Are Breathing Techniques Real? (And Which Breathing Technique is Best for Me?)
Without getting technical at all, breathing techniques are as real as you’d like them to be. Like most things in life, the effectiveness of breathing techniques are at least partially subject to the placebo effect: If you want them to be effective, they will; if you want them to leave you completely unchanged, they will. Of course, the word “partially” was chosen carefully because breathing techniques are also required to follow the law of cause and effect: doing anything, including a certain breathing exercise, will have an effect on something.
The better question, then, isn’t whether or not breathing techniques are real, but are breathing techniques actually effective at improving the current (and future) state of your well being?
The Science and Research Behind The Reality of Breathing Techniques
The idea of using breathwork to change or shift your emotional, physical, and mental states is nothing new. However, the research behind why certain breathing techniques have been used for centuries is relatively young. Trying to find scientific explanations for why certain breathing techniques leave you feeling a certain way (or why certain events in life leave you breathing a certain way), a variety of public and private institutions have funded studies, many of which have overwhelmingly concluded that, yes, the way you breathe impacts the way you … are – not just emotionally, but physically too, and right down to your very appearance.
One such study was conducted by the researchers at the well-known Mayo Clinic who determined that the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is “calmed and regulated” by intentional deep breathing. When you trigger the ANS through intentional, slow breathing not only is your blood pressure automatically lowered, but the researchers discovered that almost everyone instantly experiences an “immediate sense of calm.”
And that’s just one breath. One study.
In other comprehensive studies, breathing techniques have been shown to not only mitigate occasional stress, but are capable of relieving chronic anxiety, too. According to an Italian study conducted in 2015, individuals who deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and clinical phobias saw a “significant decrease in symptoms” after practicing a variety of breathing techniques in two hour sessions for a fourteen day period. The individuals in the study who showed a significant improvement practiced breathing techniques that included:
Abdominal breathing
Alternate nostril breathing
Rhythm changes (accelerating and decelerating breathing pace)
What the researchers in this study found most impressive was that after just two weeks of sessions, the participants maintained levels of improvement and some even continued to improve over the course of the next six months. This demonstrates that breathing techniques have the potential to create new patterns of breathing through awareness and practice, ones that replace old habits that contributed to a variety of chronic conditions.
With practice, breathing techniques, even ones that only take a few minutes each day, can permanently modify brain circuits so that individuals are in general less vulnerable.
The Universal Significance of Breathing
Breathing is one of those things that we all do, all the time. Thankfully, it’s done automatically so that we can spend our attention and energy doing all of the other things that are required of us every day. Unfortunately, however, the automation of breathing lends itself to the creation of bad breathing habits. When we allow ourselves to fall into certain patterns of breathing, ones that were created in states that we no longer want to be experiencing (like fear, stress, anxiety, trauma, etc.), then we unintentionally invite those states to become a part of our everyday experience. And until we realize that a shift in breathing is a necessary disruption to our daily patterns of being, then we all too often remain stuck.
As babies, the first thing we do is inhale, taking our first breath to initiate ourselves into life on this planet. And, as we die, we take one final exhale, literally extinguishing our life in the same way we would blow out a candle’s flickering flame. In between this first inhale and final exhale, we take around 22,000 breaths each day – that’s over eight million breaths each year. The sheer numbers alone is enough to help you realize why cultures around the world have, for centuries, paid so much attention to the connection between breath and quality of life.
Just as the quality of food you eat at each meal throughout your life determines the quality of life you have, the quality and intention of each breath has the same collective impact. Yes, you need to eat and breathe to survive, but how long do you want to live merely in survival mode?
Since the first millennium B.C. two major cultures began to document the significance of breath, as well as techniques for controlling it so that a certain effect could be attained. In Chinese culture the breath was understood as its own energy, qi, and in Hinduism breath was known as prana, a vital life force that could be manipulated for improved health and well being. For those of you familiar with the practice of yoga, you’ll know that pranayama is the practice of retaining breath in order to, in general, increase longevity. It’s also the first written doctrine around breathing techniques ever discovered.
