Breathwork - A Substitute For Meditation
Breathwork as a substitute for meditation, the scientific benefits of breathwork practices, and how Holotropic breathwork can produce shifts in consciousness
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Breathwork at first blush seems weird, but I've found it to be immensely helpful as either a replacement for meditation or as a therapeutic practice. I've spoken to a bunch of people that say meditation is not for them. Typically what I hear them say is “meditation is incredibly boring and I can't focus when I do it”.
Breathwork has a lot of similar benefits to meditation, but since it takes a more active approach (i.e. you are exercising your breathing) many people that get too restless or bored with meditation find that breathwork is really effective for them.
I also enjoy it as an alternative to meditation, but I enjoy it even more so for the therapeutic benefits (will get to that a bit later).
I tried breathwork daily when I was experimenting with my morning routine but ultimately have decided it serves me better to do longer breathwork sessions less frequently (weekly or biweekly). Below, I'll talk through different types of breathwork I've tried, what I like about it, what it can be useful for, and when to consider incorporating it into your daily or weekly routine.
What Is Breathwork
The International Breathwork Foundation (IBF) defines breathwork as, “the experiential field of study and practice that encompasses a variety of breathing techniques utilized individually and in groups to cultivate self-awareness and the enhancement of physical, emotional, cognitive, or spiritual well-being.”
Basically, breathwork refers to any breathing technique or practice. The way breathwork helps you feel better is by controlling the flow of oxygen and CO2 in and out of your body. By consciously influencing the breath we can realize some powerful benefits.
Everyone is Skeptical At First
When I was first introduced to breathwork my eyebrows perked up. I’m pretty okay with trying weird and new things so I went for it. After experiencing it first hand I was blown away by what I felt and I wanted to share it with people in my life.
When I first reached out to my family and friends about trying breathwork it was met with some healthy skepticism. I managed to wrangle a few different groups to try it with me and they consistently made a ton of fun of what we were doing in the days leading up to it (some friends of mine are still skeptical and I've yet to convince them to try it, maybe this article will help 🙂).
My point is if you feel weird about active breathing I feel you, I've been there, so have the vast majority of my loved ones, but it’s epic and worth a try.
The reason I feel strongly that it’s worth trying is that breathwork practices are associated with a host of benefits that overlap with many of those in meditation. To be clear, breathwork is not something that has been as widely studied as meditation and suffers from a number of claims that are not evidence-based. Generally, though, the breath has an observable and repeatable impact on mental wellness, mindfulness, and regulation of the parasympathetic nervous system (i.e. manages your stress response, lowers heart rate, and calms the body down). There are so many different breathwork practices to try and I've barely scratched the surface. I'll share two that I've used and have enjoyed.
Wim Hof & Holotropic Breathwork
The two breathwork practices that I have tried and enjoyed are Wim Hof and Holotropic. These two types of breathwork generally focus on hyperventilation - i.e. you breathe in and out very deeply and quickly.
The effects I have felt from this kind of breathing are pretty wild including:
Increased energy
Greater awareness
Greater focus
Lowering of stress
Feeling strong emotions
Tingling sensations throughout the body
Greater levels of calmness
Here is what you do in each one:
The Wim Hof Method - Take 30 quick, deep breaths, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Then, take a deep breath and exhale; hold until you need to breathe in. Inhale again, as deep as you can, and hold it for 10 seconds. Repeat as many times as you like. Here is a guided Wim Hof Exercise:
Holotropic Breathwork Method - The process involves lying on the ground, eyes closed, breathing at a fast rate for several minutes or an hour (mine tend to last 15-20 minutes). Here is a guided Holotropic Exercise:
You feel sort of silly the first time you try breathwork (Isabella thought I was dying the first time I started doing it because of all the noise I was making). However, as you settle in and resign yourself to the exercise, eventually your mind stops focusing on the awkwardness of it all and you get absorbed in the practice. What follows is both a meditative and therapeutic experience. Meditative in that your inner dialogue goes away and you get consumed by the active breathwork practice. Therapeutic in that it can have all sorts of benefits that make you feel better after you're done.
