Taking five minutes to sync your mind and body with breathwork can profoundly impact your overall well-being. An effective way to begin conscious breathing is to become aware of your breathing. Focusing on the present moment and regulating your breathing can help you address the root causes of stress or anxiety and even help you overcome your triggers. Conscious breathing will change how you respond to daily life and help you react with deliberate intention rather than a response based on anxiety, stress, or fear.
Why Breathing Is Important
The way you breathe directly affects your nervous system and brain. When you slow your breathing down and focus on the breath, it activates your nervous system. This activation of your nervous system is responsible for whether you respond calmly or with some type of stress response.
Deep breathing releases neurotransmitters which trigger the release of feel-good chemicals, which leads to feelings of happiness and relaxation. When you breathe deeply, it increases your oxygen inhalation and causes you to exhale toxins. Conscious breathing can aid in preventing relapse because you can practice it and use it anywhere you are.
Taking deep, calming breaths when a trigger or stressful event occurs immediately calms the mind and body. Deep breathing can cause you to handle situations in a present and mindful way. When you learn to respond to stressors mindfully, you will experience greater success in your recovery and develop more resiliency and gratitude.
How Does Deliberate Breathing Benefit You?
Deep breathing offers an array of benefits. Deep breathing can switch off the body’s fight-or-flight response, allowing you to respond thoughtfully to a stressful situation rather than with an automatic response. Deep breathing can also help you remain present in a stressful situation and strengthen the bond between the body and the mind.
In addition, deep breathing can improve the following:
- Mood
- Sleep
- Blood pressure
- Respiration rate
- Metabolism and digestion
- Concentration and focus
- Nervous system
- Brain activity
- Depression
- Grief
- Anxiety
- Anger
- Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Breathwork helps people in recovery reconnect with their body and emotions and create conscious, well-thought-out responses.
Using Breathwork When Healing From Trauma
Trauma-specific care is improved when breathwork is incorporated into treatment. Breathwork can reverse the constriction caused by the trauma response. When you control your response to trauma or emotions, it allows you not to suppress the feeling but rather to respond mindfully.
Every time you successfully achieve this, it becomes easier the next time. Hence, as you work with your response to complex emotions and learn to breathe properly, your body no longer tenses, and your breathing no longer feels restricted. As you practice breathing techniques, over time, you will focus on your breathing first rather than an immediate reaction.
Short- and Long-Term Benefits
Learning to control your breath and to breathe deeply has both short- and long-term benefits. These benefits include:
- Relaxation
- Pain control
- Emotional regulation
- Improved mental state
- A feeling of “wholeness” — being aware but in control
- Success in identifying triggers and cravings and responding positively to them
- Higher levels of self-awareness
Different Types of Breathwork
For successful long-term recovery, you need to develop the tools to cope with old patterns, triggers, cravings, emotions, and trauma without being further traumatized. Breathwork is a tool that works well with other types of therapy and safely allows trauma to be processed and released. Using breathwork, people become much more self-aware and tuned into the present.
If you practice yoga or meditation, you are already familiar with breathwork and the relationship between breath, body, and mind. If you are interested in exploring breathwork further, you have many techniques and practices to choose from, including:
- Conscious connected breathwork: Uses the breath on a conscious and unconscious level and links the conscious and unconscious mind
- Rebirthing: Uses breathwork to release the trauma you experienced when you were born
- Clarity breathwork: Uses a circular or continuous breathing technique to clear blocked emotions
Other breathwork practices include:
- Holotropic breathwork
- Shamanic breathwork
- Neurodynamic breathwork
- Somatic breathwork
The Power of Breathwork
Breathwork empowers people to recognize and not allow traumatic events to control their futures. Once breathing allows you to connect with yourself, the distance to connecting with others becomes shorter. The beauty of breathwork is the longer you do it, the more natural and subconscious it becomes.
Over time, long-term recovery is aided by a response that becomes so automatic that it improves more each day. The result is success in eliminating triggers and cravings and fostering self-confidence and connection with self and others. Having happy feelings, confidence, and hope starts to feel normal.
Breathwork is said to change and balance brainwaves; over time, this recalibrates the brain, which eliminates many symptoms caused by old emotions and trauma. The parts of yourself long forgotten wake up, and you can feel inspired, creative, and spiritual.
Adding additional integrative therapies to your long-term programs, such as art, equine, or adventure therapy, can profoundly improve the quality of your life and the success of your recovery. Breathwork also will connect you to other people on their recovery journey. Participating in holistic therapies in a group setting can boost your resilience and keep you feeling supported and hopeful.
One of the challenges in recovery is learning new ways to manage emotional pain. Using breathwork in recovery can help you connect with your emotions and feelings, find insight into your choices, and develop new ways to cope with triggers and old patterns. Breathwork can be as simple as changing your breathing patterns. By controlling your breathing, you can become fully aware of your immediate state of mind and emotions and stay in the present moment. When you are fully aware of your feelings, you are able to intentionally and objectively respond to what is happening around you. At The Guest House, integrative therapy choices, including conscious connected breathwork, are part of our overall program. We are happy to assist you in building an integrated recovery plan using both traditional and holistic treatment modalities. Call us to get started at (855) 483-7800