As time passed, other cultures continued studying breath and a variety of techniques to manipulate it, including the Greek, who referred to it as pneuma, and the Hebrew people, who used the word rûah to acknowledge both breath in the body and divine presence. Similarly, when you look at the Latin language you’ll recognize that the root word spiritus is found in words like “breath”, “wind”, “inhalation”, “air”, “life”, “person”, “mood”, and “inspiration” – just to name a few. Obviously, as you look for the connection between all of these words you start to realize that even thousands of years ago people understood the interconnectedness of things like breathing, moods, and inspiration.
Of course, not all breathing techniques are from centuries ago. One of the most popular types of breathing exercises was documented in the 1920s by a German psychiatrist. Johannes Heinrich Schultz used a system known as “autogenic training” in order to help people learn how to better relax through mindfulness. Incredibly simple, Schultz’s autogenic training focuses on slow deep breathing with elements of mindfulness coaching, sometimes referred to as one of the many forms of meditation.
No matter where you enter the world of breathwork, the common denominator behind every culture’s or expert’s approach is this:
In order to relax fully, you must find a way to focus on your breath, deepening each inhalation and exhalation.
Why Do Breathing Techniques Help Me Relax?
While the best way to understand how certain breathing techniques can help you relax is simply to try them for yourself, those interested in having a more scientific explanation can come to a conclusion rather quickly.
Your body has a variety of natural responses to stimulus. While something funny will make you laugh and something sad will make you cry, being in an environment that allows you to feel calm and safe elicits another natural human response: your breathing deepens and slows down. Humans are wired with two branches of the nervous system, the parasympathetic and the sympathetic. When you’re relaxed and feel safe, your parasympathetic nervous system switches on and, as a result, your breathing deepens. On the flip side, when you are scared, uncomfortable, or in pain, the sympathetic nervous system is engaged, which causes your breathing to become more rapid and each breath more shallow.
Whether your parasympathetic or sympathetic nervous system is engaged is often a matter of your brain and its perceptions. Whether it’s real or not, your brain reacts to the stimuli in your environment and then switches on one branch of your nervous system or the other. But because the sympathetic nervous system is designed for survival and, therefore, strong, it can be quite difficult to turn off once it’s engaged.
This, however, is where breathing techniques come into play.
Your breath has the wonderful ability to override your brain. Change the way you’re breathing (i.e. shift out of your automatic patterns that sustain you most of the day) and you change the way you’re feeling because your brain believes your breath.
You can move into the relaxed nature of your parasympathetic nervous system simply by breathing like you would when your parasympathetic nervous system is activated.
Another way breathing techniques seem to aid relaxation is that they give the mind something else to think about. When you become intentional about breathing, focusing on the length, depth, and quality of each inhale and exhale for example, your mind becomes (at least partly) distracted, consumed by the instructions you’re giving it rather than being allowed to wander. One such technique that focuses specifically on breathing techniques and mindfulness is known as sophrology. Individuals who practice sophrology, harnessing intentional breathing techniques with positive affirmations and guided instructions, often note that they feel exquisite “harmony of body and mind” and, yes, deeply relaxed.
At the end of the day, the logic behind why deep breathing done in certain breathing techniques leads to feeling more relaxed is straightforward. Focusing on the breath forces you to slow down and gives your brain something else to do. And, when you and your brain slow down, your breathing deepens and slows, too. As your breathing deepens and slows, your brain receives the message that you’re soothed and relaxed, which, in turn, sends the signal that it’s okay to turn on your parasympathetic nervous system. Once your parasympathetic nervous system is engaged, it’s easier to stay in a relaxed, calm state, one where breathing is naturally deeper, slower, and more mindful.
