I am writing this article to clear up the confusion.
If you search “what is breathwork?” online, you will find many answers.
Most of these contradict each other. Some of them are just completely incorrect.
Here I will explain exactly what Breathwork is:
Breathwork is an umbrella term for various breathing exercises that can help your physical and mental health
Breathwork is a big part of Yoga.
Yoga practices originate from Ancient India almost 10,000 years ago.
Yoga is so much more than poses.
Yoga is all about finding enlightenment through spreading love and good actions.
The ancent Yogis were very wise people and came up with these Yoga poses and breathing exercises as part of the framework for achieving that goal.
Keeping oneself physically and mentally strong were some of the fundamentals.
(It is a deep subject)
In Yoga, the breathing exercises aspect is called PRANAYAMA.
This is a range of breathing exercises to help you maintain good health.
Yoga and Pranayama have been passed down through the generations.
As you know they have become hugely popular in the Western World.
And they have both been somewhat changed from their original form, for this audience.
If we focus on Breathwork specifically, there have been many names given to different types of exercises.
But let me clarify something – all of these are directly descended from Pranayama.
Some of them are exactly the same as a Pranayama breathing technique – they just have a diffferent fancy title (for marketing purposes).
Others are slightly different in their execution, but have a direct link to a Pranayama style.
At their core – these breathing exercises are still very good for you so will still help you.
If you are wondering about the Benefits of Breathwork, I talk about them in another post.
And more information about Why I became a Breathwork teacher is over here.
But in this article I wanted to summarise by saying that:
Simply put, breathing exercises are thousands of years old but still have massive importance in our modern world.
Personally, I would say that breathwork is more necessary now than ever before.
Breathwork hasn’t just helped me. It has changed my life.
And I am sure that it can help you too.
If you want to try a class for yourself then DM me and find out where I am next.
