What is Breathwork?
When we direct our attention to our breath we can alter nervous system activity, radically influencing our health, longevity, sense of fulfillment and freedom, relationships, and life trajectory. Scientific measurements reflect what experience has told us for centuries: tuning into our breath impacts our state of mind. Simply tending to our breath pattern alters nervous system activity (e.g. deep, slow inhales and exhales activates the parasympathetic branch turning on our innate rest, digest, restore, and repair functions).
While it is simple, attending to our breath holds transformative power. There are many ways to interact with our breath, and all of them could be put into a broad category of ‘breathwork’. We can engage with our breath from the ‘top-down’, aiming for a more specific outcome or simply as a practice of presence, and we can engage with our breath from the ‘bottom-up’. Experiencing Dynamic Breathwork (DB, a form of Conscious Connected Breathwork) lets you drop down into deeper states of the sub and unconscious mind, connecting deeply with your body.
The ‘bottom-up’ approach, with skillful facilitation, allows the innate wisdom of your nervous system to lead the process, completing old stress and trauma cycles that otherwise run in the background. When we don’t close these old cycles it is similar to having every app on your phone running in the background, slowing down the processing power (speed) of whatever is asking for your attention and energy in the present moment.
This endogenous (not requiring any substance outside of ourselves) process relieves stress that is stored in our system. When our bodies are chronically in a stress response, our internal stress reaction can make life feel stressful when it doesn’t need to be. When we hold stress in the body chronically, we build allostatic load, and sensitize the filter of our neuroendocrine axis (the HPA-axis) to be more reactive.
How we breathe is how we live.
The DB technique alters the ratio of oxygen-to-carbon dioxide in our blood and increases serum potassium (K+). As we alter our internal environment, we transcend our normal perspective of reality and create lasting change. This is reflected in brain activity, shifting us into an altered state where we process information and experiences differently. We release old stress, repressed emotions and trauma memory stored in the body, and access subconscious limiting beliefs that hold us back from living fully.
This method will allow you to realize your full potential, tapping into your own deep resource of insight, inspiration and healing; leaving you feeling more free and more connected to who you truly are.
This is a breathing technique that can be cultivated as a tool for stress management, personal growth and physical wellbeing. Through facilitated sessions, we train your nervous system how to move into a stress response while staying in your window of tolerance (staying with yourself and whatever arises) and, critically, return to rest afterwards. The more we practice this pathway, the easier it becomes to meet stressful events and circumstances with presence and exit the stress-response physiologically. We retrain our system to return to a baseline of softness, relaxation, and openness: a state of perceived safety.
We cultivate an embodied understanding of what we are capable of feeling through, which in turn alters our capacity to choose our response rather than react emotionally or aggressively because our body is in a stress response. As we train our nervous system to self-regulate the way it was designed to do, we find things that were draining, stressful and clingy (ruminating over it well after it happened), are easier to meet with integrity and let go of once they have passed.
If you feel like your goals, whether personal or professional, relational, emotional or spiritual, are always just beyond your reach; you are doing “all the things!” only to keep spinning a hamster wheel, getting nowhere; aren’t sure how to move through a feeling of ‘stuck’ness or feel uncertain how to close the gap between your life vision and where you are now; breathwork is a profound tool that impacts our relationship with our Self, which is central to transformation.
The Science (Nerd Zone)
Scientific evidence is only beginning to explore the profound benefits of ancient traditions and practices. It appears that CCB induces a state that physiologically mimics hyperventilation, but with a relaxed body. This changes blood chemistry due to the shift of volume of O2 and CO2 exchange, while the movement of our diaphragms physically massage internal organs integral for homeostasis, digestion and detoxification. Based on Porges’ Polyvagal Theory (see resources), the process experienced in a facilitated breath session improves autonomic nervous system resilience and our ability to self-regulate.
New directions of research suggest it has the potential to encourage neural plastic change, allowing us to be released from a persistent high stress state, complex, developmental and/or event-related Trauma, which may or may not have led to a diagnosis of PTSD. Everyone has experienced developmental conditioning, some carry trauma from these early stages (Kain & Terrell, 2018), which has a significant impact on the way our nervous systems developed and how they now interpret our surroundings. Developmental stressors aside, most folks in the global north have high levels of cortisol, a biomarker of chronic stress, which is reasonably correlated with typical daily stressors from the demands, costs and pace of our modern world (Levine). While our bodies are designed to adapt and respond to a changing environment (physical, social, etc.), and a stress-response is critical to survival and daily functionality, a chronic state of stress leads to disease and discomfort in our body and life.
History and Lineage
Believed to be rooted in lineages from Mahavada Babaji, most likely brought to the global north alongside yogic practices, the Conscious Connected Breathwork technique is one of many branches including Rebirthing-Breathwork, Transcendental Breathwork and Holotropic Breathwork (HB). Christina and Stanislav Grof popularized HB in the aftermath of LSD and other psychotropic illegalization, substances that have effective therapeutic benefits and were growing a following in academic research.
My approach is informed by attention to the nervous system and the pattern of breath. Many modern facilitators use breathwork as a powerful tool without understanding the depth it can take us to in our psyche, and without knowing how to read different patterns of breath. When it is not appropriately facilitated, integrating and assimilating the impact can be limited, and sometimes it can create more instability. Without understanding breath patterns, we can actually reinforce overexertion and ‘stuckness’ in the nervous system: the body and mind. My facilitation style includes reading breath and the nervous system to guide the process, so that deep and sustainable shifts can be created. I also use hands-on bodywork to support the completion of old stress cycles and associated reflexes in the body, creating support for unwinding and co-regulation.
Breath, the Nervous System and Your Health
It is well established that altering breathing alters nervous system activity. The nervous system is our communication highway both within our body and between our internal and external environments. When we change nervous system activity, we change how our external environment is interpreted and thus our experience of life itself.
From what we understand of the nervous system, this practice of Conscious Connected Breath (CCB) has the potential to be a highly effective therapy for a multitude of ailments including:
Inflammation
Asthma
Anxiety
Depression
PTSD
As well as support and enhance our capacity in the areas of:
Cognitive Insights and Clarity
Emotional Resilience and Fluidity
Personal Growth and Agency
Physical Health and Performance
Personal and Professional Relationship Dynamics
Sense of Purpose and Fulfillment