Like any practice, breathing techniques take time to learn and get comfortable with. While you can sometimes have a profound effect from the very first technique you do, it can also be very normal to need to try a certain technique several times before you understand its full potential. And, in order to have more lasting results from breathing techniques, you have to remember that you’re repatterning your old breathing habits – and that can take time. Think of your breathing habits like this: Each time you take a breath, it’s like the wheel of a wagon creating a groove in dirt and that groove gets deeper and deeper the more you send your wheels over it.
In order to rewire your breathing habits so that the effects of breathing techniques are more long-term, you need to give yourself time to lift those wagon wheels out of the ruts you’ve created for so long and to begin to create new, more intentional paths forward. The more wear those paths get, the more natural they’ll feel – and the more automatic they’ll become.
Instead of going days or weeks without paying attention to the quality and state of your breath, you’ll begin to become more mindful as you start to practice breathing techniques more regularly. When you find yourself in a stressed, anxious, or frustrated state, you’ll remember that you can shift by overriding your brain through the vehicle of your breath – something you have access to 24/7. While it’s unlikely that you’ll ever completely erase moments of fear, stress or anxiety (not only are you human but would you really want to never feel those things again?) becoming more familiar with breathing techniques will help you stop negative feedback loops faster and more effectively, which allows you to get back on track to your best life and ultimately elevate your baseline again and again.
What Does My Diaphragm Have to Do with Breathing Techniques?
Getting to know your diaphragm can be helpful as you start to explore different breathing techniques because it’s an essential part of how your body breathes, whether you’re paying attention to it or not. Your diaphragm, which is a thick skeletal muscle, aids breathing because it contracts so that your lungs can expand. Now, because most of the breaths you take are shallow, your diaphragm doesn’t have to do much work. However, when you start to take deep or powerful breaths, you ask the diaphragm to contract further than normal so that your lungs have even more room.
Because your diaphragm is a muscle like any other in your body, it takes time to strengthen and condition it. That’s why some breathing techniques can, at first, be quite challenging or even uncomfortable. You need to build strength and endurance with your diaphragm in order for it to perform to its full potential.
Many times you’ll hear breathing techniques refer to “belly breathing” because by visualizing your breath reaching deeper into your belly you can often better engage your diaphragm. But it’s not just your diaphragm working when you breathe deeply – the muscles of your core are also activated when you deepen your inhalations and exhalations. For this reason, breathing techniques that use deep inhalations and exhalations are a powerful exercise, one that aids muscle recovery, strengthens the muscles in your core, and simultaneously lowers your blood pressure while relaxing your mind.
Which Breathing Technique is Right for Me?
There’s no “magic” breathing technique that is guaranteed to give you the result you’re looking for. Yes, there are tried and tested techniques that often work for most people – but that doesn’t mean you should be discouraged if the experience you have is different.
Finding the right breathing technique really is like a math equation: Your Current State + Breathing Technique = Your Desired Outcome
Until you’ve done some experimenting, that equation is going to look like some old-school algebra where you have to solve for X:
When you don’t know how you’re feeling: X + Breathing Technique = Your Desired Outcome
When you don’t know which breathing exercise to choose: Your Current State + X = Your Desired Outcome
When you don’t know where you want to end up or where you need to be: Your Current State + Breathing Technique = X
This is why it’s important to be open to trying lots of different techniques and at different times in your day (and in your life) so that you can start to gather the data you need. As you practice more and try a variety of breathing techniques, you might find that some of the results you get are counterintuitive. For example, certain rapid breathing techniques can actually help some people reduce anxiety.
Seems like a whole lot of guesswork? No worries.
There are breathing technique tools and guides that can help you navigate things so that you’re not left in the driver’s seat all alone (which is especially unpleasant when you’re feeling stressed, anxious, frustrated…)
But if you want to start diving into the different breathing techniques right now so that you can have a better “north star” for navigation, below are some of the more common breathwork techniques you’ll come across.
