Benefits of Breathwork
Breathwork is a simple, accessible way to calm your nervous system, reduce stress and reconnect with yourself.
Science-Backed Benefits for Your Body, Mind and Life
Breathwork is more than “just breathing”.
Most of us breathe without ever thinking about it. Yet the way we breathe shapes everything including our heart rate, our emotions, our focus, our sleep, even how safe or overwhelmed we feel inside.When we work with the breath intentionally, we give ourselves a steady, science-backed way to regulate, soften tension, and come home to our bodies again.
Breathwork doesn’t ask you to be calm all the time. It offers something far more supportive: a reliable way to meet yourself exactly as you are, with compassion.
Just some of the incredible benefits of breathwork:
Supports the parasympathetic nervous system, lowering stress and easing anxiety
Improves heart rate variability (HRV) and can help reduce blood pressure
Helps quiet the mind, improving focus, clarity, and emotional resilience
Strengthens healthy breathing patterns like diaphragmatic breathing
Offers grounding during moments of overwhelm and supports better sleep
Welcomes all parts of you
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The Benefits of Breathwork at a Glance
Calms the sympathetic nervous system and supports the parasympathetic nervous system (rest-and-digest).
Improves heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure and overall cardiovascular health.
Reduces stress, anxiety and negative affect; supports better sleep and mental clarity.
Helps process emotions stored in the body and builds real emotional resilience.
Supports spiritual connection and a deeper sense of purpose, without needing any particular belief system.
What is Breathwork?
Breathwork is the intentional practice of changing the way you breathe to influence your physical, mental, and emotional state. It’s a simple but powerful tool that works directly with your nervous system, helping you shift from stress and overwhelm into greater ease, clarity and presence.
While breathing is automatic, conscious breathwork brings awareness to something we rarely think about and in doing so, it gives us a way to regulate ourselves from the inside out.
At its core, breathwork is about three things:
Awareness: noticing how you breathe and how it affects your body
Regulation: using the breath to steady your nervous system
Connection: returning to yourself when life feels loud or overwhelming
There are many forms of breathwork, each serving different needs:
Gentle breathing exercises such as diaphragmatic breathing, box breathing, extended exhale breathing, and alternate nostril breathing
Slow breathing practices designed to support heart rate variability, blood pressure, and mood
Meditative breathwork where the focus is presence and awareness
Deeper therapeutic-style sessions, like Conscious Connected Breathwork, which invite emotional exploration and require trained facilitation
No matter the technique, the goal is the same: to bring you back into relationship with your body, your breath, and your inner resources.
Want the full introduction?
Read our complete guide: What Is Breathwork?
The Science of Breathwork:
An Overview
One of the most empowering things about breathwork is how clearly the science supports it. Changing the way you breathe changes your physiology within minutes — from your heart rate and blood pressure to your brain activity and emotional state. Research, including randomised controlled trials, consistently shows that slow, controlled breathing has measurable benefits across physical and mental health.
Below is a simple breakdown of what actually happens in your body when you practise breathwork.
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Your breath is one of the most direct ways to influence your autonomic nervous system, the system that constantly shifts between fight-or-flight (sympathetic) and rest-and-digest (parasympathetic) states.
When breathing becomes slow, steady and intentional, the parasympathetic nervous system turns on, helping your body settle.
Slow breathing has been shown to:
Lower heart rate
Reduce respiratory rate
Decrease cortisol (the body’s main stress hormone)
Increase feelings of calm and safety
Many techniques, including diaphragmatic breathing, extended exhales and alternate nostril breathing, gently stimulate the vagus nerve, which is crucial for emotional and physiological regulation.
Learn more in our guide: Breathwork and the Nervous System.
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Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is an important marker of nervous system health. Higher HRV is linked with better emotional resilience, stress recovery and overall wellbeing.
Breathwork is one of the simplest ways to improve HRV.
Research shows that slow breathing around 5–6 breaths per minute can:
Improve HRV
Lower blood pressure
Support more stable heart rhythms
Improve circulation and oxygen efficiency
Techniques such as coherent breathing and box breathing are especially effective.
Explore more in: Breathwork and HRV.