Science of Breathwork and Interesting Case Studies
The way both of these exercises work is by hyper-oxygenating your body, inducing very low CO2 concentrations, and alkalizing your blood. I know this is likely gibberish, but the idea is that these types of breathwork are actually having a real physiological effect on your body.
The results of these effects (i.e. hyper-oxygenation, lower CO2 levels, and more alkaline blood) are as follows:
Increases muscle tone - When blood becomes more alkaline it also enters into a low calcium state, which increases firing in sensory and motor neurons. Basically, you feel tingling sensations all over your body and you have increased smooth muscle contractions (i.e. your hands and feet may involuntarily cramp).
Has anti-inflammatory effects - causes your immune system to increase its anti-inflammatory activity (subjects exposed to bacterial toxins after breathwork had less severe responses, basically breathwork helped protect their body and keep them healthy).
Elevates your mood - Reduces stress. produces euphoric feelings, greater calmness, and improved awareness
A study you can check out to look at the science behind some of this is one done with Wim Hof himself (article). Early signs point to the fact that by employing these breathing techniques people can learn to influence their autonomic nervous system and as a result boost immunity and reduce inflammation.
There are two other case studies I’ll point to that demonstrate these effects practically. In one, 26 trekkers hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro were trained in the Wim Hof technique. Employing this technique helped them reduce the effects of Acute Mountain Sickness (a symptom that can develop while hiking at high altitude).
In another study, a control group not trained in the Wim Hof method and a group trained in the Wim Hof Method were both administered a dose of bacterial endotoxins (i.e. stuff that produces flu-like symptoms). The group trained in the Wim Hof method showed fewer flu-like symptoms and lower levels of inflammation. The conclusion being that the trained group was able to voluntarily activate their sympathetic nervous system and reduce the effects of the endotoxins (source).
In addition to some of the wellness benefits breathwork can bring, Holotropic breathwork, in particular, has affected me in more powerful ways.
Therapeutic Experiences & Shifts In Consciousness
This year has really pushed me hard to reexamine certain beliefs I had about spirituality. Breathwork has been one of those experiences that pushed me further in the direction of believing in some kind of universal connectedness (not exactly sure what that means quite yet, but its implications have had a real influence on how I approach life).
In this vein of spirituality, if you start to read about breathwork you'll hear all sorts of claims about how it can induce shifts in consciousness and the heavy use of language like energy flows, chakras, transcendence, etc.
Whether you use words like chakra or energy flow is your business and I personally tend to shy away from things that lean mystical. What I will say is that Holotropic Breathwork specifically has affected me in ways that feel like there are real shifts in consciousness. Additionally, after practicing it with different people I have heard similar reports from them. Here are some examples of my own experiences with Holotropic Breathwork, experiences of other people I know, and examples of what I mean by shifts in consciousness.
Therapeutic Effects of Holotropic Breathwork
Processing emotions - All of a sudden a rush of joy, sadness, anger, anxiety, or other strong emotions. People report that it feels like this emotion was "trapped" and all of a sudden it rushes through them. This happened for multiple people I did breathwork with. One, in particular, reported an intense feeling of wanting to cry. Another reported an intense feeling of joy.
Seeing things - Reports of seeing intense colors and vivid imagery. Additionally, friends have reported reliving old memories very sharply (i.e. I've never had a memory in such vivid detail. I felt like I was there.)
Out of body experiences - Reports of feeling disconnected from the body and floating above it. Reports of feeling fluid and not attached to anything.
Heal trauma and painful feelings - Reports of feeling light, discharged, and a wave of relief. Reports of feeling at peace with certain painful feelings and emotions that have long been held back.
Euphoria - Reports of feelings of euphoria, giddiness, and lightheadedness.
I know this sounds crazy, but I've done this with a bunch of different people and seen very different results. The people I've done it with have been people in my family, friends that I've known for a very long time, as well as strangers.
