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Most Recent Breathwork Articles ↓
Breathwork and Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
I recently got a new Fitbit, excited about all the fancy health metrics it could track. Steps, sleep, heart rate – the usual suspects. But one metric caught my eye: HRV, or Heart Rate Variability. I'd heard it mentioned in passing but never really paid much attention to it. Curiosity piqued, I checked my score... and was shocked. It was alarmingly low, more in line with someone in their 70s or 80s, not a relatively healthy individual in their early 40s.
This sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole of research. What exactly was HRV? What did it measure, and more importantly, what did my dismal score mean for my health? The more I learned, the more fascinated I became.
Breath-Body Connection
I recently came across a comment online that said "nervous system regulation is just new-age bullshit." As both a nurse and a breathwork business owner it got my back up and it got me thinking about how much we underestimate the power of our own breath and our ability to influence our body.
The truth is, our breath and our bodies are deeply connected. It's not just about staying alive; it's about how we feel, think, and experience the world. Our breath is a mirror reflecting our inner state, and it's also a bridge connecting our mind and body.
Grounding and Resourcing in Breathwork
In breathwork, we have a profound paradox. On one hand, practices like Conscious Connected Breathwork (CCB) and Holotropic Breathwork can be incredibly transformative, opening doors to deep healing, self-discovery, and spiritual awakening. On the other hand, these powerful experiences can also stir up a whirlwind of emotions, unearthing buried traumas and shaking the very foundations of our sense of self.
While these intense emotional releases can be cathartic and ultimately lead to profound healing and emotional integration, they can also be destabilising, leaving individuals feeling overwhelmed, disoriented, or even re-traumatised. This is where the practices of grounding and resourcing become not just helpful, but absolutely essential.
Breathwork for Better Sleep
Getting a good night's sleep can often feel like an elusive dream. Studies show that over a third of adults in the UK report experiencing insomnia symptoms, with 10% suffering from chronic insomnia that significantly impacts their daily lives (The Sleep Charity, 2023). Whether it's trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up feeling unrested, sleep difficulties can leave us feeling drained, irritable, and unable to function at our best.
Neuroception and Breathwork
Neuroception, an idea rooted in Stephen Porges' Polyvagal Theory, offers a framework for understanding how our nervous system unconsciously assesses safety and threat in our environment, shaping our physiological and behavioural responses. The interplay between our nervous system and our perception of the world has huge implications for how we experience the world and how we respond to breathwork practices.
Breathwork and the Nervous System
Your nervous system is a vast communication network within your body, responsible for everything you feel, think, and do. It's divided into two main parts: the central nervous system (your brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (all the nerves that branch out from your brain and spinal cord). The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is a key part of this peripheral system, and it's the one in charge of all the automatic functions you don't have to think about
What is Conscious Connected Breathwork?
Have you ever felt that your breath could be a bridge to a deeper understanding of yourself? If you've tried different breathing exercises but long for something that goes beyond simple relaxation, Conscious Connected Breathwork (CCB) might be the transformative experience you're looking for.
CCB isn't just another breathing technique; it's a truly profound journey inward and you have all of the tools you need already! It's a dynamic practice where you breathe continuously, without pausing between breaths in and out. This special rhythm sets CCB apart from gentler types of breathwork, making it a powerful way to change how you feel physically, emotionally, and even spiritually.
Performance Enhancing Breathwork
In the quest for optimal performance, athletes and fitness enthusiasts are constantly seeking innovative ways to push their limits and achieve their goals. While traditional training methods focus on physical strength and endurance, a growing body of evidence suggests that the key to unlocking peak performance may lie in a more subtle yet powerful tool: our breath.
Breathwork, the practice of conscious breathing, has been used for centuries in various traditions to enhance well-being and promote physical and mental performance. Today, a new wave of breathwork techniques, rooted in science and ancient wisdom, is revolutionizing the way we approach training and competition.