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Breathwork has demonstrated benefits for mental health and emotional wellbeing. Studies comparing breathwork to mindfulness meditation, cognitive interventions and control groups show reductions in:
Anxiety
Stress
Negative affect
Depressive symptoms
Emotional reactivity
Why? Because controlled breathing shifts the brain out of survival mode and into a more balanced, regulated state. That physiological shift gives you more space to think clearly, respond rather than react, and reconnect with yourself.
Even just five minutes of slow breathing a day has been shown to improve mood and reduce stress markers.
For deeper understanding, explore:
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Different breathing techniques create different states of consciousness.
Slow, rhythmic breathing increases alpha brainwaves — associated with relaxation, creativity and mental clarity.
More intensive breathwork practices, like Conscious Connected Breathwork, can lead to increases in theta brainwaves — states linked to deep meditation, emotional release and inner exploration.
Breathwork is one of the rare tools that allows you to shift brain activity without equipment, medication or long training periods.
More in: Brainwaves and Breathwork
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Emerging research shows that breathwork may also have anti-inflammatory effects. Some studies suggest that conscious breathing:
Reduces inflammatory markers
Improves autonomic balance
Enhances the activity of natural killer cells (important for immune defence)
This doesn’t make breathwork a medical treatment (yet!) but it does demonstrate how closely the breath is linked to the immune system and overall health.
Your breath is one of the few tools that can change your internal state in real time.
It’s fast.
It’s accessible.
And it’s available to you in every single moment.
Understanding the science simply helps you trust what your body already knows:
your breath is a powerful, steadying force.
Want To Learn More? Check out the Science of Breathwork
Emotional & Mental Health
Benefits of Breathwork
When life feels heavy or fast or overwhelming, the breath is often the first thing to change — and the last thing we pay attention to. Breathwork gives you a way to soften those moments, regulate your nervous system, and feel more grounded inside yourself. It’s not about forcing calm; it’s about reconnecting with a steadier inner rhythm so you can meet whatever is here with more space and choice.
Below are some of the most meaningful emotional and mental health benefits of practising breathwork.
Breathwork for Stress and Anxiety
Stress and anxiety show up in the body long before we put words to them: a racing heart, tight chest, shallow breathing, spiralling thoughts. Controlled, slow breathing can interrupt this pattern within minutes.
Evidence shows that breathwork can:
Reduce anxiety symptoms
Lower cortisol and stress hormones
Calm an overactive sympathetic nervous system
Ease physical tension and racing thoughts
Techniques like box breathing, alternate nostril breathing, and extended exhale breathing are especially effective for managing anxiety and supporting a steady, grounded state.
For many people, breathwork becomes a reliable “pause button” — a way to come home to yourself when everything feels too much.
Learn More:
Emotional Regulation and Resilience
Emotion lives in the body — not the mind. When you change your breathing, you change the state of your body, which changes the way emotions move through you.
Breathwork helps you:
Stay present with difficult emotions
Reduce emotional reactivity
Recover more quickly after stress
Build a sense of inner steadiness
Recognise and respond to emotional cues instead of being overwhelmed by them
This is where breathwork becomes a powerful companion to trauma-sensitive practices. It gives the nervous system a way to soften, settle and repair, without forcing anything or pushing too far.
Grounding & Resourcing in Breathwork
Breathwork for Negative Thoughts and Mental Clarity
When the mind feels foggy or frantic, breathwork creates space.
Research shows that slow, controlled breathing improves:
Attention
Cognitive flexibility
Mental clarity
Decision-making
Concentration
This happens because breathing directly affects the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for planning, focus and emotional regulation.
Even five minutes of slow breathing each day can improve mood and reduce negative affect. This is one of the reasons breathwork is now widely used in mental health care, psychotherapy, coaching and performance psychology.
Breathwork for Better Sleep
Poor sleep affects everything — your mood, your immune system, your relationships, your patience, your ability to think clearly.
Slowing your heart rate
Supporting parasympathetic activation
Reducing tension in the body
Making it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep
Gentle techniques like diaphragmatic breathing, coherent breathing, and 4-7-8 breathing are especially helpful before bed or during nighttime restlessness.
Breathwork, Mindfulness and Self-Awareness
Breathwork is one of the most accessible forms of mindfulness. It helps you stay present, notice what’s happening inside you, and respond with more compassion.
Through consistent practice, people often report:
Increased self-awareness
A softer inner voice
Greater emotional intelligence
Feeling more connected to their values
A clearer sense of choice in how they respond to life
Breathwork doesn’t require you to silence your mind. It simply gives your mind a calmer place to land.