The Science Behind The Therapeutic Effects of Holotropic Breathwork
I'm not exactly sure why this happens and the research here is not extensive, but early research shows that similar to psychedelics, breathwork may reduce "default network activity" (DNA). I know you're probably scratching your head (as was I) so here is some basic background:
Your default mode network (DMN) is composed of a bunch of different areas of your brain. These areas of your brain are associated with everyday consciousness and linked to mental processes such as - our awareness of ourselves (you can think of this as the ego), social thinking (i.e. understanding what other people are feeling), and thinking about the past or future (source).
When DMN activity is reduced it has been correlated with feeling like you are losing your sense of self - i.e. you stop seeing yourself and the world around you as distinct. Put another way, you experience the boundaries between yourself and others/the world around you disappearing.
Meditation is another exercise that reduces DMN activity. I confess I don't know enough about the DMN specifically, but this temporary diminishing of your sense of self is evidenced to have numerous health benefits such as those described in meditation.
Psychedelics, which can produce a similar effect to Holotropic breathwork, have been used specifically to reduce DMN activity and have been shown to have benefits in treating mental illnesses - i.e. depression, anxiety, etc.
The above context is given to provide some background into what’s going on in the brain to help explain some of these more intense experiences associated with breathwork.
I personally don't suffer from any of these illnesses, but I find the experience of Holotropic breathwork to be therapeutic, and frankly doing it semi-regularly just makes me feel good.
Holotropic Is Not For Everyone
Holotropic breathwork is not for everyone. After relentlessly pushing my wife to try breathwork (Several weeks in the making to get her to agree. Persistence is key 😉) she relented and gave it a shot. She's amazing so she made it into a whole thing. Before our weekly date night, she bought eucalyptus spray, sage, candles, a blanket, etc. She really outdid herself and rolled out the breathwork red carpet. About halfway through the experience she started to feel lightheaded, did not enjoy it, and pumped the breaks. As she described it to me, Holotropic breathwork does not fit with her personality 😂.
I say this because if you decide to try it you should have your eyes open that you may not enjoy it. Not everyone does and there are real physiological effects to doing it that may affect you in ways you don’t like.
On that note, after I experimented with these two methods and with different routines I have found what works for me.
What I Like About Both And What I Do Now
I incorporated Wim Hof into my morning routine for a while, but have since settled on holotropic breathwork every week or every other week. Here is what I like about each one.
Daily Wim Hof - Doing Wim Hof in the mornings takes 10 minutes and it’s like taking a shot of mental cold water. You feel a sense of energy, mental clarity, calmness, and focus. Additionally, it’s really quick to do, and if you don't enjoy meditation it’s a more active form of it (Tony Robbins for example hates meditation, but does breathwork daily and refers to it as priming).
Holotropic Breathwork - These usually take as little as 20 minutes, but can be extended to about 45-60 min. When I do it I find a place to lie down (bed, floor, couch, wherever is comfortable) and play this guided recording (the one I listed above), which takes about 20 minutes. As a heads up, the recording is a bit weird, but the content is useful. I first learned how to do this exercise through guided breathwork sessions with a coach and recommend you do the same to get some advice on how to do it properly.
I prefer doing Holotropic biweekly because I enjoy the therapeutic effects of this kind of breathwork, which I don't get from meditation. If I've had an intense two weeks it’s effective at releasing any tension, stress, or whatever emotion has built up over that period of time. Lastly, it takes a lot of effort to do Holotropic, and doing it more regularly than every other week is kind of intense and tiring for me (there was a period where I did it daily).
At the end of the day, I think these two techniques are worth experimenting with to see if it has a place in your life and is something that might improve your wellbeing.
Other Types of Breathwork
There are tons of other types of breathwork - ranging from simple ones you can learn on your own to more complex, lengthier ones that require the guidance of a practitioner. I have not tried any of these myself but have it on my to-do list given how powerful some of my experiences have been to date!
Let's Breathe Together?
If you're interested in doing a group breathwork session with me led by a guided coach fill out this form ——> Sign Up Here To Learn More
We can then set something up if we get enough interest. I've found that doing this in a group setting is a ton of fun and a great way to learn breathwork for the first time (vs. doing it on your own).
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To Living Well,
Alvaro