The 365 Method
Most of us accumulate quite a bit of physical tension in our bodies throughout a typical day. And while this tension and stress can feel minor (or go completely unnoticed for quite some time), you can’t avoid something happening down the road: injury, pain, creative blocks, and other chronic conditions. Because of this cumulative effect, some therapists and coaches recommend the “365 Method”. This method asks you to stop three times throughout the day (3) to slow down your breathing so that you do six cycles of breaths per minute (6), which works out to five-second inhalations and five-second exhalations (5). And you do this practice for five minutes each time, a total of fifteen minutes of conscious breathing each day. And, yes, that 365 is there to remind you to do this practice every day.
(See why remembering 365 helps you practice this breathing technique?)
The beauty of this breathing technique is that it’s simple and easy to remember – and you can do it almost anywhere. And according to studies, the 365 Method not only provides “immediate relief” for stress and anxiety, but it promotes new brain circuitry so that you are more resilient when it comes to future stressful situations.
Cardiac Coherence
Cardiac Coherence uses biofeedback to help you coordinate how you’re breathing with your current heart rate. Designed to promote relaxation, Cardiac Coherence is a breathing technique that reinforces patterns of slow, deep breathing. According to research, one of the reasons why this particular breathing exercise is so impactful is because it “increases the activity of the vagus nerve”.
Your vagus nerve, the longest nerve in your body running from your ears through your diaphragm and into your gut, becomes more active as your breath slows and deepens. The more your vagus nerve is stimulated, the more calm your body becomes and the more peaceful you feel. So by practicing Cardiac Coherence, you can influence the neurobiological and psychological mechanisms in your body, which means that your body and mind both agree that, yes, you’re officially in a true state of relaxation.
When you’re unable to receive live biofeedback of your heart rate, you can still practice Cardiac Coherence by simply using a ten-second respiratory cycle: breathing in for five seconds and then breathing out for five seconds. This practice is proven to make your heartbeat steadier and more consistent, which signals to your brain that you’re safe and ready to relax.
Box Breathing
Box Breathing goes by a variety of names, including square breathing or four-square breathing. In addition to reducing stress, lowering blood pressure, and calming the nervous system, studies (including big ones done by the Mayo Clinic) suggest that this breathing technique can also improve concentration and performance – both physical and mental. To practice Box Breathing, follow these steps:
Slowly exhale through your mouth while sitting upright or lying down flat on your back. The goal of this slow and steady exhale is to move all of the air out of your lungs.
Slowly inhale through your nose for four counts. Count slowly so that you can feel your lungs fill completely, reaching all the way down into your belly.
Hold your breath gently while slowly counting to four.
Slowly exhale through your mouth using that same slow four count so that every last bit of air is emptied from your lungs and belly.
Hold your breath again for four counts before beginning with the next inhalation.
This technique is known as Box Breathing because you move through the four sides of a box while you practice: Inhale. Hold. Exhale. Hold. And all for four slow counts.
Intentional Breathing
All too often breathing techniques are referenced when someone is going through a difficult time or experiencing something negative. However, it’s equally important to leverage the power of intentional breathing when you’re experiencing something positive and wonderful.
Intentional Breathing asks you to slow down and pause with long deep breaths whenever you’re in a moment you want to remember.
Yes, you can use breathing techniques to relieve stress and anxiety (and loads of other things), but you can also use simple, conscious breathing just to be more present in some of the most enjoyable moments of your life.
Thinking Clearer, Loving Deeper, and Sleeping Soundly with Breathing Techniques
One of the best ways to begin exploring breathing techniques and how they can positively influence your well being is by finding a trusted source that can act as a guide. There’s a lot of information available that will talk all day about breathing techniques, breathing exercises, and the science and research behind all of it – but there’s nothing more important than your own personal experience.
If you’re interested in getting back in the flow, releasing stored emotions and stress, and ultimately finding the gold in the middle of all of your muck, then the Soul Breathwork App might be your new favorite tool.
To try the Soul Breathwork app for free, click here.