If you’d like to experience these emotional and mental benefits in a supported space, you’re welcome to join our
Free Weekly Breathwork Sessions which open to everyone, wherever you are in your breathwork journey.
Physical Health Benefits of Breathwork
Heart Health, Blood Pressure & HRV
Slow, intentional breathing is one of the simplest ways to support your heart. Research shows that controlled breathing can help lower blood pressure, reduce heart rate and improve heart rate variability (HRV) — a key marker of nervous system balance and resilience.
Practices like coherent breathing, box breathing, and gentle diaphragmatic breathing help your heart and nervous system work together more efficiently.
You can explore this more deeply here:
Breathwork for Respiratory Health
Breathing well is foundational to feeling well. Many people breathe shallowly without realising it, which can lead to tension, low energy and reduced lung efficiency. Breathwork gently retrains healthier breathing patterns.
Techniques such as diaphragmatic breathing, alternate nostril breathing, and pursed-lip breathing can:
Improve lung capacity
Strengthen the diaphragm
Support healthy respiratory rate
Reduce breathlessness and tension in the chest
Learn more in our guide:
Energy, Stamina & Physical Vitality
If you feel tired, foggy or drained, breathing practices can help increase energy by improving oxygen delivery at a cellular level. Breathwork supports more efficient movement, better endurance and a stronger connection between breath and body.
Gentle practices offer grounding, while more stimulating techniques — such as Breath of Fire — can increase alertness and vitality. These energising practices aren’t suitable for everyone, so it’s important to approach them slowly and with awareness.
If you’re curious, you can explore them here:
Breathwork and the Immune System
Emerging research shows that breathwork may help decrease inflammation and support immune function. This doesn’t replace medical care, but it does offer a simple way to support your body’s natural capacity to repair and recover.
By reducing stress — which has a significant impact on immunity — breathwork helps your body maintain a more balanced internal environment.
A Gentle Note on Safety
If you’re working with a respiratory condition, cardiovascular concerns or chronic illness, breathwork can still be supportive — but always start gently and at your own pace. Slow, simple breathing is safe for most people. More intense practices should be approached with care, ideally with a trauma-sensitive, trained facilitator.
Our safety guide may be helpful:
Spiritual Benefits of Breathwork
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Presence and Mindfulness
Gentle practices like diaphragmatic breathing and coherent breathing help you slow down, soften your thoughts and connect with the present moment.
Explore supportive grounding practices here:
Grounding & Resourcing in Breathwork -
Connection to Inner Self
Breathwork creates space to listen to your intuition and inner wisdom. This often shows up as clarity, insight or a softer relationship with yourself.
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Expanded States of Awareness
Certain practices, such as Conscious Connected Breathwork, can open the door to altered states of consciousness where people gain perspective on life events, emotions or patterns.
You can learn more about these deeper practices here:
Conscious Connected Breathwork -
Sense of Meaning and Purpose
Many people find breathwork helps them reconnect with what matters: their values, desires, boundaries and direction.
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Restorative Emotional Release
Breathwork can bring buried emotions to the surface in a gentle, supported way. The release often feels like clearing space — emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
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Return to Inner Safety
When the nervous system settles, your inner landscape becomes more spacious. This sense of internal safety often becomes the foundation for deeper spiritual exploration.
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Softening the Analytical Mind
Breathwork naturally shifts brain activity into more creative, reflective states, allowing you to explore intuition, symbolism and meaning from a calmer inner space.
More about these shifts here:
Brainwaves and Breathwork -
Part of Something Bigger
People often describe a sense of connection to nature, humanity or the universe during or after a breathwork session. This isn’t about adopting a belief — it’s about feeling your place in the world more fully.
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Openness and Acceptance
Breathwork helps many people move from self-judgement to self-compassion, creating space for curiosity, forgiveness and personal growth.
Unexpected Benefits of Breathwork
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Enhanced Sensory Perception
Colours may feel brighter, sounds clearer and your body more alive after a session. This is often due to increased oxygenation and nervous system regulation.
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Vivid or Lucid Dreams
Breathwork can help the brain unwind, which sometimes leads to more memorable, insightful or symbolic dreams.
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Creative Breakthroughs
When the analytical mind softens, ideas flow more easily. Many artists, writers and creators use breathwork to tap into intuition and imagination.
