditional medicine.
In the 1960s, Leonard Orr created “rebirthing”, a powerful trauma-release technique to enter a modified state of consciousness without psychotropic drugs, but instead using the power of your breathing.
Modern science is catching up.
Modern science is slowly catching up with all this age old wisdom, talking about the body-own production of DMT (N, N-dimethyltryptamine, a psychedelic-like drug), the balancing of the nervous system and much more.
Breathing is connected to your subconsciousness during its autonomous functioning, but also totally under your control during conscious breathing exercises. All thanks to the autonomic nervous system where we find the vagus nerve. This way it is one of the keys that allows you to create a heart-body-mind coherence, related to mind-body-connection.
Breathwork has incredible positive benefits!
This might all sound complicated and far from normal daily life, but there are actually many simple and powerful breathing techniques that everyone can implement into an everyday routine. The positive benefits speak for themselves:
- Boost your immune system.
- Naturally increase your energy.
- Relieve stress, anxiety and worry.
- Improve your mood and focus.
- Improve your confidence and self-esteem.
- Get relief from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), trauma and negative emotional patterns.
All over the world, more and more people discover the incredible benefits of Breathwork for themselves, for their health, performance, management of emotions, focus and strength! So how does is actually work?
Here’s how it works.
Let’s take a look at how breathing can help you release emotions: Breathing is a tool with which you can link the unconscious and the conscious through its connection with the autonomic nervous system which manages, among other things, stress and emotions. This technique will allow you to release all your physical and mental tensions quickly.
Step 1:
The first step is to become aware of your breath. How do you breath:
- is it in the chest or in the belly?
- is it shallow or deep?
- is it fast or slow?
- is it through the nose or the mouth or both?
Stop moving, stay calm during and watch your breath for at least one minute with your eyes closed.
This simple tool is the first step on your journey in breathwork. Do it five times a week, and take notes about your breath and your physical and emotional state when you do it.
Step 2:
The second step is to start breathing consciously.
Your breathing system is driven by the autonomic nervous system, the one who drives your heart beat, your hormone production, your digestion and so many other functions that are working, even if you don’t think about them.
This system is also responsible for your emotions. Imagine your emotion is energy in eotion (E-motion). When you have a powerful emotion your body reacts to it: In a moment that you’re afraid your heart beat increases and your breath becomes faster, you’re ready to fight or flee the scene!
It is safe to say that your emotions influence your breathing, heart beat and so on. So what if you’re taking control of your breathe? Makes sense: You will influence your emotions! The way that your nervous system works is the key to manage your emotional state using your breath!
When you inhale you increase your heart beat and when you exhale you decrease your heart beat. This is a physiologic reaction of your body. Knowing this, what do you think will happen if you double the time of exhaling compared to your inhalation? Exactly, you will slow down your heart beat and become calmer.
This is how you can exercices this type of breathwork:
1. Your nose is the best tool for breathing that you have, so use it. Breathe only through your nose.
2. Ratio 1 / 2: Sit comfortably and inhale through the nose while counting slowly to 3. Exhale on a count of 6, making your exhales twice as long as your inhales. Repeat the exercise for 1 or 2 minutes. How do you feel?
Another powerful tool that is easily underestimated is sighing. If you look at children you might see, that if they are upset they sigh. Somehow we lose this trate on the way to adulthood. What a pity! Sighing can have so many benefits for you! So return to your childhood self, sit down comfortably, take a deep breath in and siiiiiiiigh. Repeat until you’re feeling relaxed. I swear, it works.
The magic of Breathwork
Release negative emotions, feel cleansed, allow yourself to see beyond previously perceived limitations and reach heights that once seemed impossible to the human body. All using your breath.
Are you ready to learn more about the power of breathwork? Reduce stress, worry and their devastating effects. Manage your emotions as to not be overwhelmed by them. Feel present and free again. Increase your physical and mental performance. Become more present in your life. Stop feeling limited. Take back control and unlock your true potential!
Costa Dulce Surf and Yoga Retreat offers a unique breathwork seminar from 26th – 30th April 2021. Join renowned breathwork specialist Samuel Coulon in this intense experience and get reborn!
Learn more about it here: 26. – 30.04.2021 Phoenix Program – Breathwork Retreat.
