What is Breath Work?

Breath work is the practice of controlling the rhythm, forcefulness, and duration of your breath.

Try "Equal Breathing": Effects on the Nervous System

Perhaps the most well known breath work technique, "equal breathing", involves inhaling for a certain amount of time, holding the breath for that amount, and then exhaling for the same.

Try it! Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 more, then exhale for 4.

Repeat the process 4-5 times and observe the sensations in your body. Do you feel calmer? More present?

If you do, it might be because of the effect of breath on the parasympathetic nervous system.

The nervous system is considered the "command center" of your body. It takes all of the sensory information collected from your environment— what you see, hear, taste, and smell— and processes it to guide how you move, speak, act, and even think and feel. It coordinates between the mind and body, sustaining functions like breathing and heart rate, as well as more advanced processes like memory, and emotional response.

The nervous system is divided into two parts: the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which creates a "fight or flight" response, and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which signals the body to "rest and digest."

The division of responses by the two branches of the nervous system are a product of our evolutionary history: they helped our hunter-gatherer ancestors make decisions that meant the difference between life or death in conflicts with other animals and rivaling tribes.

Unfortunately, our evolution has not caught up to modern life. That's why an email from your boss may skyrocket your heart rate as much the appearance of a saber-tooth tiger did for early humans.

This is a sign that the sympathetic nervous system has high-jacked your body's internal balance. Here is a list of bodily processes that change when the SNS

Deep, rhythmic breathing signals to the body that

Many ancient religions have an equivalent to

Pranayama was

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