Thread by @bensmithlive

You can breathe to heal.

As a breathwork facilitator, I’ve seen the transformative power of this practice for:

• Longevity
• Trauma work
• Chronic health issues

If you think breathwork is woo woo, here's the science behind why it works:

First off, breathwork traces back to ancient Indian pranayama.

Pranayama is a Sanskrit word for Breath Control.

Prana means life energy and breath.
Yama to control.
Ayama to expand.

So Pranayama means: The regulation and expansion of life energy through breath.

Your breath is the foundation of the nervous system.

With breathwork, you enter the control system of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).

By consciously forcing yourself to breathe, you alter how your body breathes naturally (unconsciously).

There are two states of the ANS:

• Fight-or-flight (sympathetic NS)
• Rest and digest (parasympathetic NS)

Nowadays, 95% of people live in the chronic state of fight-or-flight

It decays you from inside out, sucking out your life force...

The first indication that you’re in fight-or-flight is high hear rate (HR) and breathing rate (BR).

Heart rate variability (HRV) is your ability to switch between these two states.

The faster you can shift from one to the other, the better your nervous function is.

Your breathing will adapt to the environment around you.

If stressful, your HR/BR will increase.

But you can alter your:

• Internal environment
• How you perceive your external environment

By forcing your breath one way or the other...

Where the breath goes, the body follows.

By forcing yorself to breathe (conscious breathing) you alter how your body breathes naturally (unconscious breathing).

This has a cascade effect into many functions of the body. Especially, on your mental health.

Breathwork transformed my life.

For years I accepted burnout as a part of entrepreneurship and life. I was wrong.

After 300+ hours of training and 1,427 clients…

Here are my top five breathwork practices:

1) Energetic Release

Breathwork is a catalyst for energetic release after years of self-neglect.

All the breathing happens through your mouth:

• Sit comfortably or lay down
• Inhale through diaphragm
• Then through chest
• Exhale

Repeat 20 times.

2) Slow mouth breathing through the chest (trauma work)

Breathing through the mouth:

• Increases O2/CO2
• Breaks our patterns
• Alters our state of consciousness
• Activates energy and access to memories

Nose has built in detoxification via celia (hairs) and mucus, also acting as a humidifier to stop airways from drying—makes less intense to use.

How the practice works?

Air activates water in cells to create flow.

Your cells store vast amounts of information that is associated with past events.

When you activate these cells through the breath you can tap into these events and associated memories, as well as physical sensations...

By re-living, liberating, and honouring the past, you can release stored energy in the body that you’ve carried since the event.

Consider this like closing a leaking tap at your hip that has been draining you of your resources.

3) Limitless Breath

It regulates the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and reduces stress.

It promotes a shift from sympathetic (fight-or-flight) through day-to-day inhalation dominance to parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) through exhalation dominance, which leads to relaxation and reduced stress.

4) Forced Exhales

This is an immediate fix for stress.

• Take full inhale through your nose
• Exhale for 15 seconds

As you exhale, feel the sense of stability, safety, and centering.

5) Double Inhales

This type of breathwork is also known as "Corporate Breathwork" for its stress-fighting power.

Here's how it works:

Post-session, clients often liken breathwork to a "psychedelic experience."

They'd report feeling deeply calm, grounded, and at peace.

That's the raw power of breath. This video explains it best:

Breathwork transformed my life and countless clients battling chronic health issues.

But it's just one of the tools in my armoury.

If you struggle with a chronic health issue and want to work 1:1 with me...

DM "RESET" and let's chat.

Thanks for reading!

For more content like this:

Drop a like and follow me @bensmithlive