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Greater Resilience
People often notice they feel steadier in conflict, clearer in conversations and less overwhelmed by stress after regular practice.
How to Do Breathwork? Getting Started
You don’t need anything fancy to begin breathwork — just a few minutes, a comfortable space and some gentle guidance. If you’re not sure where to start, here are the easiest and most supportive ways to begin your practice.
Start Here: The Breathwork Starter Kit (Free)
If you’re completely new to breathwork, this is the simplest place to begin.
You’ll learn the essential techniques — including diaphragmatic breathing, extended exhales and box breathing — in short, easy lessons you can return to anytime.
Join Our Free Weekly Breathwork Sessions
If you prefer to be guided, or you want to feel breathwork in a supportive community, our weekly online sessions are open to everyone.
They’re gentle, trauma-sensitive, and perfect if you want to practise but don’t want to do it alone.
👉 Free Weekly Breathwork Sessions
Learn the Core Techniques
If you enjoy exploring on your own, you might like these beginner-friendly tutorials:
You can explore them one at a time and notice which ones feel most supportive in your body.
Go Deeper with Breathwork Coaching
If you’d like more personalised guidance, or want support integrating breathwork into your daily life, breathwork coaching gives you a safe, structured way to build confidence and consistency.
It’s also a beautiful next step if you think you might want to support others in the future.
FAQs
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Breathwork supports your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
It can help lower stress and anxiety, improve heart rate variability (HRV), support better sleep, increase focus, regulate the nervous system and build emotional resilience.If you’d like a deeper look at the research and mechanisms, explore:
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Anxiety often shows up as shallow breathing, a racing heart, tight muscles and spiralling thoughts.
Breathwork helps by:Slowing your heart rate
Activating the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) system
Lowering cortisol
Helping the mind settle
Techniques like box breathing, alternate nostril breathing and extended exhale breathing are especially helpful.
If anxiety is your main reason for exploring breathwork, you may like:
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Most gentle techniques — like diaphragmatic breathing, coherent breathing and box breathing — are very safe for the majority of people.
However, more intense practices (such as fast breathing, long breath holds or Conscious Connected Breathwork) may not be suitable for everyone, including people with cardiovascular issues, epilepsy, pregnancy, or certain mental health conditions.
If you’re unsure, start gently and read our safety guide:
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You don’t need long sessions to benefit.
Some simple guidelines:Beginners: 5–10 minutes a day
Most people: 20 minutes, a few times per week
For stress or anxiety: short practices throughout the day (like extended exhales or box breathing)
The key is consistency, not intensity. Even five mindful minutes can shift your whole state.
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Breathwork is more active.
Meditation typically involves observing your breath without changing it, while breathwork intentionally changes the breath to shift your state.Many people find breathwork easier to begin with, especially if the mind is busy or the body feels tense.
If you’re exploring both, you may enjoy:
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Across studies, slow breathing (around 5–6 breaths per minute) shows the strongest effects on:
HRV
Blood pressure
Mood
Stress reduction
Emotional regulation
Techniques like coherent breathing, diaphragmatic breathing and box breathing consistently appear in clinical trials and randomised controlled studies.
Learn each one here:
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Yes — slow, gentle breathing helps lower your heart rate, relax the body and quiet the mind.
Techniques like 4-7-8 breathing, coherent breathing and diaphragmatic breathing are particularly helpful before bed.If sleep is a struggle, try a few minutes of extended exhales while lying down.
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Yes — but proper training matters, especially if you’re supporting others with stress, trauma or emotional release.
A trauma-sensitive approach is essential.If you feel called to teach, here are your next steps:
Begin with structured foundational training:
👉 50-Hour Breathwork Coach CertificationContinue into Trauma-Informed Breathwork Facilitation:
👉 400-Hour Breathwork Facilitator Training
Both are designed to be inclusive, ethical and accessible.
Ways to Experience Breathwork
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Free Weekly Breathwork Sessions
Experience the power of breathwork in a warm, supportive community. We offer 5 online sessions a week.
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Breathwork Starter Kit
Our free starter kit to help you learn various techniques and discover how breathwork can address your unique needs.
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Breathing Space All Access Breathwork Membership
A treasure trove of guided practices, videos, guided meditations, and resources to support your journey.