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The Power of Conscious Breathing
A few years ago I found out I was breathing “wrong.” Huh? I had decades of life behind me to point to the contrary that actually, I, had been breathing just right.
But my body said otherwise.
One day in a conversation with a friend we started talking about our general and recurring aches and pains. She said casually, “Oh maybe you’re breathing wrong,” as if she had seen this aliment a thousand times.
Breathing wrong? I almost laughed.
When I asked that she elaborate, she did one better and invited me to a Breathwork workshop. It sounded weird. It sounded so weird that I knew I had to check it out and see for myself. What I left with was a newfound appreciation for the act we do so much each day, with such little regard for the effect and technique of it. What I left with were the tools I needed to breathe “right” again.
Just breathe
Breathwork is a deeply healing and sometimes sacred practice. The name says it all; focus surrounding various breathing techniques. What I also discovered was that Breathwork is not “trendy”. For more than five thousand years, yogis have understood through direct experience that expanding the breath would be beneficial to life. That’s why in today’s world, pranayama (expansion of the life force and expansion of the breath) helps to establish regular breathing patterns to reverse the negative effects of modern life.
If you’ve ever done any yoga or meditation, you’ve probably been instructed to be more conscious of your breathing, this is just the tip of the iceberg that is Breathwork.
The purposeful breathing patterns used during Breathwork can actually help control the inner workings of your body, from heart rate variability to calming anxiety. Without realizing it many of us are at the mercy of our fast paced lives and the world around us (social media addictions, overstimulation, instant gratification, etc) and we’re struggling to keep up. We spend a lot of time in our heads playing out scenarios, planning conversations we hope to have, and even trapped in a negative self talk cycle. It can be an overwhelming place!
This is why I think everyone should try Breathwork at least once. It’s free, easy, has minimal risks (see below)…
