What Is Breathwork?

Breathwork is the use of Breath Awareness and Conscious Breathing for healing and growth, personal awakening, and transformation in spirit, mind, and body. All the breathing techniques you’ll learn in this book have this definition at their core. Breathwork falls into the field of self-improvement and personal development. It is a self-help, self-healing method in alternative medicine. It is also a key to spiritual purification and self-mastery. It is the most holistic and complementary approach to health care, and it is an essential part of any genuine spiritual development program. Here is a partial list of settings and situations where breathwork is now being taught and applied, courtesy of Dr. Peter Litchfield (President of the Graduate School of Behavioral Health Services):

• Alternative Health Care
• Anger Management
• Athletic Coaching
• Attention Training
• Biofeedback
• Bodywork
• Childbirth
• Chiropractic
• Corporate Training
• Counseling
• Dentistry
• Drug Abuse Prevention
• Drug Rehabilitation
• Education (all levels)
• Fitness Training
• Flight Training (aviation)
• Martial Arts
• Medicine
• Meditation
• Midwifery
• Military Training
• Neurofeedback
• Nursing
• Occupational Therapy 
• Pain Management
• Peak Performance Training
• Performing Arts
• Personal Coaching
• Physical Therapy
• Psychology
• Public Speaking
• Respiratory Therapy
• Self-regulation Learning
• Skill Acquisition
• Social Work
• Speech Therapy
• Stress Management
• Test Taking
• Trauma and PTSD
• Yoga
• Zen

“Breathwork is the use of Breath Awareness and Conscious Breathing for healing and growth, personal awakening, and transformation in spirit, mind, and body.”

 “Once our breathing is full and free,

healthy and natural,

once it is restored or

raised to an optimal level,

then it automatically

becomes a therapeutic tool.

The body and breath can be

used to heal the mind,

and the mind and breath can

be used to heal the body.

Breathwork can be used to heal

attitudes, emotions, and behaviors.”

More and more people are waking up to the incredible value of breathwork, and they are applying it in their everyday lives at work and at home. Coaches, health-care professionals, counselors, trainers, teachers, and therapists are using it to create breakthroughs for themselves and for those they serve. For spiritual seekers, it’s a direct path to spiritual awakening, self-realization, and enlightenment. That’s why breathwork is a major skill set that high-performing and successful individuals have mastered—it’s the secret ingredient that puts them exactly where they want to be. I teach breathwork as a formula for personal transformation in which three basic skills or elements are taught: Awareness (the consciousness factor): The message is “wake up!” Relaxation (the release factor): The message is “let go!” Breathing (the energy factor): The message is “take charge!” I have found that no matter what method is used, or what label is given to it, every miracle event; every healing experience; every positive shift, emotional release, or behavioral change—every bit of growth can be linked to one of these three elements. Real power and magic comes from blending them and simultaneously engaging in these three elements deliberately and consistently. In practice we increase, expand, and refine our awareness. We use the breath to relax more quickly and deeply, and in more situations. And we learn breath control that results in more energy and aliveness, comfort and pleasure, and personal power and resilience. I also call what I do breath therapy, which is based on two key ideas:

1. The breathing system in most people is not functioning at an optimal level. We need to heal it. We need to improve or restore our breathing capacity, to correct any dysfunctional habits or patterns that inhibit or interfere with the free expression our true nature and full potential.

2. Once our breathing is full and free, healthy and natural, once it is restored or raised to an optimal level, then it automatically becomes a therapeutic tool. The body and breath can be used to heal the mind, and the mind and breath can be used to heal the body. Breathwork can be used to heal attitudes, emotions, and behaviors.

There are five principles of breath therapy. These principles came about as I searched for the answer to this question: “Why do dramatic positive results— even miracles—happen as a result of breathing sessions, and not in other kinds of therapeutic sessions?” The answer to that lies in the application of these five principles:

1. The technique (there are many techniques, each with a certain purpose or effect).
2. The atmosphere in which one practices (physical/psychological/emotional/energetic).
3. The teacher (making use of the “power and purity of our personal presence”).
4. The mind of the breather (thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, intentions, desires, will).
5. The “something else” (a mystical or magical factor: luck, grace, timing,

Breath now: How Are You Breathing?

Let’s try a quick exercise.

A healthy person should be able to breathe both low in the belly, as well as high in the chest, easily and at will. You should be able to breathe slowly: two or three breaths per minute. And you should be able to breathe quickly: sixty or even 120 breaths per minute. When sitting at rest, your breathing should be low and slow. How are you breathing? Observe and sense your breathing right now. Put one hand over your belly and one hand over the center of your chest, and monitor your breathing. How does it feel to breathe? What moves when you breathe? Where does the breath go? Are you a chest breather? A belly breather? Is your breathing fast and shallow, or is it slow and deep? Is it smooth and regular, or choppy and chaotic? Are there pauses in the breathing? As with any art or skill, the key to excellence or greatness is in understanding and applying the fundamentals. Even the world’s greatest musicians practice the scales before a performance. You will go a lot further and a lot faster if you start with the basics and keep returning to them. When it comes to breathwork, there are two basic aspects: Breath Awareness and Conscious Breathing. You can think of these as yin and yang, active and passive aspects of the practice.